Senior Manager, Data Hall Design

Senior Manager, Data Hall Design (AMERS)AMERAbout NscaleNscale is the vertically integrated AI cloud engineered for AI. We own and operate the full stack — energy, data centres, GPU superclusters, orchestration, and AI services — delivering high-performance infrastructure to AI-native companies, enterprises, and governments across Europe and the US. We are deploying GPU capacity at hyperscale, operating some of the densest, most advanced AI infrastructure in the world.
At Nscale, our Design & Engineering team turns empty data halls into precisely organized, fully documented AI infrastructure environments at the pace and scale our portfolio demands. We thrive on a culture of relentless innovation, ownership, and accountability, where every team member takes pride in their work and drives it with excellence and urgency. As an Nscaler, you'll build trust through openness and transparency, where everyone is inspired to do their best work. If you join our team, you'll be contributing to building the technology that powers the future.

About the Role
The Senior Manager, Data Hall Design owns the data hall design function across every active Nscale program in the Americas. You'll build and lead a team of Leads and Designers, define the design standards and frameworks they work within, and be accountable for the quality, accuracy, and timeliness of every drawing package, cabling plan, patch matrix, BOM, and DCIM record the team issues. These outputs go directly to construction, installation, procurement, and Operations, so you'll put the systems, reviews, and resourcing in place to get them right the first time.
This role is for someone who combines deep, hands-on data hall design experience with the judgment to lead people and programs. You know GPU compute environments, high-density fiber, and InfiniBand and Ethernet fabric physical design well enough to review your team's work in detail, and you're equally comfortable planning capacity across multiple programs, negotiating priorities with network engineering, MEP, procurement, and construction, and representing data hall design to senior leadership.
What You'll be Doing
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Data Hall Design Leads and Designers, setting clear expectations and growth paths, running regular performance reviews, and giving direct, constructive feedback on drawing quality and delivery.
- Plan team capacity across all active programs, assigning Designers and balancing workload against construction schedules.
- Hire and onboard new team members as the portfolio grows, and manage external design partners or contractors where needed.
- Own Nscale's data hall design standards, including layout templates, rack elevation standards, cabling and fiber conventions, labeling and color coding, and drawing formats.
- Develop reference designs for GPU cluster deployments (e.
G. NVIDIA DGX/HGX and SuperPOD-scale builds) that can be adapted to site-specific conditions, and feed lessons learned from each program back into the standards library.
- Maintain approved vendor lists and equipment catalogs in partnership with procurement and network engineering.
- Set the design approach for each program, including rack placement strategy, row orientation, aisle containment, cooling zone boundaries, and density planning for liquid-cooled racks.
- Review and approve data hall layouts, rack elevations, cabling plans, fiber tray layouts, and patch matrices before issued-for-construction, and own design change control through construction.
- Coordinate with MEP engineering so layouts reflect power feed locations, cooling supply and return, and structural load limits.
- Oversee structured cabling and fiber design standards, including fiber and connector types, run lengths, slack management, bend radius, and tray capacity.
- Partner with network engineering to translate logical designs into physical GPU fabric layouts, including InfiniBand rail topologies, spine-leaf Ethernet, and storage networks, and resolve complex cabling and topology conflicts escalated by the team.
- Own BOM quality across all programs, approve equipment substitutions, and track long-lead items such as optical transceivers, high-speed cables, and GPU server components, escalating procurement risks early.
- Set DCIM documentation standards and ensure records are complete, validated, and ready for import into operational systems at turnover, working with Operations to close gaps between as-designed and as-built documentation.
- Act as the senior data hall design point of contact for program managers, construction partners, customers, and senior leadership, reporting design status, risks, and resourcing across programs.
- Set and monitor RFI response standards, and step in on critical field issues during construction and commissioning.
About You
- 10+ years of experience in data center design, IT infrastructure planning, or structured cabling design, including 3+ years leading a design team.
- Proven delivery of multiple data halls fr