Data Center Operations Program Manager

Crux AI; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with company match

Hybrid work schedule

Job summary

Crux AI is building an integrated AI infrastructure platform in the United States. We seek a seasoned program manager to vet capacity deals, monitor portfolio costs and schedules, and ensure alignment between build execution and Finance models.

You will work at the intersection of data center construction, energy, MEP, and Finance, driving repeatable, AI-enabled cost tracking across a growing portfolio. This hybrid role targets senior professionals with a data-center footprint and strategic

Qualifications

• 8+ years in data center construction, capital projects, or infrastructure delivery with direct P&L, cost, or schedule ownership.
• Demonstrated experience vetting or negotiating capacity/commercial terms against real technical and cost data.
• Comfortable moving fluently across finance, construction, and technology — cross-functional scope is essential.

Responsibilities

• Vet the technical and commercial terms of new capacity deals — schedule, equipment cost, composition — before they're recommended to leadership.
• Track every live data center project in the portfolio against its approved cost and schedule baseline, and own the process for flagging and escalating variance early.
• Partner with Data Center Construction, Energy, and MEP Systems teams to translate field-level execution status into Finance-ready program reporting.
• Own the interface between build-side execution and the cost and margin model of record — your data is what Finance's models are actually built on.
• Run the change-control process for scope, schedule, or cost changes on active projects, with sign-off gates that keep Finance and Development aligned in real time.
• Build and maintain the tools that make deal vetting fast and repeatable — this cannot be a one-off analysis redone from scratch on every deal.
• Default to AI-agentic workflows for cost/schedule reconciliation and variance tracking, rather than adding headcount to keep up with portfolio growth.

Skills

P&L ownership

Cost management

Cross-functional collaboration

Finance & construction fluency

Job description

Built to set the gold standard for integrated AI infrastructure

Crux AI is a newly formed, U.S.-based integrated AI infrastructure company created to remove the physical and operational constraints on consequential AI ambitions. Crux brings together power, high-density data centers, TPU silicon, networking, orchestration software, and ongoing operations as one integrated system.

Crux is being capitalized to plan every layer together, develop each one to demanding standards, and operate the whole system with efficiency and reliability. That gives hyperscalers, frontier AI labs, sovereign customers, enterprises, and AI-native companies greater freedom to pursue the AI they are here to create.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

You will own the technical and commercial vetting that turns a raw deal into a fundable project — the work that separates a defensible capacity commitment from an inflated one. When a partner asks Crux to guarantee an eight- or nine-figure sum, you're the one who tests that number against schedule, equipment composition, and real construction cost before it goes to leadership. Reporting into the Chief Program Manager's organization, you will sit at the interface between Data Center Construction, Energy, MEP, and Finance, making sure every project in the active portfolio is executed against the numbers it was approved on — and flagging it immediately when it isn't.

In this role, you will:

• Vet the technical and commercial terms of new capacity deals — schedule, equipment cost, equipment composition — before they're recommended to leadership, right-sizing commitments rather than defaulting to the number a partner asks for.
• Track every live data center project in the portfolio against its approved cost and schedule baseline, and own the process for flagging and escalating variance early.
• Partner with Data Center Construction, Energy, and MEP Systems teams to translate field-level execution status into Finance-ready program reporting.
• Own the interface between build-side execution and the cost and margin model of record — your data is what Finance's models are actually built on.
• Run the change-control process for scope, schedule, or cost changes on active projects, with sign-off gates that keep Finance and Development aligned in real time.
• Build and maintain the tools that make deal vetting fast and repeatable — this cannot be a one-off analysis redone from scratch on every deal.
• Default to AI-agentic workflows for cost/schedule reconciliation and variance tracking, rather than adding headcount to keep up with portfolio growth.

SIGNALS OF SUCCESS

After 60 days in this role:

• Deal-vetting framework (schedule, equipment cost, composition) is documented and applied to at least one live negotiation.
• Portfolio cost/schedule tracking is live for the current active project set.

After 6 months:

• Variance escalation process is running with a documented track record of catching at-risk projects before they slip.
• Finance's cost and margin model of record is being fed directly from your tracking, not reconstructed separately.

After 1 year:

• Deal-vetting and portfolio-tracking functions run as a repeatable system others can execute against, not a one-person effort.

EXPERIENCES, ATTRIBUTES AND MINDSET THAT INDICATE A GOOD MATCH

Experiences

• 8+ years in data center construction, capital projects, or infrastructure delivery with direct P&L, cost, or schedule ownership.
• Demonstrated experience vetting or negotiating capacity/commercial terms against real technical and cost data, not top-down assumptions.
• Comfortable moving fluently across finance, construction, and technology — this is not a single-lane specialist seat.

Attributes

• “$900M is the ask” is a hypothesis until the equipment and schedule say otherwise — you test the number before you defend it.
• You bring bad news first, unprompted, and own the result — hierarchy doesn't intimidate you and you don't intimidate easily either.

Mindset

• High tolerance for ambiguity. The portfolio will outgrow whatever process exists today, and you build the next version rather than waiting for one.
• AI-agentic first. Fluent with AI agents — or committed to becoming so quickly — and you embed them as first principles in how you and your team work, defaulting to agentic workflows before adding headcount or process.

Nice to have (preferred, not required)

• Background in data center construction, controllership, or capital-projects finance specialized in the build environment.
• Experience with direct-to-chip liquid cooling, Level 5/IST commissioning, or other GW-scale data center technical scope.
• Neocloud or hyperscaler experience (CoreWeave, Nebius, Nscale, Lambda, Google, AWS, Meta, Microsoft) in a program or delivery management capacity.
• Formal cost engineering, quantity surveying, or construction finance credential.

Salary Range Information

The annual salary range for this position has been estimated based on market data and other factors. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.

About Crux

• We offer generous base, bonus and additional incentive based compensation
• Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents
• Company-paid life insurance and disability
• Full suite of other optional benefits
• 401(k) Plan with 4% company match
• Hybrid schedule offering four days in-office collaboration paired with one remote workday for focused, individual work