Critical Facilities Lead, AI Data Centers

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Critical Facilities Lead to drive commissioning, deployment, and ongoing operations for next-generation AI data centers. You will coordinate between construction, hardware, and operations to ensure seamless integration of infrastructure with hardware timelines.

Responsibilities include defining commissioning plans, managing large-scale campus readiness, and developing on-site staffing while ensuring uptime and adherence to SLAs.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in large-scale data center facility operations, commissioning, or critical infrastructure.
• Deep familiarity with liquid-cooled IT systems, CDU and in-rack/in-row manifolds.
• Enjoy defining and improving infrastructure processes at the intersection of construction, hardware, and operations.
• Ability to own infrastructure from deployment to long-term maintenance and failure recovery.

Responsibilities

• Define sequences of operations, commissioning steps, and bring-up processes for mission-critical data center facilities.
• Interface with design and hardware teams to tailor deployment procedures per data center and configuration.
• Oversee installation, commissioning, and readiness of large-scale data center campuses.
• Monitor, maintain, and enforce quality control of data center infrastructure, including cooling.
• Develop on-site operations staffing strategy.
• Establish procedures for planned and unplanned downtime and SLAs.

Skills

Data center operations

Infrastructure commissioning

Operational process improvement

Reliability engineering

Tools

Liquid cooling systems

CDU

In-rack manifolds

Job description

OpenAI is seeking a Critical Facilities Lead to drive commissioning, deployment, and ongoing operations for next-generation AI data centers. You will coordinate between construction, hardware, and operations to ensure seamless integration of infrastructure with hardware timelines.

Responsibilities include defining commissioning plans, managing large-scale campus readiness, and developing on-site staffing while ensuring uptime and adherence to SLAs.