Senior Manager, AI Data Center Infrastructure

DigitalOcean; Oregon; Hybrid; USD 157,000 - 196,000; Full time

Job summary

DigitalOcean is seeking a Senior Manager of Physical Infrastructure Engineering to lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for electrical, mechanical, and controls engineering across global data center facilities. You will own the engineering standards for AI/GPU centers, drive reliability, and guide vendor relationships and due diligence for new builds.

You will report to the VP of Data Center Operations & Engineering and play a key role in expansion, compliance, and the delivery of scalable,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related engineering field.
• 10+ years in mission-critical engineering with data center infra.
• 5+ years leading engineering teams.
• Experience overseeing outsourced engineering teams.
• Hands-on with liquid cooling, power, and controls systems.
• Strong knowledge of electrical/mechanical safety codes.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a multidisciplinary team covering electrical, mechanical, controls/automation, and data center infrastructure engineering and construction.
• Develop and own engineering standards and specifications for AI/GPU data centers, including liquid cooling, power distribution, and controls/automation.
• Serve as the technical authority and final engineering escalation point for infrastructure issues that Site Operations and Design & Deployment cannot resolve at their level.
• Provide engineering due diligence on new colocation and build-to-suit facilities before signing — power capacity, cooling topology, electrical infrastructure condition, and expansion feasibility.
• Own vendor and OEM infrastructure engineering relationships — drive root-cause engagements when infrastructure fails, and hold vendors accountable for design defects.
• Lead or sponsor root-cause analysis for infrastructure-driven incidents, and own the resulting engineering corrective actions through to verified completion.
• Own infrastructure specifications, technical documentation, and change governance — nothing changes at the infrastructure layer without engineering sign-off.
• Partner with Site Operations, Deployment, Construction, and Design organizations to ensure engineering standards are practical to build and operate.
• Track and report on infrastructure reliability metrics across the fleet, and prioritize engineering investment against the highest-risk, highest-recurrence failure modes.
• Lead compliance review of infrastructure standards against relevant codes and safety requirements in partnership with Legal and EHS.
• Build and maintain an audit process for reviewing existing sites against current engineering standards, and prioritize remediation of out-of-compliance assets.
• Manage outsourced engineering talent where required to keep up with workload.
• Develop engineering and construction talent on your team and build a succession plan for key technical authority roles.

Skills

Team leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Electrical/Mechanical aptitude

Communication

Education

BS in Electrical/Mechanical/Chemical Eng

Tools

Liquid cooling systems

UPS & generators

Switchgear & controls

NFPA 70E compliance

Job description

DigitalOcean is seeking a Senior Manager of Physical Infrastructure Engineering to lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for electrical, mechanical, and controls engineering across global data center facilities. You will own the engineering standards for AI/GPU centers, drive reliability, and guide vendor relationships and due diligence for new builds.

You will report to the VP of Data Center Operations & Engineering and play a key role in expansion, compliance, and the delivery of scalable,