Lead Design Engineer

Position Summary/Objectives of Incumbent:

The Lead Design Engineer provides technical leadership across major engineering projects, ensuring designs are safe, practical, commercially effective and aligned with project objectives.

Working closely with Project Managers, engineers, consultants and stakeholders, the role leads engineering decision-making throughout the project lifecycle, providing technical oversight, identifying and mitigating engineering risks, and ensuring design solutions meet client, regulatory and operational requirements.

The Lead Design Engineer acts as the senior technical authority for project delivery, supporting multidisciplinary engineering teams through design development, review, validation and implementation.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership
•    Own and develop design strategy across assigned projects.
•    Provide technical leadership across a portfolio of concurrent projects.
•    Lead design reviews, engineering workshops and technical decision forums.
•    Ensure engineering solutions meet client, operational and commercial requirements.
•    Act as technical authority for engineering decisions and design philosophies throughout the project lifecycle.

Engineering Governance
•    Review engineering deliverables for technical accuracy, completeness and compliance with applicable standards and codes.
•    Govern engineering documentation integrity and revision control at key design milestones.
•    Ensure design outputs are complete, traceable and suitable for progression through project phases.
•    Drive engineering best practice, standardisation and continuous improvement across projects.
•    Ensure technical scope, qualifications, testing requirements and design constraints are clearly defined and understood across stakeholders during Post-Sales delivery.

Technical Risk Management
•    Identify technical risks, constraints and opportunities across project development and delivery.
•    Lead engineering risk assessments, design reviews and constructability evaluations.
•    Develop engineering mitigation strategies for technical and schedule-related risks in collaboration with Project Managers.
•    Monitor design progress and proactively escalate technical issues that may impact project milestones.
•    Ensure critical path engineering activities are identified and actively managed to support successful design completion.

Design Transition & Handover
•    Lead technical handover between Pre-Sales, Post-Sales and Project Delivery teams.
•    Ensure all engineering assumptions, exclusions, testing requirements and design constraints are clearly defined and transferred between project phases.
•    Maintain continuity of technical understanding across the full project lifecycle.

Project Support & Technical Interface
•    Act as primary technical interface between customers, consultants, contractors, internal teams and manufacturing facilities.
•    Lead technical workshops, design reviews and engineering discussions throughout project delivery.
•    Resolve technical conflicts and provide recommendations that balance customer requirements, commercial drivers and delivery constraints.
•    Partner with Project Managers to assess engineering impacts on scope, cost, procurement and delivery decisions.
•    Provide technical guidance during procurement, commissioning and execution phases.

Continuous Improvement:
•    Lead the identification of engineering lessons learned across project delivery and ensure they are translated into actionable design and process improvements. 
•    Identify recurring technical, design or delivery issues and drive corrective actions across future projects. 
•    Contribute to the development and refinement of engineering standards, templates and design tools. 
•    Share technical insights and best practices across engineering, sales and project delivery teams. 
•    Promote a culture of continuous improvement and engineering accountability across the business.

WHS, Environment & Quality:
•    Comply with all Work, Health & Safety, Environment and Quality obligations.
•    Actively promote safety in the workplace
 

Employees reporting to Incumbent
•    Nil
 

Main contacts within Company    
•    PSA Application Engineers
•    Product Managers
•    Sales Engineers/Account Managers
•    Project Managers
•    Procurement
•    Service Teams
 

Main contacts outside the Company    
•    Vertiv customers and clients
•    Third party suppliers of products and services
•    Project Management team members
 

Education/Qualification:    

•    Degree qualified in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering
•    10+ years engineering experience leading complex designs 
 

Specialist Knowledge:    
•    Demonstrated experience in mission-critical power and/or thermal infrastructure, including design, installation, commissioning, testing and integration of systems 
•    Working knowledge of Australian and relevant international standards and compliance frameworks
 

Practical Experience:     
•    Experience acting as a technical lead or design authority on complex multidisciplinary engineering projects.
•    Proven ability to make and defend engineering decisions under commercial, programme and delivery constraints.
•    Experience in design governance, technical reviews and resolution of complex engineering issues through to commissioning and delivery.
•    Chartered Engineer status or working toward chartership (or equivalent professional recognition).

Personal Characteristics: 
•    Prioritisation skills
•    Interpersonal skills
•    Leadership skills
•    Ability to manage a high volume of work
•    Communication skills
•    Attention to detail.