Data Center Operations Lead — Commissioning & Reliability

OpenAI; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 159,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Facilities Operations Lead to support commissioning, deployment, and long-term operation of our next-generation AI data centers in Seattle. You will bridge data center construction and hardware landings, defining commissioning plans, supporting bring-up, and owning operations and maintenance for mission-critical infrastructure.

You will collaborate with design, construction, and hardware teams to create repeatable processes for new builds and lead hands-on operations to

Qualifications

• 10+ years in large-scale data center facility operations, commissioning, or critical infrastructure engineering.
• Deep familiarity with liquid-cooled IT systems, CDU and in-rack/in-row manifold design, bring-up and servicing.
• Enjoy defining and improving infrastructure processes at the intersection of construction, hardware, and operations.
• Comfortable owning infrastructure from deployment to long-term maintenance and failure recovery.
• Experience responding to field issues and maintaining reliability through well-defined operational processes.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute sequences of operations, commissioning steps, and bring-up processes for mission-critical data center facilities.
• Interface with the design and hardware teams to define deployment procedures tailored to each data center and hardware configuration.
• Oversee installation, commissioning, and operational readiness of large-scale data center campuses.
• Manage monitoring, maintenance, and quality control of the data center infrastructure, including high‑performance liquid cooling systems.
• Develop on-site operations staffing strategy.
• Develop and enforce procedures for planned and unplanned downtime and SLAs for critical facility components.

Skills

Data center operations

Commissioning

Infrastructure reliability

Process improvement

Field issue response

Tools

Liquid cooling systems

Job description

OpenAI is seeking a Facilities Operations Lead to support commissioning, deployment, and long-term operation of our next-generation AI data centers in Seattle. You will bridge data center construction and hardware landings, defining commissioning plans, supporting bring-up, and owning operations and maintenance for mission-critical infrastructure.

You will collaborate with design, construction, and hardware teams to create repeatable processes for new builds and lead hands-on operations to