Head of Data Center Operations

Giga Energy; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

CMMS familiarity

Job summary

Giga Energy is seeking a Head of Data Center Operations to own day-to-day reliability, staffing, maintenance, and performance across live data centers. You will set the operating standard, manage cross-site teams, and oversee vendor relationships while reporting to executive leadership.

Remote role with 20–25% travel to facilities; you will partner with commissioning and construction to ensure smooth handoffs and drive continual process improvements as the portfolio grows.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of facility or data center operations experience.
• 5+ years leading operations teams across multiple sites.
• Demonstrated uptime and staffing ownership for mission-critical facilities.
• Experience scaling an operations function within a growing portfolio.
• Strong knowledge of electrical systems, generators, UPS, cooling, and BMS/controls.
• Experience managing budgets and vendor contracts across sites.
• Proven ability to present to executive stakeholders on risk and performance.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day operational performance across live data centers, including uptime, maintenance execution, and incident response.
• Build and enforce the operating standard across all facilities: staffing, maintenance schedules, escalations, and performance benchmarks.
• Lead facility operations teams and site leads across multiple locations for consistent execution.
• Manage vendor and service provider relationships, including contract performance and SLAs.
• Lead root cause analysis for incidents and update standards to prevent recurrence.
• Own the portfolio operations budget and staffing trade-offs as facilities come online.
• Report on operational health, risk, and performance to executive leadership.
• Partner with commissioning/construction teams for clean turnover into steady-state operations.
• Drive continuous improvement in operating procedures as the portfolio scales.

Skills

Data center operations

People management

Uptime optimization

Budget management

Vendor management

Executive reporting

Cross-site leadership

MEP knowledge

Facilities budgeting

Tools

CMMS

Job description

What you’ll do

A data center only matters if it stays up. As Head of Data Center Operations, you own what happens after commissioning ends and the facility goes live — the day-to-day reliability, staffing, maintenance, and performance of Giga's data centers in operation. You'll build and run the operating standard across our portfolio: how facilities are staffed, how uptime is protected, how maintenance is scheduled, and how issues get resolved before they become incidents. You'll manage facility operations teams and vendor relationships across multiple sites, report on operational health to executive leadership, and be the person accountable when the question is "is it running the way it's supposed to." If you want to own the operating backbone of a fast-growing AI infrastructure company, this is your seat.

Where you’ll work

This role is remote, with roughly 20-25% travel to data center facilities to stay close to day-to-day operations in the field. While Giga is an in-office culture by default, this role is a deliberate exception given its portfolio-spanning nature — you'll need to be where the facilities are, not tied to a single hub.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day operational performance across Giga's live data center facilities, including uptime, maintenance execution, and incident response

• Build and enforce the operating standard applied across all facilities — staffing models, maintenance schedules, escalation procedures, and performance benchmarks

• Manage facility operations teams and site leads across multiple locations, ensuring consistent execution regardless of site

• Own vendor and service provider relationships tied to ongoing operations (maintenance contractors, equipment service providers, facility services), including contract performance and SLAs

• Lead root cause analysis and resolution for operational incidents, ensuring issues are closed out and standards updated to prevent recurrence

• Own the operations budget across the portfolio, making resourcing and staffing trade-off calls as facilities come online

• Report on operational health, risk, and performance to executive leadership across the full portfolio

• Partner with the commissioning and construction teams to ensure a clean handoff from newly commissioned facilities into steady-state operations

• Drive continuous improvement in operating procedures as the facility portfolio scales

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in facility or data center operations, with 5+ years managing operations teams across multiple sites

• Demonstrated experience owning uptime, maintenance, and staffing for mission-critical or large-scale industrial facilities

• Track record building or scaling an operations function, standard, or team across a growing portfolio

• Strong working knowledge of MEP and electrical systems relevant to facility operations (generators, UPS, switchgear, cooling infrastructure, BMS/controls)

• Experience managing operations budgets and vendor/service contracts across multiple simultaneous sites

• Strong track record presenting to and advising executive-level stakeholders on operational risk and performance

Bonus points

• Direct experience running operations at a hyperscale or colocation data center company

• Experience partnering with commissioning teams on facility turnover and handoff

• Familiarity with CMMS or facility operations management platforms

• Experience scaling an operations function inside a high-growth or startup environment