Managing the speed of change in fast-paced mission critical

Nia Gleason, Assistant Vice-President, Project Management at kW Mission Critical Engineering, Member of WSP, shares her thoughts on coordinating projects with multidisciplinary resources to continuously improve client data center designs – with an increased focus on energy and water efficiency.

Global | 05 June, 2024
Reading Time : 6 mins

What inspired you to work in the mission critical sector?

My degree is in International Politics but coming out of university I wanted to stay local rather than relocating, so I joined a small mission critical engineering firm in Milwaukee, USA. For 11 years I was immersed in the exciting world of data centers: the industry, the projects, and the complex engineering… and I never looked back.

I was drawn by the opportunity to work on something different and was interested in the caliber of global tech clients and the concept of facilities and systems that could survive things like utility interruptions and equipment failures and still perform 24x7x365.

How did you join kW Mission Critical Engineering and can you explain more about your role?

I’d been out of the industry for a few years when a former colleague asked me to return and join the team. In some ways coming back was like riding a bike, you don’t forget how, but going from a small firm to an industry leader and the sheer size of the projects meant I had a lot to learn to bring my bike up to speed.

I started in 2020 during Covid, and as a Senior Project Manager, I often describe my role as being more like a cat herder! The number of internal and external people involved in a project across multiple time zones and countries can be pretty daunting to coordinate, so effective communication is critical. There can be a lot of changes to the design of facilities and systems throughout a project, which in turn affects everything from contracts, budgets and schedules to the scope we’ve been asked to deliver. Making sure changes are properly documented and approved is one of the most important parts of my job.

What are the challenges of mission critical from a project management perspective?

Managing the speed of change in the industry especially with AI coming on board is a big challenge. AI and other high-density technologies need a vast amount of processing power to run and that’s changing how data centers are designed and built.

It’s interesting to be in the middle of that shift and see the nitty-gritty of what’s involved. For example, hyperscale data centers are designed to fit specific tenants’ operational requirements. As tenants’ businesses evolve to adopt AI, what they need from a data center (and from their data center engineer) changes too… rapidly.

Nia Gleason

Assistant Vice President, Project Management, kW Mission Critical Engineering

United States

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How do you stay future-ready when the pace of change is so quick?

Most mission critical clients have an established Basis of Design (BOD) for their facilities that they aim to reuse or evolve to meet the specific needs of a project or client tenant. The more consistent the design, the easier it is to predict procurement needs and pre-buy equipment with very long lead times, to manage supply chain issues and prevent delays.

Many of our projects involve updating and refreshing these BODs – to continuously improve designs and build-in the flexibility needed to adapt to rapid change. For instance, we’re currently looking at how a client can use liquid cooling to cool individual servers and server racks in their facilities – so they have enough cooling capacity to accommodate AI.

Another welcome trend we’re seeing is an increased focus on improving the water and energy efficiency of data centers. From tighter regulation around water use in some US states – accelerating alternatives to water-cooled systems, to equipment manufacturers innovating to improve the energy efficiency of their products.

What is one of the more unique challenges you’re currently working on?

We’re working on five active facilities for a long-time client who wants to increase their share of the US data center market. This includes facilities with a critical power capacity of over 108MW – much larger than the typical industry average of around 36MW-48MW.

My role is to manage projects across their portfolio at a programme level. Coordinating multiple projects at once means engaging with lots of different teams across the globe. For example, we’re working with the mission critical team in South Africa on delivering for a client tenant in Arizona. It’s been a good opportunity for me to take on a new challenge, look at things differently, and work with a great new group of engineers. It’s fun working with a client who’s going through such a meteoric rise!

What do you think the wider built environment sector can learn from mission critical and vice versa?

One thing we’ve had to develop is our project delivery efficiency, as we’re held to such tight schedules. We need to be diligent defining our project scope and how the schedule needs to progress. It also takes a lot of communication and coordination to facilitate the overall process and keep things moving – on time and on budget.

Being a part of WSP enables us to leverage wider multidisciplinary skills in-house. For instance, we’re working with our Earth & Environment team to develop a model for energy efficiency, specifically for LEED certification. We’ve also been able to expand services for a major client to include pipe stress analysis, which in the past we would have externally sourced. This enabled our team to learn more about pipe stress considerations and think about our designs from another perspective. It’s been an enlightening process for everyone involved and will ultimately improve our designs.

What’s been the proudest moment of your career so far?

I was lucky enough to have some great mentors when I was starting out, including my first boss who encouraged me to develop the skills to become a project manager. Now, I’m paying it forward. I’ve worked with a few project managers early in their careers in a mentoring role. Seeing them learn and grow to become very good at what they do is awesome. One of my proudest moments was seeing a former colleague I mentored win an industry award for his project management contribution.

What do you think makes a place and where’s your favorite place?

I think it’s the sense of being and presence you feel in a place that’s important, rather than a specific location. That’s how I’d define it. My favorite places are outdoors in nature, hiking or biking, especially in the woods.