Lead Design Engineer

Role Overview

The Lead Design Engineer plays a pivotal role by steering the technical aspects of significant engineering projects, assuring that design outputs are safe, feasible, commercially viable, and consistent with project goals.

Primary Responsibilities

• Establish and govern design strategies across various projects simultaneously.
• Lead design workshops, reviews, and technical decision-making processes.
• Maintain compliance with client expectations, operational needs, and commercial objectives through robust engineering solutions.
• Serve as the chief technical authority throughout project delivery, supporting multidisciplinary teams in design development and validation.
• Review engineering outputs for technical thoroughness, conformance to standards, and overall quality assurance.
• Manage document control and integrity during pivotal design milestones.
• Champion engineering best practices, standardization efforts, and continuous process enhancements.
• Identify and address technical risks and constraints, conducting risk assessments and constructability checks.
• Develop mitigation plans for technical and scheduling risks in close partnership with project managers.
• Ensure smooth technical handovers between Pre-Sales, Post-Sales, and delivery teams, preserving clarity on all design constraints and assumptions.
• Interface as the key technical contact among customers, consultants, contractors, internal groups, and manufacturers, resolving conflicts and aligning on design and delivery strategies.
• Drive continuous improvement by capturing lessons learned, monitoring recurring issues, and enhancing engineering standards and tools.
• Promote adherence to Workplace Health & Safety, environmental regulations, and quality standards with an active safety culture.

Requirements and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering.
• Minimum ten years of engineering experience with leadership in complex design projects.
• Proven background in mission-critical power or thermal infrastructure, covering design, installation, commissioning, testing, and integration.
• Strong familiarity with Australian and international engineering codes and compliance standards.
• Demonstrated capability as a technical lead handling multidisciplinary engineering projects and making sound engineering decisions under commercial and scheduling pressures.
• Experience in governance of design processes, reviews, and issue resolution through to project commissioning.
• Chartered Engineer status or progressing toward chartership or equivalent professional accreditation.

Desired Attributes

• Effective prioritization and workload management skills.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership qualities.
• Excellent communication abilities combined with meticulous attention to detail.

Working Environment and Culture

The successful candidate will embody Vertiv’s core values of safety, integrity, respect, teamwork, and inclusion. They will contribute to a high-performance, customer-focused, operationally excellent, innovative, and financially robust culture. Vertiv encourages ownership, urgency, customer-first thinking, strategic execution, continuous improvement, development, and transparent communication.

Additional Information

This position reports to Project Managers and partners closely with application engineers, product managers, sales account managers, procurement, and service teams across the business. No direct reports will be managed. Vertiv is committed to equal employment opportunity and promotes diversity without discrimination on any grounds including age, race, gender, disability, or pregnancy status.