Design Manager - Office - London, UK

Role Title: Design Manager – Office

Company: CTS Group

Location: London, United Kingdom

Reports To: Design Director

Type: Full-Time, Office-Based (5 days per week)

About CTS Group

CTS Group is a fast-growing international design and build company specialising in data centre development across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). We combine engineering excellence, innovation, and digital transformation to deliver high-performance, sustainable, and future-ready data centre solutions.

With over 40 nationalities represented across our teams, CTS fosters a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance culture where innovation and technical precision drive every project. Beyond construction, CTS develops digital systems and standardised modular data centre units to meet the evolving needs of hyperscalers, colocation providers, and enterprise clients.

Our proven track record and strong partnerships have established CTS as a trusted industry leader delivering large-scale, complex data centre facilities with speed, efficiency, and excellence.

Role Overview

The Design Manager (Office) is responsible for the end-to-end management and coordination of design delivery for data centre projects or major project workstreams, working full-time from the CTS London office.

Working across engineering disciplines, specialist consultants, vendors and CTS's Execution teams, the role ensures that design solutions are technically coordinated, buildable, compliant with project and local regulatory requirements, and delivered in line with programme, procurement and construction priorities.

The Design Manager acts as a key interface between the client, Design & Engineering teams and the project delivery organisation, driving design from concept and detailed engineering through construction support, commissioning and handover, and working closely with the site-based Design Managers deployed on CTS projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and manage the project design programme, aligning engineering deliverables with procurement, manufacturing and construction requirements.

• Coordinate multidisciplinary design activities across Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Structural, Architectural and specialist disciplines.

• Manage design consultants and specialist engineering partners, ensuring clear scope, deliverables, quality and performance.

• Maintain the design deliverables register and information release schedule.

• Coordinate BIM and digital design activities to ensure integrated, clash-free and construction-ready design packages.

• Drive design reviews focused on technical compliance, constructability, operability, programme and project requirements.

• Coordinate design interfaces with CTS Execution, Manufacturing, Procurement and other relevant teams.

• Act as the office-based escalation point for site-based Design Managers, resolving escalated RFIs and technical queries and approving design changes.

• Support value engineering and design optimisation while protecting technical performance, resilience and client requirements.

• Manage design risks, changes and technical interfaces, assessing potential programme and cost impacts.

• Support permitting, regulatory approvals and engagement with local planning authorities and building control bodies.

• Manage consultant scope, design fees and associated commercial risks.

• Ensure CTS engineering standards, processes and lessons learned are consistently applied.

Required Skills and Experience

• Degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering strongly preferred; alternatively Civil/Structural Engineering, Architecture or another relevant technical discipline.

• 7+ years' relevant experience, including significant experience managing multidisciplinary design delivery.

• Demonstrable experience within data centres, mission-critical facilities or comparable technically complex infrastructure projects.

• Strong understanding of Mechanical and Electrical systems and their interfaces within mission-critical environments, including resilience topology and Uptime Institute Tier standards.

• Experience across the design lifecycle from concept through detailed design, construction support and commissioning.

• Experience within a Design & Engineering consultancy, EPC/design-build contractor or comparable project environment.

• Strong understanding of BIM/digital coordination and common data environments (Revit, Navisworks, BIM 360 / ACC).

• Knowledge of UK regulations, including the Building Regulations and Approved Documents, the Building Safety Act 2022, CDM 2015 designer duties, BS 7671 and Eurocodes (UK National Annexes).

• Ability to manage consultants, technical stakeholders and competing project priorities.

• Fluent English (mandatory); additional languages relevant to CTS markets are advantageous.

• Must be available to work full-time from the CTS London office, with travel to project sites and other CTS offices as required.

How to Apply

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