Director, Data Center Operations

Cirrascale; Austin, Northern (TX, KY); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical/dental/vision coverage

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Job summary

Cirrascale is seeking a Director, Data Center Operations in Austin, TX to lead daily data center facilities, ensure uptime, readiness, and service quality while supporting our AI infrastructure deployments. You will coordinate across Operations, Engineering, NOC, Deployment, Logistics, Security and Facilities, manage vendors, drive capacity planning, budgeting, and change management.

This hands-on leadership role offers a competitive base salary, stock options, and a comprehensive benefits

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 8–10 years of progressive experience in data center operations or mission‑critical facilities.
• 3–7 years of leadership or management experience.
• Strong organizational, operational, and project management skills.
• Excellent communication and customer service abilities.
• Experience operating successfully within a high‑growth or rapidly evolving start‑up environment
• Proven ability to balance strategic leadership responsibilities with hands‑on operational execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead the daily operation of the Company's data center facilities.
• Ensure maximum uptime, operational readiness, and service quality.
• Coordinate maintenance activities, customer work, installations, and operational changes.
• Support capacity planning for power, space, cooling, and infrastructure utilization.
• Implement and continuously improve operational standards and procedures.
• Coordinate customer installations, expansions, maintenance windows, migrations, and decommissioning activities.
• Manage third‑party vendors and contractors performing work within company facilities.
• Coordinate activities between Operations, Engineering, NOC, Deployment, Logistics, Security, Facilities, Procurement, and Customer Success.
• Prioritize data center, operational work across multiple sites.
• Ensure resources are aligned with customer commitments.
• Remove operational bottlenecks and improve execution.
• Lead daily operational meetings and escalation activities.
• Ability, and more importantly the willingness, to be hands‑on to support challenges and escalations.
• Coordinate capacity planning for rack space, power, cooling, and infrastructure.
• Assist with forecasting future operational requirements.
• Support new site readiness and facility expansions.
• Improve operational utilization and efficiency.
• Participate in operational planning initiatives supporting company growth.
• Recommend operational improvements and process enhancements.
• Assist leadership in developing operational roadmaps and infrastructure plans.
• Coordinate operational maintenance activities.
• Ensure readiness before production changes.
• Coordinate planned maintenance windows and infrastructure upgrades.
• Reduce operational risk through standardized change management practices.
• Work with executive leadership on operational budgets and forecasting.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs.
• Monitor operational expenditures and vendor performance.
• Provide leadership and oversight for operational compliance programs.
• Manage the Quality & Compliance Manager.
• Support compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, Customer security requirements, Company operational policies and procedures

Skills

Data center operations

Leadership

Project management

Operational excellence

Communication

Startup experience

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Job description

Cirrascale Cloud Services provides high-performance cloud infrastructure purpose-built for deep learning, generative AI, and large-scale AI inference workloads. We specialize in dedicated GPU cloud solutions tailored to the unique needs of startups, research labs, and enterprise AI teams. Our mission is to accelerate AI innovation by combining powerful hardware with white-glove service and flexible, custom-built environments.

Position Summary

The Director, Data Center Operations is responsible for the day-to-day operation, readiness, utilization, customer support, capacity planning, vendor coordination, and operational execution across the Company's data center operations.

This position is accountable for ensuring safe, efficient, and highly available operations while supporting the Company's AI infrastructure, bare metal cloud services, and customer deployments. This role requires a hands‑on leader who can operate effectively in a fast‑paced, high‑growth environment while balancing strategic planning with direct operational execution.

The Director operates within a matrix organization. While certain supporting organizations, including the NOC, RMA, deployment technicians, logistics, and other specialized teams—may report through separate management structures, this role is responsible for coordinating and directing all operational activities occurring within the data centers to ensure safe, reliable, and efficient operations. Functional reporting relationships for those teams remain with their respective department leaders.

The Quality & Compliance, Logistics, Facilities and Asset Management functions report directly to this position and are responsible for supporting the Company's quality programs, operational compliance initiatives, inventory control, asset lifecycle management, movement material between data centers and certifications, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701.

Key Responsibilities

Data Center Operations

• Lead the daily operation of the Company's data center facilities.
• Ensure maximum uptime, operational readiness, and service quality.
• Coordinate maintenance activities, customer work, installations, and operational changes.
• Support capacity planning for power, space, cooling, and infrastructure utilization.
• Implement and continuously improve operational standards and procedures.
• Coordinate customer installations, expansions, maintenance windows, migrations, and decommissioning activities.
• Manage third‑party vendors and contractors performing work within company facilities.

Operational Leadership

• Coordinate activities between Operations, Engineering, NOC, Deployment, Logistics, Security, Facilities, Procurement, and Customer Success.
• Prioritize data center, operational work across multiple sites.
• Ensure resources are aligned with customer commitments.
• Remove operational bottlenecks and improve execution.
• Lead daily operational meetings and escalation activities.
• Ability, and more importantly the willingness, to be hands‑on to support challenges and escalations.

Capacity Planning

• Coordinate capacity planning for rack space, power, cooling, and infrastructure.
• Assist with forecasting future operational requirements.
• Support new site readiness and facility expansions.
• Improve operational utilization and efficiency.

Strategic Planning

• Participate in operational planning initiatives supporting company growth.
• Recommend operational improvements and process enhancements.
• Assist leadership in developing operational roadmaps and infrastructure plans.

Change Management

• Coordinate operational maintenance activities.
• Ensure readiness before production changes.
• Coordinate planned maintenance windows and infrastructure upgrades.
• Reduce operational risk through standardized change management practices.

Budget Support

• Work with executive leadership on operational budgets and forecasting.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs.
• Monitor operational expenditures and vendor performance.

Compliance & Quality

• Provide leadership and oversight for operational compliance programs.
• Manage the Quality & Compliance Manager.
• Support compliance with:
• SOC 2
• ISO 27001
• ISO 27701
• Customer security requirements
• Company operational policies and procedures

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 8–10 years of progressive experience in data center operations or mission‑critical facilities.
• 3–7 years of leadership or management experience.
• Strong organizational, operational, and project management skills.
• Excellent communication and customer service abilities.
• Experience operating successfully within a high‑growth or rapidly evolving start‑up environment
• Proven ability to balance strategic leadership responsibilities with hands‑on operational execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting AI, HPC, GPU, or cloud infrastructure.
• Experience with NVIDIA or AMD GPU environments.
• Experience with high‑density liquid‑cooled infrastructure.
• Experience supporting SOC 2 and ISO compliance programs.
• Experience in colocation or managed services environments.

Compensation and Benefits

We are committed to supporting the people who help us grow. We offer a competitive compensation package that includes base salary, performance bonuses and stock option opportunities.

The base salary range for the Director, Data Center Operations is $170,000 to $200,000 This pay range reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay range for this job for the location for which it has been posted. Compensation decisions are dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, an individual’s qualifications, location where the role is to be performed, internal equity, and alignment with market data.

Our benefits package includes comprehensive medical, dental, vision coverage, 401(k) with company match, generous paid time‑off and professional development support.

Why Join Cirrascale?

Join a growing team that's pushing the boundaries of AI infrastructure. At Cirrascale, you’ll contribute to projects powering next‑generation AI applications while working with top‑tier hardware in a collaborative and innovative environment. From custom deployments to hands‑on customer support, every role here plays a part in enabling breakthroughs in AI.