Senior Design Director

About This Role

At Kent Data Centres, we unite the heritage of Sudlows Consulting with Kent’s global scale and ambition to ignite the next era of digital infrastructure.

We power the digital foundations of modern life, keeping the world connected with resilience, responsibility, and trust.

Our people are the spark. They’re our engineers, designers, and infinite thinkers. They deliver living systems of connection, solving problems that others can’t and creating solutions that stand the test of time

The Senior Design Director provides strategic and creative leadership across the design function, ensuring design excellence, innovation, and commercial alignment across all projects. This role is responsible for setting the design vision, leading multidisciplinary teams, engaging with senior stakeholders and clients, and ensuring delivery of high-quality, compliant, and commercially successful outcomes.

The position plays a critical role in shaping the organization’s design culture, mentoring, and contributing to business growth through thought leadership and client engagement.

Responsibilities

FINANCIAL

• Management of design project managers to ensure weekly reporting of cost to complete and cost control on multiple concurrent projects
• Preparation/Review of technical/fee proposals.
• Enforce Kent Data Centres Project Profitability Procedures.
• Monitor individual projects and their profitability.
• Project Invoicing.
• Control of Scope of Work in relation to the fee.
• Monitoring the cash flow for department under your charge and advance planning of resources to match the cash flow and advising Project Leads accordingly for corrective measures.
• Responsible for department’s profit and loss.
• Assist the accounts team and department where necessary to collect client payments.

ADMINISTRATION/MANAGEMENT AND STAFFING

• Allocate projects to teams upon award, where applicable. For all major projects, the Project Leads should be consulted.
• Oversee resource planning, adjustments, and redeployment to match department’s workload, in conjunction with the Project Leads.
• Determine the feasibility of undertaking the projects in relation to company resources (adequacy of resources vs time constraints).
• Oversee project design and documentation.
• Chair department meetings and present minutes to the Project Leads, Directors and VP’s where necessary.
• Support the Project Leads in running and developing the consultancy business.
• Attend regular management meetings and report on the operational performance of each subdivision under your charge.
• Assist in overseeing the commercial management of your team to ensure profitability.
• Lead, develop, and manage the team of engineers, technicians, and administrative staff in each subdivision to ensure a high level of technical quality and commercial performance.
• Carry out regular staff appraisals and agree on performance targets for development.
• Oversee coordination of work undertaken by external subcontractors and design checkers.
• Forward planning in relation to work ahead and revenue/resource forecasting.
• Represent and enhance the image of the company at external client meetings and other industry functions.
• Management of the interfacing between design teams, allocating scope split between front end Dubai office and external centre of excellence team in Mumbai
• Develop and streamline the processes required for successful and efficient project delivery between the front end team, and the centre of excellence team

ENGINEERING

• Oversee department’s Performance in terms of Delivery.
• Prepare Concept Reports and chair all concept Review Presentations and oversee that ISO procedure is being implemented.
• Review the information issued by the department for costing and tendering purposes.
• Assist in resolving any technical problems faced by the department during the project design and/or construction stages, where required.
• Making Presentations to clients for complex/larger Projects.
• Overseeing systems to ensure the correctness and timely production of all works.
• Handling customization of the master specifications for specific project conditions.
• Prepare and develop with the team where required, creative content, drawings, models, images, material & mood boards, and other documents relating to design.
• Take responsibility for assigned project deliverables and development of the design with input from the project managers in charge of key project stages
• Understand and formulate design decisions and present them for discussion.
• Integrate design requirements with the architecture team.
• Manage the team of architects, who then coordinate the project, and provide technical support and advice on complex design problems at every design stage.
• Develop proposals and present to the clients regarding the suitability, feasibility, and constructability of the design, constraints, and solutions that align with the schedule, vision, budget, time, and quality.
• Consider and implement sustainability in terms of the project scope, function, schedule, cost, safety, and quality.
• Determine workloads, schedules, and planning design activities/time estimates on a project basis.
• Ensure compliance with statutory, administrative, and regulatory requirements, directing and overseeing the design progress from concept solutions to construction implementations, including assisting and providing support to the design consultants during the permit procedure-related issues.
• Plan, direct, collaborate, and communicate with the relevant technical design and master planning consultants.
• Engage in writing, structuring, and reviewing proposals, work plans, and methodologies, based on project scope and engineering requirements.
• Offer strategic guidance to the team on the establishment of technical design standards
• Innovate and develop new standards, policies, and procedures for architectural design and engineering work as necessary to minimize costs and maximize efficiency.
• Remain up to date with current and trending elements of design, construction, and technology by reading industry publications, manuals, and textbooks and attending professional development courses and events as time permits.
• Provide consultations and spearhead negotiations with potential clients during the project development and bidding phases.
• Assess potential projects for feasibility by researching and analyzing associated technology, design requirements, governmental regulations, and market demand.
• Listed duties are not limited and may change as per line manager instructions and site demands.

CLIENT LIAISON / MARKETING

• Maintain an open dialogue with clients on all major projects.
• At an early stage in conjunction with the Project Managers, determine the exact client requirements.
• Helping the department by attending all key meetings and replying to difficult letters.
• Build trust and respect with clients (most clients do not know the technical aspects of the project so we must put engineering into everyday terms for them).
• Actively participate in Business Development/Marketing.
• Attending regular Marketing meetings.

MONITORING

• Periodic review of design progress on major projects.
• Monitor performance and deadlines for major projects.
• Review of ISO quality practices within the company.
• Review of staff’s outputs and capabilities
• Remedy adverse situations within the department with guidance and leadership.
• Ensure all resources are adequate with over/under staffing.

COMMUNICATION

• Communication in words and writing to all parties involved, in a clear and concise manner internally/externally.
• Enhancing Companies’ reputation by word and in written communication.
• Maintain an open policy of communication in the company within confidentiality limits.
• Question design practices to improve performance.
• Listen - understand where design teams/divisions concerns are coming from.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

• Develop and maintain liaison from a business development perspective with our existing Client base.
• Lead presentations for new project opportunities and coordinate with other offices where required.
• Carry out after-sales and client reviews, periodically.
• Liaise with clients regularly and ensure their requests are dealt with efficiently.
• Help to ensure bid deadlines are met.
• Monitor competitor activity – and report on it.
• Prepare and issue all relevant paperwork required to monitor the Business Development leads (best bets); such as status reports, etc.
• Active involvement in marketing and corporate events.
• Assist in the process of updating and improving the marketing materials.
• Ensure all business development opportunities are maximized.
• Handle pre-qualification documents, tenders and or presentations as required.

Skills and Qualifications

• Degree in Architecture, Engineering, Industrial Design, or a related discipline
• Professional registration or chartership (where applicable)
• Postgraduate qualifications are advantageous
• Has experience working with AoR’s.
• Managed remote teams / centre of excellence / back-office design delivery.
• Familiar with RIBA and BIM LOD levels.
• Data centres experience a benefit but not essential - similar large type heavy industrial / power types of projects also provide suitable experience.
• Strong project management skills / worked on multiple projects concurrently, has had project managers reporting into them previously.
• Strong creativity skills and the vision to turn briefs into creative projects.
• Excellent leadership, organization, and analytical skills.
• Good collaboration and communication skills.
• Great time management and multi-tasking skills.
• Familiarity with common design tools and software
• Achievement and action orientated; solutions focused.
• Good relationship and interpersonal skills; a strong collaborator.
• Ability to adapt style to work effectively across geographic and cultural boundaries