Lead Principal Field Systems Engineer

Oracle Corporation; Nashville (TN); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Oracle Corporation is seeking a Field Systems Engineer to improve deployment readiness, commissioning, and production handoff across complex environments. You will partner with Delivery, Engineering, Networking, and Operations to establish ground truth, identify systemic misses, and implement durable improvements across regions and programs.

The ideal candidate brings strong field execution instincts, operational discipline, and a proven ability to translate field learnings into scalable

Qualifications

• 7+ years in operational excellence, field engineering, deployment execution, or similar complex environments.
• Proven ability to operate hands-on in ambiguous, high-tempo settings.
• Experience driving cross-functional initiatives across teams, vendors, customers, or partners.
• Strong communication skills with concise executive-level updates.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Delivery as a hands-on technical and operational counterpart.
• Establish ground truth when readiness issues are unclear.
• Identify recurring deployment pain points across site readiness, hardware, networking, and handoff.
• Translate pain points into clear requirements and playbook updates.
• Build readiness gates and go/no-go criteria for production readiness.
• Close the loop on recurring issues with systemic fixes.
• Travel to deployment sites as needed (25–50%).

Skills

Operational excellence

Field engineering

Cross-functional collaboration

Systems thinking

Data-driven

Executive communications

Influence without authority

Bachelor's degree

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related

Job description

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is building the next generation of cloud and AI infrastructure at global scale. As demand for GPU capacity, cloud regions, and strategic infrastructure delivery continues to grow, OCI needs hands-on systems thinkers who can operate close to the field, understand where deployment execution is breaking down, and help turn recurring friction into durable improvements. The Field Systems Engineer is a senior individual contributor role focused on improving deployment readiness, commissioning, and production handoff across complex technical and operational environments. This person will partner closely with Delivery, Engineering, Networking, Data Center Operations, Construction, Supply Chain, Finance, and other cross-functional teams to establish ground truth, identify systemic misses, and close the loop so OCI is not solving the same deployment problems repeatedly. The ideal candidate does not necessarily need direct GPU or cloud infrastructure experience, but must bring strong field execution instincts, technical curiosity, operational discipline, and the ability to dive deep into ambiguous problems and drive practical, scalable solutions.

Internal Responsibilities

What You'll Do

• Partner with Delivery org as a hands-on technical and operational counterpart while Delivery continues to own end-to-end execution.

• Establish ground truth when readiness, commissioning, or handoff issues are unclear or not reflected in status reporting.

• Identify recurring deployment pain points across site readiness, hardware, networking, cabling, power/cooling, validation, commissioning, and operational handoff.

• Translate Delivery pain points into clear requirements, process fixes, escalation paths, or playbook updates for the right vertical owners.

• Build readiness gates, go/no-go criteria, validation mechanisms, and handoff standards that improve the path from planned capacity to production-ready capacity.

• Close the loop on recurring issues by driving systemic fixes back into process and preventing repeat problems across regions, metros, and programs.

• Convert field learnings into repeatable mechanisms, operating rhythms, dashboards, executive narratives, and deployment-readiness improvements.

• Travel to deployment sites and partner locations as needed.

Responsibilities

• Turn ambiguity into structure in complex environments with unclear ownership and shifting priorities.

• Apply systems thinking across people, process, data, tools, technical dependencies, and organizational handoffs.

• Separate signal from noise and identify what requires escalation, intervention, or executive decision-making.

• Use data, field observations, and stakeholder input to clarify problems, test assumptions, and guide decisions.

• Communicate clearly with executive, technical, and field stakeholders without losing nuance or credibility.

• Influence cross-functional teams through facts, clarity, urgency, and trust rather than formal authority.

• Improve execution without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.

• Remain resilient in high-pressure delivery environments where decisions must be made with imperfect information.

• Travel approximately 25-50% based on deployment needs and business priorities.

What Success Looks Like

• Delivery teams have stronger visibility into recurring pain points, systemic blockers, readiness gaps, and handoff risks that affect deployment execution.

• Critical GPU and cloud infrastructure initiatives have clearer readiness gates, go/no-go criteria, risk signals, ownership paths, and decision mechanisms.

• Deployment blockers are identified earlier, understood more accurately, and converted into durable process or playbook improvements.

• Field learnings are consistently translated into actionable requirements for Engineering, Networking, Construction, Operations, Supply Chain, tooling, or other vertical owners.

• Executive stakeholders have a clearer, more accurate view of deployment health, blocked capacity, commissioning risk, customer impact, and decisions required.

• Operational handoffs between planning, Delivery, Engineering, deployment teams, and site operations become cleaner, more accountable, and more repeatable.

• OCI improves deployment predictability, reduces avoidable slippage, and strengthens readiness for high-priority AI and cloud infrastructure programs.

• The mechanisms you build continue to create value beyond a single escalation, launch, region, customer commitment, or executive review cycle.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in operational excellence, field engineering, deployment execution, technical program management, systems/process transformation, business operations, or similarly complex execution environments.

• Proven track record operating hands-on in ambiguous, high-tempo environments.

• Experience driving cross-functional initiatives across teams, stakeholders, vendors, customers, or partner organizations.

• Experience identifying systemic issues, building repeatable mechanisms, and improving measurable outcomes.

• Strong analytical capability using metrics, dashboards, spreadsheets, workflow tools, reporting systems, or other data sources.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including concise executive-level updates and recommendations.

• Ability to influence teams and senior stakeholders without direct authority.

• High ownership, practical problem-solving ability, and a track record of getting difficult things done.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Operations, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in hyperscale cloud, data center infrastructure, AI infrastructure, enterprise technology, telecommunications, semiconductor, manufacturing, aviation, energy, industrial projects, logistics, construction, or another complex technical delivery environment.

• Familiarity with infrastructure deployment, field engineering, site readiness, commissioning, validation, production handoff, or customer/site implementation.

• Understanding of physical infrastructure fundamentals, including power, cooling, rack deployment, cabling, site readiness, network readiness, and commissioning workflows.

• Experience with GPU/AI infrastructure delivery, high-density infrastructure, network fabric readiness, hardware deployment dependencies, or large-scale cloud capacity programs.

• Experience building readiness frameworks, go/no-go criteria, operating playbooks, deployment dashboards, executive reporting, or closed-loop process-improvement mechanisms.

External Responsibilities

What You'll Do

• Partner with Delivery org as a hands-on technical and operational counterpart while Delivery continues to own end-to-end execution.

• Establish ground truth when readiness, commissioning, or handoff issues are unclear or not reflected in status reporting.

• Identify recurring deployment pain points across site readiness, hardware, networking, cabling, power/cooling, validation, commissioning, and operational handoff.

• Translate Delivery pain points into clear requirements, process fixes, escalation paths, or playbook updates for the right vertical owners.

• Build readiness gates, go/no-go criteria, validation mechanisms, and handoff standards that improve the path from planned capacity to production-ready capacity.

• Close the loop on recurring issues by driving systemic fixes back into process and preventing repeat problems across regions, metros, and programs.

• Convert field learnings into repeatable mechanisms, operating rhythms, dashboards, executive narratives, and deployment-readiness improvements.

• Travel to deployment sites and partner locations as needed.

Responsibilities

• Turn ambiguity into structure in complex environments with unclear ownership and shifting priorities.

• Apply systems thinking across people, process, data, tools, technical dependencies, and organizational handoffs.

• Separate signal from noise and identify what requires escalation, intervention, or executive decision-making.

• Use data, field observations, and stakeholder input to clarify problems, test assumptions, and guide decisions.

• Communicate clearly with executive, technical, and field stakeholders without losing nuance or credibility.

• Influence cross-functional teams through facts, clarity, urgency, and trust rather than formal authority.

• Improve execution without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.

• Remain resilient in high-pressure delivery environments where decisions must be made with imperfect information.

• Travel approximately 25-50% based on deployment needs and business priorities.

What Success Looks Like

• Delivery teams have stronger visibility into recurring pain points, systemic blockers, readiness gaps, and handoff risks that affect deployment execution.

• Critical GPU and cloud infrastructure initiatives have clearer readiness gates, go/no-go criteria, risk signals, ownership paths, and decision mechanisms.

• Deployment blockers are identified earlier, understood more accurately, and converted into durable process or playbook improvements.

• Field learnings are consistently translated into actionable requirements for Engineering, Networking, Construction, Operations, Supply Chain, tooling, or other vertical owners.

• Executive stakeholders have a clearer, more accurate view of deployment health, blocked capacity, commissioning risk, customer impact, and decisions required.

• Operational handoffs between planning, Delivery, Engineering, deployment teams, and site operations become cleaner, more accountable, and more repeatable.

• OCI improves deployment predictability, reduces avoidable slippage, and strengthens readiness for high-priority AI and cloud infrastructure programs.

• The mechanisms you build continue to create value beyond a single escalation, launch, region, customer commitment, or executive review cycle.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in operational excellence, field engineering, deployment execution, technical program management, systems/process transformation, business operations, or similarly complex execution environments.

• Proven track record operating hands-on in ambiguous, high-tempo environments.

• Experience driving cross-functional initiatives across teams, stakeholders, vendors, customers, or partner organizations.

• Experience identifying systemic issues, building repeatable mechanisms, and improving measurable outcomes.

• Strong analytical capability using metrics, dashboards, spreadsheets, workflow tools, reporting systems, or other data sources.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including concise executive-level updates and recommendations.

• Ability to influence teams and senior stakeholders without direct authority.

• High ownership, practical problem-solving ability, and a track record of getting difficult things done.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Operations, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in hyperscale cloud, data center infrastructure, AI infrastructure, enterprise technology, telecommunications, semiconductor, manufacturing, aviation, energy, industrial projects, logistics, construction, or another complex technical delivery environment.

• Familiarity with infrastructure deployment, field engineering, site readiness, commissioning, validation, production handoff, or customer/site implementation.

• Understanding of physical infrastructure fundamentals, including power, cooling, rack deployment, cabling, site readiness, network readiness, and commissioning workflows.

• Experience with GPU/AI infrastructure delivery, high-density infrastructure, network fabric readiness, hardware deployment dependencies, or large-scale cloud capacity programs.

• Experience building readiness frameworks, go/no-go criteria, operating playbooks, deployment dashboards, executive reporting, or closed-loop process-improvement mechanisms.