Senior Data Center Operations & Commissioning Lead

OpenAI; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 159,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Facilities Operations Lead to drive commissioning, deployment, and long-term operation of our data center campuses. You will bridge construction, hardware, and operations to ensure seamless integration of mission-critical infrastructure with deployment timelines.

Responsibilities include defining sequences of operations, overseeing installation and readiness, managing monitoring and maintenance of liquid-cooled systems, and developing on-site staffing plans to meet SLAs.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in large-scale data center facility operations, commissioning, or critical infrastructure engineering.
• Deep familiarity with liquid-cooled IT systems, CDU and in-rack/in-row manifold design, bring-up, and servicing.
• Enjoy defining and improving infrastructure processes at the intersection of construction, hardware, and operations.
• Comfortable owning infrastructure from deployment to long-term maintenance and failure recovery.
• Experience responding to field issues and managing reliability through defined operational processes.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute sequences of operations, commissioning steps, and bring-up processes for mission-critical data center facilities.
• Interface with the design and hardware teams to define deployment procedures tailored to each data center and hardware configuration.
• Oversee installation, commissioning, and operational readiness of large-scale data center campuses.
• Manage monitoring, maintenance, and quality control of the data center infrastructure, including high-performance liquid cooling systems.
• Develop on-site operations staffing strategy.
• Develop and enforce procedures for planned and unplanned downtime and SLAs for critical facility components.

Skills

Data center operations

Liquid-cooled IT systems

Infrastructure processes

Deployment to maintenance ownership

Reliability management

Tools

CDU systems

In-rack/in-row manifolds

Job description

OpenAI is seeking a Facilities Operations Lead to drive commissioning, deployment, and long-term operation of our data center campuses. You will bridge construction, hardware, and operations to ensure seamless integration of mission-critical infrastructure with deployment timelines.

Responsibilities include defining sequences of operations, overseeing installation and readiness, managing monitoring and maintenance of liquid-cooled systems, and developing on-site staffing plans to meet SLAs.