Design Manager - Thailand

About the 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 — engineers, designers, and thinkers delivering living systems of connection.

Reporting to the Associate Director for APAC, the Design Manager will manage the full design lifecycle of mission-critical data centre projects from concept through construction and commissioning support. The role requires leadership, stakeholder management, technical oversight, and coordination across architectural, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, and ICT disciplines, and must be capable of working within international project delivery environments while ensuring compliance with Thai engineering and construction standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage multidisciplinary design teams for hyperscale and mission-critical data centre projects.
• Manage design phase delivery including feasibility, concept, schematic and detailed design stages.
• Act as primary technical liaison with clients, local authorities, utility providers, contractors, and external stakeholders.
• Conduct technical workshops, coordination meetings, and stakeholder presentations in both English and Thai environments.
• Review and manage design deliverables, technical documentation, specifications, and engineering reports; ensure designs comply with Thai regulations, building codes, seismic, fire and life safety standards, and industry best practices.
• Interface with construction and commissioning teams to ensure design intent is maintained during execution and support procurement activities including technical bid evaluations and vendor coordination.
• Collaborate with project controls, commercial, commissioning, and delivery teams to ensure integrated project execution; monitor design schedules, deliverables, budgets, and project milestones.
• Mentor junior engineers and support growth of Kent’s data centre capability in Thailand; support quality assurance and compliance with Kent and client governance procedures.
• Collaborate with regional and global engineering teams across APAC, EMEA, and North America.

Qualifications / Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical or related Engineering field (BEng or higher).
• Registered Professional Engineer in Thailand (Council of Engineers Thailand registration required).
• Fluent bilingual capability in English and Thai (written and verbal).
• Minimum 7+ years’ experience in engineering or design management within mission-critical, data centre, industrial, or major infrastructure projects; previous experience delivering hyperscale or AI-ready data centre facilities in Thailand.
• Demonstrated experience managing multidisciplinary design teams on large-scale projects and strong stakeholder management skills.
• Strong understanding of Thai engineering standards, permitting processes, construction regulations and familiarity with international standards including Uptime Institute, TIA-942, ASHRAE, IEC and NFPA.
• Proficient in MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel) and familiarity with project management and business development tools; experience in pre-sales, design project management, technical bid/proposal management and commercial negotiations.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams, conduct site surveys and develop concept-to-schematic designs; excellent technical review skills to oversee designs and ensure compliance with industry standards.

Additional Information

• Willingness to travel within and outside Thailand as required.
• Proven track record in business development and ability to build and maintain strong relationships with key data centre clients.