Tier III. Direct liquid cooling. Built from nothing, 700km from Darwin.

Project Ares is a 1GW hyperscale renewable data and energy hub in the Northern Territory, scaling to a potential 5GW+, positioned as Australia's answer to the AI infrastructure gap sweeping the Asia Pacific.

DataCo is the product: Tier III modular data halls, closed-loop direct liquid cooling and a design PUE of 1.051, built on a remote greenfield site behind the meter. Pre-FEED is complete and FEED is underway, backed by a delivery team with 200+ years of combined mega project experience across BHP, Woodside, Chevron, Fortescue and Rio Tinto.

We're not looking for someone who has only ever fitted out a hall inside someone else's shell. We're looking for someone who will build the shell too.

That said, you won't be doing this alone. You'll work directly alongside the Delivery Manager, the Engineering Lead, the PowerCo Delivery Lead and the rest of the project leadership team, all of whom have already taken the wider project through FEL 2.

Who we want

We want data centre delivery leads who are as comfortable with cooling and MEP as they are with superstructure, and who enjoy solving problems no one has solved yet, because a first-of-kind design in a remote location doesn't come with a playbook. If your instinct is to ask “has anyone built this exact thing before?” and keep going anyway, keep reading.

Our project runs on four principles: Accountable, Resilient, Enduring, Swift , not as a slogan, but as the operating standard for this role: owning your commissioning sequence against a phased IT load ramp, holding the tenant interface cleanly, and building a data hall that still meets standard decades from now.

What you'll own

- Full DataCo delivery. Own delivery of the full DataCo scope: Tier III modular data halls, E3 cooling/MEP infrastructure, power integration and connectivity, to a design PUE of 1.051
- EPC contractor leadership. Manage EPC contractor selection, contract management and performance oversight across building,



cooling and connectivity packages
- Tenant interface. Coordinate the tenant interface at the ORv3 manifold battery limit [BL-2], ensuring EN scope and tenant-supplied scope are correctly delineated
- Phased commissioning. Own DataCo commissioning strategy and sequencing to meet the phased IT load ramp [500 MW Phase 1 to 1 GW full build]
- Power-to-load integration. Coordinate with the PowerCo Delivery Lead on integrated power-to-IT-load commissioning and grid-to-chip power delivery design

What you bring

- Degree in mechanical, electrical or building services engineering
- 15+ years delivering hyperscale or large-scale data centre facilities, ideally including direct liquid cooling [DLC] and Tier III design/construction experience
- Robust cross-discipline delivery experience across building/superstructure, cooling/MEP, power integration and connectivity for hyperscale data centres
- Deep technical understanding of the closed-loop dry-cooler/DLC architecture and Tier III concurrent maintainability requirements
- Commercially astute EPC contract management for a first-of-kind design in a remote location
- Comfortable absorbing early works capability into an integrated delivery organisation as the project transitions from early works to main construction
- Based in or willing to relocate to Perth

Why this one's different

- A blank canvas with real delivery authority. The systems, contracts and team you build are yours to define, not inherited from a predecessor
- Elbow to elbow with the Delivery Manager and PowerCo Delivery Lead on the power-to-IT-load handover, with visibility to the Project Director throughout
- Ownership of one of the first hyperscale, direct liquid cooled data centre builds of this scale in Australia, start to finish
- Backed by a delivery team with a genuine 200+ year mega project track record behind every design and commissioning call you make

This is a confidential search. Client identity will be shared directly with shortlisted candidates. Apply Now or for a confidential discussion please contact Michelle Bateman, 0400 416 405 Harry & Maxwell Executive Search.

📌 DataCo Delivery Lead (Perth)
🏢 Harry Maxwell
📍 Perth