Director, Electrical Engineering at Volta in Europe

About Volta

Volta is the category-defining, fully vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform – from capital to clusters to software, under a founder-led enterprise. Our mission is The Utility of Compute™: AI infrastructure as dependable and available as electricity, for every organization that needs it. Launched with a $10B strategic partnership with one of the leading frontier AI labs, a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, and a $5B AI Infrastructure Fund, Volta is building the infrastructure layer of the AI era from the ground up. We are 100+ people across London, Palo Alto, and New York, with rapid growth expectations to hundreds.

The Role

We are looking for a Director, Electrical Engineering to be Volta's subject matter expert and design authority for electrical engineering across our global portfolio of AI factories. You will report directly to the Senior Director, Infrastructure Engineering within the Delivery organisation.

You will fully own all electrical engineering input across the portfolio from Volta's design standards, Reference Design and running projects. You will move easily between technical detail and strategic perspective, weighing engineering decisions against business priorities. As the business scales, you will build and lead the electrical engineering team.

What You Will Do

› Act as Volta's electrical subject matter expert and design authority, owning all electrical engineering input across every AI factory in EMEA and AMER from concept through to commissioning and energisation

› Develop, deploy and maintain Volta's electrical design standards, specifications and basis of design documents for all electrical systems, from utility interconnection through to the rack, making sure they are applied consistently across every project and region

› Provide the electrical input to Volta's Reference Design for AI factory infrastructure, working with peers in the Design organisation to balance performance, reliability, energy efficiency, cost, speed of delivery and scalability

› Own Volta's power architecture, including redundancy topology, UPS and energy storage, standby and onsite generation and power distribution to the rack, and partner with the CTO and CPO organisations to align it with rack, GPU and network power requirements so compute turns up consistently across the portfolio

› Support live projects with electrical expertise from concept through detailed design, construction, commissioning and energisation, resolving technical issues quickly so delivery is never held up

› Track the evolution of AI hardware and power architectures, including rising rack densities, GPU load dynamics and higher voltage distribution, and translate it into electrical standards that keep Volta's AI factories ready for next generation compute

› Lead electrical design reviews and technical assurance, including the studies that underpin safe and reliable design such as load flow, short circuit, protection coordination and arc flash, and act as design authority for any departure from the electrical standard

› Work in sync with SMEs across the other disciplines, including mechanical, controls and structural, so the overall design is optimised for safety, speed of delivery and cost, rather than for electrical in isolation

› Work with Procurement to standardise specifications for long lead electrical equipment such as transformers, switchgear, UPS, generators and busway, enabling framework agreements, prefabrication and modular delivery at scale

› Champion safety in design, reliability, maintainability and energy efficiency, working with Operations to design for how our facilities will be run and maintained safely

› Embed lessons learned from delivery and operations back into the electrical standards, so every AI factory builds faster, safer and more efficiently than the last

› Direct the electrical scope of external design partners, mentor engineers and build out the electrical engineering team as the pipeline grows

› Provide electrical engineering status, risk and decision reporting to the Senior Director, Infrastructure Engineering

What You Will Bring

› A degree in electrical or building services engineering, with chartered or professional engineer status (for example CEng or PE) preferred

› Significant experience in data centre or mission critical electrical engineering, including senior technical leadership of electrical design on large scale programmes

› Deep technical expertise in data centre power distribution, including medium and low voltage systems, UPS, standby generation, redundancy topologies and protection

› A track record developing and deploying electrical design standards, reference designs or basis of design documents for a hyperscale, colocation or large scale data centre developer

› Hands on experience designing and delivering high density power for AI and HPC workloads, including power distribution to the rack, and an understanding of how GPU cluster power requirements and load behaviour drive facility design

› Familiarity with the codes and standards that govern data centre electrical design in Europe and North America, such as IEC standards and the NEC

› Strong commercial judgement, balancing capex, schedule, reliability and operability in electrical design decisions

› Confident communication, able to explain complex technical trade offs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executives

› A collaborative style that builds trust with peers across partner teams, and the conviction to hold the line on standards

What We Offer

At Volta, we believe people do their best work when they feel supported, trusted and able to grow. We're building a company where you can make an impact, keep a healthy balance between work and life, and build a career you're proud of.
As a global team, we do our best to provide great benefits wherever you're based. While some benefits vary by country due to local regulations, we believe looking after our people is simply the right thing to do.

• Competitive salary based on the work you do here, not your previous salary

• Equity in Volta, giving you the opportunity to share in the company's long-term success

• Retirement/pension contributions

• Comprehensive health, wellbeing and insurance benefits

• Generous number of vacation days each year

Additional Information

Background Checks

All offers of employment at Volta are conditional on the satisfactory completion of pre-employment screening, which includes confirmation of your right to work, verification of your employment history and a criminal record check, where this is permitted by local law. Screening is carried out by Zinc, an accredited third-party provider, after an offer is made and all information is handled confidentially and in accordance with applicable data protection law.

Equal Opportunity

Volta is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and make employment decisions based on skills, qualifications, experience and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic.

Accessibility

Volta is committed to providing an accessible recruitment experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the application or interview process, please contact us at askpeople@volta.com. We will work with you to identify reasonable accommodations that enable you to participate fully in the hiring process.

Candidate Privacy Notice

By applying, you consent to the processing of your personal data for recruitment purposes in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, EU GDPR and relevant US state privacy regulations. Your data will be shared only with those involved in the hiring process and will not be used for unrelated purposes. For details, see our Recruitment & Candidate Privacy Notice.

Note to Recruitment Agencies

Volta does not accept unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles from recruitment agencies. Any unsolicited submissions, including those sent directly to hiring managers or employees, will be treated as the property of Volta. No agency fees will be payable unless a valid, signed recruitment agreement is in place, and the agency has been specifically engaged for the relevant vacancy.