HPDF Building Infrastructure Manager

Jefferson Lab; Newport News (VA); On-site; USD 118,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision Plans

401(k) Plan – Lab Contribution

Flexible Work Arrangements

Paid Time Off and Leave Programs

Job summary

Jefferson Lab seeks a highly experienced HPDF Building Infrastructure Manager to lead the operation of a multi-megawatt data center involved in high-density computing. You will guide design reviews, construction, commissioning, and later day‑to‑day operations, ensuring reliability and safety.

You will manage a team, coordinate with Facilities & Operations, architects, and commissioning authorities, while upholding NFPA 70/70E safety practices and energy reporting requirements.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of building, upgrading, or operating large-scale computing or mission-critical facilities.
• Experience leading complex facility projects through design, construction and commissioning.
• Building management and automation with BACnet or similar protocols, plus telemetry/metering.
• Experience with liquid cooling for high-density computing, including liquid cooling equipment and water quality management.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day operation of the data center infrastructure, ensuring reliability, uptime, and safe operation of power distribution and cooling.
• Supervise and develop the data center operations staff, plan workload, and manage cost and manpower.
• Maintain maintenance strategy, procedures, contingency plans, sparing, and multi-year projections; manage spares and coordinate upgrades.
• Serve as subject matter expert for data center power and liquid cooling systems, including UPS, busways, sub-metering, and cooling loops.

Skills

Power distribution

Cooling systems

Facility telemetry

Vendor management

Safety compliance

Analytical thinking

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering

Master's Degree in Engineering (Mechanical or Electrical)

Tools

BACnet systems

Controls programming

Building management software

Job description

At Jefferson Lab, you’ll champion cutting-edge science and operational excellence while shaping the future of discovery. Join us and make your mark – where excellence meets purpose, and great mindstruly matter.

The good-faith pay range for this role is $118,400 - $169,850 per year. Actual compensation may vary and may be above the posted range based on factors such as a candidate's skills, experience, education, certifications, and work location.

What Your Job Will Be Like

As HPDF Building Infrastructure Manager you will take a multi-megawatt, liquid-cooled data center from a set of drawings to a running facility, and then run it. During the fit-out project you are the HPDF-side building infrastructure engineer: the technical owner of power and cooling scope through design reviews, construction, and commissioning, working daily with Jefferson Lab Facilities and Operations, the architect/engineer, the commissioning authority, and the HPDF team. As the facility approaches operational readiness the role turns toward operations, and you will build and then lead the team responsible for the day-to-day reliability of the data center's electrical and mechanical infrastructure. HPDF is a new DOE Office of Science user facility being established jointly at Jefferson Lab and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the systems in this building exist to support world‑class scientific computing.

In This Job You Will

• Own day-to-day operation of the data center's multi-megawatt electrical and mechanical infrastructure, with responsibility for the reliability, uptime, and safe operation of power distribution, cooling, and leak detection systems.
• Supervise the building infrastructure operations staff: assign and review work, set expectations, give regular feedback, support technical growth, and estimate the cost and manpower required for the efforts assigned to the group.
• Maintain and execute the maintenance strategy, operational procedures, contingency plans, sparing plans, and multi-year facility projections; manage spares, direct subcontractors, and coordinate upgrades while minimizing downtime.
• Serve as subject matter expert for data center power and liquid cooling: UPS and power distribution, busway, sub‑metering, medium-temperature chilled water, warm‑water process cooling, coolant distribution units, and leak detection.
• Represent HPDF building infrastructure requirements in design review, construction oversight, and commissioning for facility projects, working with Facilities and Operations, the architect/engineer, and the commissioning authority.
• Foster a safe, innovative, and policy‑compliant work environment under Jefferson Lab ESH&Q requirements and applicable DOE orders, including electrical safety practice under NFPA 70 and 70E and lockout/tagout discipline.
• Operate and extend the facility telemetry and building management system integration that feeds HPDF observability, energy metrics including PUE and WUE, and the facility's external reporting obligations.
• Collaborate with HPDF systems teams on the deployment and retirement of compute, storage, and network equipment, including support for installation, cabling, deliveries, and minor hardware repairs.

Additional Responsibilities

• Responds to facility conditions and incidents outside of normal business hours as required. Performs work during scheduled maintenance windows. Perform other duties as assigned.

Lead - Supervisory - Management

• Supervises the building infrastructure operations staff: assigns and reviews work, sets expectations, gives feedback, and participates in hiring. No direct reports during fit‑out; supervision begins at operational readiness.

Experience

• Required: 10 or more years Building, upgrading, or operating large‑scale computing or comparable mission‑critical facilities.
• Required: Carrying complex facility projects through design, construction, and commissioning.
• Required: Building management and automation experience (BACnet or comparable open protocols, with controls programming in at least one environment) and familiarity with facility telemetry and metering.
• Required: Demonstrated experience with liquid cooling for high‑density computing, including direct liquid cooling, coolant distribution units, and water quality and loop management.
• Preferred: Commissioning or operating warm‑water‑cooled HPC facilities.
• Preferred: ASHRAE TC 9.9 thermal guidelines and datacom liquid‑cooling practice.
• Preferred: DOE O 413.3B project execution and earned‑value environments.
• Preferred: Data center energy efficiency, including economizer and free‑cooling strategies.
• Preferred: PUE and WUE instrumentation and reporting, and LEED.
• Preferred: Access‑floor data center environments.

Education

• Required: Bachelor's Degree Engineering
• Preferred: Master's Degree Engineering, mechanical or electrical discipline

Experience And Education Exchange

Education above the minimum may be substituted for experience. Relevant experience may not be substituted for education.

Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• In-depth understanding of complex mechanical and electrical building systems, including UPS and power distribution, busway, chilled water, and HVAC controls, and of how those systems interact under load and under fault.
• Ability to direct vendors, contractors, and commissioning agents using standard project management methods, including budget and manpower estimating.
• Working knowledge of NFPA 70 and 70E and of OSHA requirements in construction and general industry, with a demonstrated commitment to electrical safety and lockout/tagout practice.
• Excellent interpersonal and written communication, and the ability to work across a multi‑institution partnership spanning HPDF, Facilities and Operations, DOE, the architect/engineer, and contractors.
• Ability to represent facility requirements in formal design reviews and to argue a technical position persuasively with architects, engineers, and vendors.
• Ability to lead and develop technical staff: setting expectations, assigning work, giving constructive feedback, and addressing performance issues in a constructive manner.
• Ability to plan maintenance, manage spares, and produce multi‑year facility projections for a facility that must stay available while it is being changed.
• Basic psychrometrics.
• Interest in applying analytics or machine learning to data center operations.

About Jefferson Lab

Join a community with a common purpose of solving the most challenging scientific and engineering problems of our time. The Jefferson Lab campus is located in southeastern Virginia amidst a vibrant and growing technology community.

A career at Jefferson Lab is more than a job. You will be part of “big science” and work alongside top scientists and engineers from around the world unlocking the secrets of our visible universe. Managed by SURATech, LLC, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility is entering an exciting period of mission growth and is seeking new team members ready to apply their skills and passion to have an impact. You could call it work, or you could call it a mission. We call it a challenge. We do things that will change the world.

Total Rewards at Jefferson Lab

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Care Plans
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Paid Time‑off and Leave Programs (Paid Parental, vacation, holidays, and sick leave)
• 401(k) Plan – 9% Lab Contribution; 100% vested
• Flexible Work Arrangements

(Remote & Alternate Work Schedules available)

• Tuition Assistance, Training and Professional Development Programs
• Live near the waterways of the Chesapeake Bay region with access to nearby beaches,

mountains, and all major metropolitan centers on the East Coast

SURATech, LLC manages and operates the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). SURATech is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

SURATech is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities (unless doing so will result in an undue hardship). If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please send an e‑mail to [e-mail] or contact Human Resources by calling [phone] and selecting option 1 between 8 am – 5 pm EST to provide the nature of your request.

Employment with SURATech is conditional upon DOE approval if at any time during your employment you are participating in a Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Program or Affiliated activity. Generally, such programs/activities include any foreign‑state‑sponsored attempt to acquire U.S.-funded scientific research through programs run or funded by the government that target scientists, engineers, students, academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs of all nationalities working or educated in the United States. This includes positions or appointments, both domestic and foreign, titled academic, professional, or institutional appointments whether or not remuneration is received and whether full‑time, part‑time or voluntary.