Facility Operations Lead

River AI Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision benefits

Unlimited PTO

Relocation support

Job summary

River AI Inc. is seeking an experienced Facility Operations Lead to own the reliability and safety of our data center infrastructure in Palo Alto, CA.

You will ensure continuous operation of electrical, mechanical, fire protection, and security systems around the clock. You will lead the site team, manage preventive and corrective maintenance, coordinate contractors, and drive safety, incident response, and uptime improvements in partnership with infrastructure engineers and service vendors.

Qualifications

• At least seven years of data center or critical facilities experience.
• Minimum two years of team leadership.
• Experience with UPS, generators, switchgear, chillers, and BMS.
• Experience writing operating procedures for live electrical and mechanical systems.
• Strong safety record and electrical safety knowledge.
• Experience managing maintenance vendors and operating budgets.

Responsibilities

• Operate and maintain electrical, mechanical, fire protection, and security systems.
• Lead, hire, and train site technicians; coordinate contractors.
• Manage preventive and corrective maintenance; maintain records.
• Write and enforce operating procedures; review changes.
• Lead incident response and root-cause analysis; implement corrective actions.
• Monitor capacity, energy efficiency, uptime; guide improvements.
• Enforce safety standards including Cal/OSHA, lockout/tagout, arc flash.
• Manage site access, service vendors, and operating budget.

Skills

Data center ops

UPS systems

Generators

Switchgear

Chillers

BMS knowledge

Team leadership

Electrical safety

Vendor management

Budget mgmt

Procedures writing

Communication

Job description

At River AI, our mission is to create personal AI owned and shaped by each individual. To achieve this, we are rewriting the entire stack from scratch: personal hardware for local inference, bespoke training infrastructure, next-generation UIs, and frontier deep learning research..

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Facility Operations Lead to own the reliability and safety of the data center infrastructure behind River’s AI systems. Your goal is to keep our compute infrastructure powered and cooled around the clock.

You will lead the site team, own the maintenance program, and oversee the electrical and mechanical systems that keep the facility running. Working closely with infrastructure engineers, technicians, and service vendors, you will manage daily operations, lead incident response, and ensure that maintenance and upgrades happen safely without disrupting live systems.

Who we are

At River AI, our mission is to create personal AI owned and shaped by each individual. To achieve this, we are building the full stack required for people and organizations to create AI models of their own - from training infrastructure and open-weight model post-training to personal hardware and next-generation interfaces.

We are scientists, engineers, and builders from the industry’s leading technology companies and AI labs. Our team has experience scaling consumer products to hundreds of millions of users and building the infrastructure behind frontier AI systems.

What You’ll Do

• Operate and maintain the site’s electrical, mechanical, fire protection, and security systems.
• Lead, hire, and train site technicians, coordinate contractors, and manage shift coverage and the on‑call rotation.
• Own preventive and corrective maintenance, keeping schedules, work orders, and service records accurate in the maintenance management system.
• Write and enforce operating procedures, review planned changes, and oversee work on live systems.
• Lead incident response and root cause analysis, and drive corrective actions that prevent repeat failures.
• Track capacity, energy efficiency, and uptime, and use those measures to guide operational improvements.
• Enforce site safety standards, including Cal/OSHA requirements, lockout/tagout procedures, and arc flash precautions.
• Manage site access, service vendors, and the facility’s operating budget.

Skills & Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• At least seven years of experience operating data centers or other critical facilities, including at least two years leading a team.
• Working knowledge of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, generators, switchgear, chillers, and building management systems.
• Experience writing and following formal operating procedures for live electrical and mechanical systems.
• A strong safety record and practical knowledge of electrical safety requirements.
• Experience managing maintenance vendors and operating budgets.
• Clear communication, a collaborative approach, and accountability for site reliability and safety.

Preferred Qualifications (We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all of these.)

• An electrical or mechanical trade background, or military technical training such as the Navy nuclear program.
• Experience supporting colocation customers and coordinating work around their operational requirements.
• A data center operations certification, such as one from Uptime Institute.

Physical Requirements & Work Environment

• Work on-site in an operating data center, including time in electrical and mechanical rooms and on rooftops.
• Work around high-voltage equipment and loud machinery while following site safety procedures and using required personal protective equipment.
• Be available to respond to site emergencies at any hour, with extended hours or weekend work as needed.
• Travel to other company locations as needed.
• Location:Palo Alto, California. This is an on‑site role in an active data center.
• Compensation: Depending on experience and skills, the expected base pay is $150,000 - $195,000 USD per year plus equity.
• Benefits: River AI offers generous health, dental, and vision benefits, unlimited PTO, and relocation support as needed.