Project Director | Data Centre

The Opportunity

We are supporting an innovative technology and infrastructure developer with the delivery of a major new circa 100MW AI data centre development in Helsinki.

The project is currently in the design and pre-construction phase, with the business preparing to scale its project delivery team as the development moves towards execution.

They are now looking for an experienced Project Director to take ownership of the project from its early stages, through construction, commissioning and ultimately final completion.

This is not a role where you will inherit a project halfway through delivery. The intention is for the Project Director to become involved early, participate in key discussions with prospective General Contractors and delivery partners, and then lead the project through its full lifecycle.

The Project

The development represents approximately 100MW of IT capacity and will form part of the client's expansion into large-scale AI and high-performance compute infrastructure.

A particularly interesting element of the development is its focus on heat recovery and export, with heat generated by the facility intended to be transferred through heat pumps into the local district heating network.

The business operates as the owner and developer, maintaining a deliberately lean internal organisation while working with external design, construction and operational partners.

The Role

As Project Director, you will take overall leadership of the execution and delivery of the Helsinki project.

You will work closely with the Head of Technical Infrastructure and act as a senior owner's representative across the programme.

Key responsibilities are expected to include:

• Taking overall ownership of project execution from pre-construction through to final completion.
• Participating in early-stage discussions, evaluation and onboarding of the General Contractor and key external delivery partners.
• Establishing the project execution strategy, governance and reporting structure.
• Leading and coordinating project management, construction, MEP, CSA, commissioning, procurement and specialist technical workstreams.
• Managing interfaces between the owner, GC, designers, consultants, contractors and other external partners.
• Providing senior-level oversight of programme, cost, quality, risk and project deliverables.
• Supporting the development of the wider project organisation and identifying additional resource requirements as the programme progresses.
• Leading existing Project Managers and integrating internal resources into the wider delivery structure.
• Maintaining continuity and accountability from early contractor discussions through construction and commissioning to handover.
• Ensuring project information, designs, documentation and reporting are managed within the client's systems and processes.

What We're Looking For

This is a senior client-side leadership position, so we are particularly interested in Project Directors or highly experienced Senior Project Managers who have delivered complex mission-critical developments.

Ideally, you will bring:

• Significant experience delivering large-scale data centre or mission-critical infrastructure projects.
• Strong owner's representative/client-side experience.
• Experience taking projects through multiple phases from design/pre-construction into construction, commissioning and handover.
• Experience managing or providing oversight of GCs, consultants, designers and specialist contractors.
• Strong understanding of MEP, CSA and commissioning interfaces within data centre delivery.
• Experience building and leading multidisciplinary project teams.
• Strong commercial, stakeholder and contractor management capabilities.
• The ability to operate effectively within a lean, fast-moving and highly innovative organisation.
• Previous experience delivering projects in Finland, the Nordics or wider Europe would be highly advantageous.
• Hyperscale, cloud, AI/HPC or similarly complex mission-critical project experience would also be attractive.

Why This Project?

This is an opportunity to become involved before the major construction decisions have been made, rather than inheriting somebody else's delivery strategy.

You will have genuine influence over how the project is structured, which partners are appointed and how the delivery team is built, before taking responsibility for seeing the development through to completion.

The organisation also has a wider European development pipeline, including future opportunities across Finland, Germany and Austria, making this an interesting opportunity for someone looking to establish a longer-term relationship with a growing data centre developer.

Interested?

If you have led major data centre developments from the client/owner side and would be interested in taking responsibility for a circa 100MW AI infrastructure project from early-stage delivery through to final completion, please get in touch for a confidential discussion.