Senior Critical Facilities & AI Compute Campus Lead

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 159,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Critical Facilities Manager to lead commissioning, readiness, and long-term operation of next-generation AI data center campuses in San Francisco, Seattle, and nationwide. You’ll oversee electrical, mechanical, controls, and supporting systems, driving reliability and availability through strong vendor and operations leadership.

You will collaborate with commissioning teams, site operators, and engineering to transition from construction to production, establish scalable

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience operating mission-critical facilities and data centers.
• Strong knowledge of electrical distribution systems, generators, UPS, cooling, and building controls.
• Experience supporting commissioning, operational readiness, or turnover programs.
• Led facility operations teams, contractors, and third-party vendors.
• Able to respond to incidents and make decisions under pressure.
• Experience developing maintenance strategies, SOPs, and reliability programs.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day operations of mission-critical facility infrastructure across AI compute campuses.
• Own operational readiness activities for new campus deployments and infrastructure expansion.
• Coordinate transitions from construction/startup to steady-state operations with commissioning teams.
• Develop and improve operating procedures, maintenance programs, and response plans.
• Lead incident response and coordinate recovery during critical events.
• Drive root cause analyses and implement corrective actions to improve reliability.
• Manage vendors, contractors, and service providers supporting facility operations.
• Coordinate infrastructure changes with hardware deployment, networking, and engineering teams.
• Monitor facility performance, risk, and capacity across critical systems.
• Support staffing, training, and development of facilities operations personnel.
• Ensure safety, environmental, and operational standards are met.
• Scale operational processes as infrastructure footprint grows.

Skills

Facilities operations

Electrical distribution

Cooling systems

Vendor management

Incident response

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Building controls

Job description

OpenAI is seeking a Critical Facilities Manager to lead commissioning, readiness, and long-term operation of next-generation AI data center campuses in San Francisco, Seattle, and nationwide. You’ll oversee electrical, mechanical, controls, and supporting systems, driving reliability and availability through strong vendor and operations leadership.

You will collaborate with commissioning teams, site operators, and engineering to transition from construction to production, establish scalable