Subject Matter Expert – Electrical Services (Client Side)
Location: London (hybrid, with travel to data centre campuses)
Sector: Data Centres – Hyperscale & Enterprise

The Opportunity

Ashby’s Consulting is working with a leading UK data centre developer and operator to appoint a Subject Matter Expert in Electrical Services. You’ll be based in their London office.

The client designs, builds and runs large data centre campuses for some of the world’s biggest technology companies and enterprise customers. They’re entering a major period of growth, with several large campus developments in the pipeline. This is a senior client-side role: you’ll be the technical authority for electrical services across the portfolio. You’ll set the standard and guide design consultants, contractors and internal teams, rather than doing the detailed design yourself.

It suits an experienced electrical engineer who wants to move from consultancy or contracting to the client side. You’ll have real influence over how critical infrastructure is specified, delivered and run.

The Role

• Act as the client’s electrical technical authority across all projects, from concept and design through construction, commissioning and handover
• Develop, own and keep improving the client’s electrical design standards, employer’s requirements and technical specifications
• Review and challenge design submissions from consultants and design-and-build contractors at every RIBA stage, checking for compliance, resilience, value and buildability
• Provide expert input on HV/LV distribution, including grid connections, primary substations, HV switchgear, transformers, LV switchboards, UPS systems, standby generation, busbar systems and power monitoring (EPMS)
• Make sure resilience and redundancy strategies (N+1, 2N, distributed redundant) meet customer SLAs and the client’s design philosophy
• Support utility and grid engagement, power procurement strategy and load planning for new and expanding campuses
• Take part in factory witness testing and integrated systems testing (IST), and oversee commissioning to confirm systems perform as designed
• Work with mechanical, controls, operations and construction teams to keep each campus’s engineering joined up
• Advise on new technology, energy efficiency and sustainability, including higher-density and AI-driven loads, battery energy storage, alternative fuels and on-site generation
• Support the customer technical due diligence and briefings, explaining the client’s electrical offering to hyperscale and enterprise clients
• Review lessons learned from operational sites and feed them back into future designs

About You

• Degree-qualified in Electrical Engineering or Building Services Engineering; Chartered (CEng) or Incorporated (IEng) with the IET or CIBSE is strongly preferred
• Significant electrical building services experience, much of it in mission-critical environments. Data centre experience is essential
• A background with a leading MEP consultancy, a specialist contractor, or a client or developer organisation
• Detailed knowledge of HV and LV systems, protection and discrimination, power quality and critical power infrastructure
• Thorough understanding of the relevant standards and frameworks, such as BS 7671, BS EN 61439, Uptime Institute Tier classifications, EN 50600 and the Electricity at Work Regulations
• Confident reviewing designs critically, explaining technical decisions to senior stakeholders and pushing back where needed
• Strong communication skills, comfortable working with consultants, contractors, customers and board-level stakeholders
• A practical, commercially aware approach that balances resilience, cost and programme
• Able to travel to campus sites in the South of England as needed

What’s on Offer

• A senior client-side role with a growing data centre business that has a strong pipeline
• Real influence over the engineering standards behind critical national digital infrastructure
• Competitive salary, annual bonus, pension, private medical cover and a full benefits package
• Hybrid working from a central London office
• Support for continued professional development and chartership

How to Apply

To find out more, please send your CV to George at Ashby’s Consulting: George@ashbysconsulting.co.uk | 07966 334905

All applications are handled in strict confidence. Ashby’s Consulting specialises in MEP and built-environment recruitment, with particular expertise in the data centre sector.