COPY - Special Project Manager

Insight Global; Abilene (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Insight Global in Abilene, TX is seeking a Senior Special Projects Manager for Data Center Operations Construction. You will lead post-go-live MEP work, lifecycle replacements, capacity additions, and high-risk, multi-disciplinary infrastructure initiatives around live data centers. Coordinate with Site Deployment, Facilities, Engineering, and vendors to ensure safe, on-time closures and measurable reliability improvements. The role emphasizes governance, risk, and executive communication.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading complex projects in mission-critical environments.
• Experience coordinating multi-disciplinary teams and stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of MEP systems in live data centers.

Responsibilities

• Lead post-go-live special projects across Oracle data center markets.
• Translate operational needs into clear project charters, scopes, and execution plans.
• Maintain portfolio roadmaps, schedules, budgets, and risk registers.
• Drive safety, uptime, and handoff quality during closeout.

Skills

Project management

Data center operations

MEP systems familiarity

Vendor management

Safety compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field

Tools

Primavera P6

MS Project

Jira

CMMS

Job description

Job Description

As a Special Projects Manager, Data Center Operations Construction, you will lead the execution of special projects across Oracle's major data center markets after facilities have transitioned into live operation. This role owns planning, coordination, execution governance, and field closure discipline for post-construction MEP work, lifecycle replacements, capacity additions, complex break-fix projects, day-two construction items, reliability improvements, and other operationally sensitive infrastructure work performed in and around live data centers.

You will report to the Director of Special Projects / Site Deployment and partner closely with Site Deployment, Data Center Facilities Operations, Construction, Engineering, Commissioning, Reliability, Safety, Security, Network, Logistics, Procurement, Finance, vendors, general contractors, trade partners, OEMs, and regional/site leadership to execute projects safely, predictably, and with minimal impact to live operations. The role requires strong project management experience, technical fluency in critical MEP systems, portfolio-level prioritization, vendor accountability, and the ability to turn ambiguous operational needs into executable scopes, schedules, budgets, risk plans, and owner-based action trackers.

This is not a traditional new-build construction manager role or a purely administrative project coordination role. It is a live-site special projects management role responsible for driving high-risk, multi-disciplinary infrastructure work after go-live, where safety, uptime, capacity commitments, change control, stakeholder alignment, and disciplined closeout must be managed together.

Key Responsibilities

Special Projects Portfolio Planning and Governance

• Own intake, prioritization, planning, and execution governance for post-go-live special projects across assigned Oracle data center markets, campuses, buildings, or regional workstreams.
• Convert operational needs, latent turnover items, lifecycle replacement requirements, capacity additions, reliability risks, and day-two construction items into clear project charters, scopes, schedules, budgets, risk registers, and execution plans.
• Build and maintain portfolio roadmaps, critical-path schedules, milestone trackers, owner-based action registers, dependency logs, blocker-aging views, financial summaries, and leadership-ready dashboards.
• Establish daily, weekly, and monthly project operating rhythms that keep operations, engineering, construction, commissioning, vendors, and leadership aligned to scope, schedule, budget, risk, and decision needs.
• Prioritize special projects based on safety, reliability, capacity, customer impact, operational risk, asset condition, regulatory or authority requirements, budget constraints, and market-level business priorities.

Live Data Center MEP Execution

• Lead execution of post-construction MEP projects in and around live data centers, including electrical power modifications, UPS and battery work, generator and fuel-system interfaces, switchgear or distribution changes, cooling plant upgrades, chiller or pump replacements, CRAH/CRAC work, controls/BMS/EPMS changes, and supporting infrastructure improvements.
• Plan project work around live-site operations, maintenance windows, MOP/SOP/EOP requirements, change management, security access, logistics, safety controls, commissioning constraints, and customer capacity commitments.
• Support complex break-fix and recovery projects requiring rapid scope definition, technical triage, procurement support, vendor mobilization, risk assessment, work sequencing, field coordination, and executive-level escalation.
• Drive day-two construction items, turnover defects, punch-list carryover work, latent commissioning gaps, maintainability fixes, and operational readiness improvements to durable closure.
• Confirm project outcomes meet design intent, reliability requirements, safety expectations, operational acceptance criteria, maintainability needs, documentation standards, and handoff expectations before closeout.

Project Management, Schedule, Cost, and Vendor Execution

• Manage project scope, schedule, budget, procurement, long-lead material, contract dependencies, change orders, RFIs, submittals, method statements, shutdown plans, and field execution risks from intake through closeout.
• Coordinate general contractors, trade partners, OEMs, service vendors, construction managers, commissioning agents, and internal teams to ensure safe execution, quality delivery, schedule discipline, and documentation completeness.
• Hold vendors and project teams accountable for milestone commitments, deliverable quality, safety expectations, deficiency resolution, productivity, rework control, and timely closeout.
• Track and report project KPIs, including schedule adherence, budget variance, change-order aging, blocker aging, safety observations, quality/rework trends, MOP readiness, outage readiness, and handoff completion.

Cross-Functional Coordination and Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned special projects, including communications, risks, escalations, decisions, project status, and market-level execution health.
• Coordinate across Data Center Facilities Operations, Site Deployment, Construction, Engineering, Commissioning, Reliability, Safety, Security, Network, Supply Chain, Finance, vendors, and site leadership to remove blockers and protect execution velocity.
• Facilitate project reviews, access-planning meetings, outage and maintenance-window planning, change-approval discussions, risk workshops, vendor coordination calls, readiness reviews, and closeout reviews.
• Escalate material project risks using concise framing of operational impact, safety or uptime exposure, schedule impact, cost impact, owner, recommended path forward, and decision required.
• Maintain transparent stakeholder alignment before field work begins, during execution, and through turnover to ensure operations teams understand project scope, risk controls, acceptance criteria, and support obligations.

Safety, Quality, Change Control, and Operational Readiness

• Ensure live data center project work complies with Oracle safety, security, access-control, change-management, maintenance-window, and site operating requirements.
• Confirm project plans include appropriate job hazard analysis, permit planning, lockout/tagout coordination, energized work controls, arc flash awareness, pressure or stored-energy controls, hot work controls, communication paths, stop-work criteria, rollback plans, and emergency response expectations.
• Partner with operations and engineering teams to define and review MOPs, SOPs, EOPs, test plans, acceptance criteria, training needs, spares requirements, maintenance prerequisites, and post-project support plans.
• Verify that as-builts, O&M manuals, asset data, CMMS updates, BMS/EPMS changes, commissioning or validation evidence, warranties, turnover packages, and closeout documentation are complete, accurate, and accessible.
• Capture lessons learned from special projects, break-fix events, day-two construction work, vendor performance, operational handoff feedback, and recurring defects to improve future execution.

People Leadership and Continuous Improvement

• Manage, coach, and develop project managers, project coordinators, or matrixed execution leads supporting special projects across assigned markets or workstreams.
• Set execution expectations for project planning quality, risk visibility, stakeholder communication, safety discipline, financial controls, documentation quality, and closeout rigor.
• Create scalable playbooks, intake mechanisms, prioritization models, project templates, risk dashboards, governance routines, handoff checklists, and reporting mechanisms for repeatable special project execution.
• Identify recurring execution bottlenecks, market-level constraints, vendor performance gaps, scope-definition weaknesses, documentation defects, and opportunities to improve predictability across Oracle data center markets.
• Promote a culture of safety, ownership, operational excellence, field accountability, transparent escalation, and continuous improvement across live-site special project programs.

Accountable For

• Safe and predictable execution of post-go-live special projects across assigned Oracle major data center markets.
• Delivery of live-site MEP projects, lifecycle replacements, capacity additions, complex break fixes, day-two construction items, and operational readiness improvements against approved scope, schedule, budget, quality, and acceptance criteria.
• Clear project governance, risk visibility, blocker closure, decision tracking, financial discipline, vendor accountability, and leadership-ready status reporting.
• Coordination of operations, engineering, construction, commissioning, safety, security, network, supply chain, finance, vendors, and site leadership required to execute work in live facilities.
• Complete handoff of project documentation, as-builts, asset updates, maintenance requirements, training needs, spares, acceptance evidence, lessons learned, and post-project support obligations.

Skills and Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in project management, construction management, facilities engineering, data center operations, MEP infrastructure delivery, commissioning, critical facilities operations, or similarly complex mission-critical environments, including experience leading concurrent projects or programs.
• 3+ years of experience managing project managers, coordinators, vendors, contractors, or matrixed cross-functional execution teams is strongly preferred for M3 scope.
• Proven project management experience leading complex infrastructure projects from intake and scope definition through planning, procurement, field execution, commissioning/validation, turnover, and closeout.
• Experience managing MEP work in live data centers, colocation facilities, industrial plants, utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, aviation, semiconductor, or other high-availability environments where downtime risk and safety controls are critical.
• Working knowledge of data center electrical, mechanical, controls, monitoring, and life-safety systems, including power distribution, generators, UPS systems, batteries, switchgear, cooling plants, pumps, CRAH/CRAC units, BMS, EPMS, SCADA/DCIM interfaces, fire alarm, and supporting infrastructure.
• Experience with lifecycle replacements, retrofit programs, capacity additions, reliability improvements, complex break-fix recovery, operational risk reduction, day-two construction closeout, and post-construction turnover defect resolution.
• Demonstrated ability to manage scope, schedule, budget, procurement, long-lead materials, change orders, risks, issues, stakeholders, vendors, and leadership communications across multiple active workstreams.
• Bachelor degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, Facilities Management, Operations, Business, or a related field preferred; equivalent mission-critical project execution experience will be considered.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong project management discipline across scope, schedule, budget, procurement, change control, stakeholder management, risk management, issue tracking, vendor execution, documentation, and closeout.
• Live-site operational judgment with the ability to balance safety, uptime, redundancy, maintainability, schedule, budget, customer capacity, and field execution constraints.
• Technical fluency sufficient to identify MEP project risks, ask effective questions, challenge weak execution plans, and escalade issues that could affect safety, reliability, capacity, or operational supportability.
• Leadership skills to coach project managers, create accountability, set clear priorities, remove blockers, and maintain execution quality across geographically distributed markets.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across operations, construction, engineering, commissioning, safety, security, network, finance, supply chain, vendors, and site leadership without relying solely on direct authority.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including concise executive updates, escalation notes, decision papers, project dashboards, meeting facilitation, and owner-based action tracking.
• Ability to create structure in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where operational priorities, construction constraints, vendor availability, budget decisions, and emergency work may move in parallel.
• High attention to detail in project schedules, cost trackers, change records, MOP readiness, safety prerequisites, access plans, test evidence, punch lists, closeout records, and turnover documentation.
• Continuous improvement mindset focused on repeatable mechanisms, scalable standards, lessons learned, portfolio visibility, vendor performance management, and predictable outcomes across Oracle data center markets.
• Experience supporting hyperscale data centers, cloud infrastructure, colocation campuses, large-scale critical facilities, industrial MEP portfolios, utilities, power generation, semiconductor facilities, or high-availability infrastructure programs.
• Experience leading projects involving live electrical systems, UPS or battery replacements, generator systems, switchgear, power monitoring, cooling plants, chilled water systems, air handling, BMS/EPMS integrations, fire/life-safety interfaces, and building infrastructure modifications.
• Familiarity with Primavera P6, MS Project, Smartsheet, Jira, ServiceNow, CMMS, DCIM, BMS, EPMS, SCADA, document-control platforms, financial tracking tools, and executive dashboarding mechanisms.
• Working knowledge of construction safety, lockout/tagout, energized work planning, arc flash awareness, method-of-procedure controls, job hazard analysis, commissioning practices, operational change management, and stop-work authority.
• PMP, PgMP, CAPM, construction management credential, OSHA, Lean, Six Sigma, commissioning certification, data center operations certification, or equivalent technical/project management credential is a plus.
• Experience building special project intake models, prioritization frameworks, portfolio dashboards, project playbooks, vendor performance routines, handoff standards, lessons-learned mechanisms, or executive governance reviews.

We are a company committed to creating diverse and inclusive environments where people can bring their full, authentic selves to work every day.

We are an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer that believes everyone matters. Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, genetic factors, age, disability, protected veteran status, military or uniformed service member status, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to [e-mail].