Senior Manager, Physical Infrastructure Engineering

digitalocean98; Richmond (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

DigitalOcean seeks a Senior Manager of Physical Infrastructure Engineering to lead electrical, mechanical, and controls teams responsible for AI/GPU data centers. You will set engineering standards, guide deployments, and ensure reliability across our global footprint from Richmond, VA.

You will own vendor relationships, drive root-cause investigations, and mentor engineers while partnering with Site Operations, Deployment, and Construction to keep projects on schedule and compliant with safety

Qualifications

• 10+ years in mission-critical engineering, including data center infrastructure.
• 5+ years leading engineering teams, including hiring and retaining senior technical talent.
• Deep hands-on experience with liquid cooling systems (CDUs, heat exchangers, pumps), UPS, generators, switchgear, and controls/automation platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a multidisciplinary team covering electrical, mechanical, controls/automation, and data center infrastructure engineering.
• 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.
• 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 (e.g., CDU, UPS, generator, switchgear) and drive root-cause engagements when infrastructure fails.
• Lead root-cause analysis for infrastructure-driven incidents and own corrective actions through to verified completion.
• Own infrastructure specifications, technical documentation, and change governance—no changes at the infrastructure layer without engineering sign-off.
• Partner with Site Operations, Deployment, Construction, and Design to ensure engineering standards are practical to build and operate.
• Track and report on infrastructure reliability metrics and prioritize engineering investment against high-risk failure modes.
• Lead compliance reviews of standards against NFPA 70E and safety requirements in partnership with Legal and EHS.
• Build and maintain an audit process for site compliance and prioritize remediation of out-of-compliance assets.
• Manage outsourced engineering talent when workload requires.
• Develop engineering talent and succession plans for key technical authority roles.
• Travel: 20-30% for due diligence, commissioning support, and vendor/OEM reviews.

Education

BS in Electrical/Mechanical/Chemical Engineering

Job description

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you'll find your place here. We value winning together-while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.

We are looking for a Senior Manager of Physical Infrastructure Engineering who is passionate about the electrical, mechanical, and controls engineering that keeps leading-edge AI/GPU infrastructure running reliably at scale.

As Senior Manager of Physical Infrastructure Engineering, you will lead a multidisciplinary engineering team - electrical, mechanical, controls/automation, and infrastructure engineering and construction - responsible for the standards, specifications, and technical decisions that every new build, retrofit, and deployment across DigitalOcean's global footprint must meet. You are the technical authority for data center infrastructure: Design & Deployment executes floor layouts and installs against your team's standards; you own the standards themselves, the engineering judgment behind them, and the reliability outcomes that follow. This role reports directly to the VP of Data Center Operations & Engineering.

What You'll Do:

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 (CDU sizing, secondary loop design, leak detection), 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 (e.g., CDU, UPS, generator, and switchgear manufacturers) - drive root-cause engagements when infrastructure fails, and hold vendors accountable for design defects, not just field service.

Lead or sponsor root-cause analysis for infrastructure-driven incidents, and own the resulting engineering corrective actions through to verified completion, not just documentation.

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, not just technically correct on paper.

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 (e.g., NFPA 70E, electrical code, two-person energized work rules) 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.

Travel: Expect 20-30% travel for new-site due diligence, commissioning support, and vendor/OEM engineering reviews.

Key Metrics:

• Reduction in infrastructure-driven incidents and repeat failure modes (risk-to-reoccur trending down, not flat).
• Standardization coverage - percentage of fleet reviewed and brought into compliance with current engineering standards.
• Time-to-root-cause and time-to-corrective-action on infrastructure engineering escalations.
• Reliable engineering support of new-site expansion (due diligence turnaround time, defect-free commissioning).
• Scalability of the engineering organization relative to footprint growth.

What You'll Add to DigitalOcean:

• BS in Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, or related Engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years in mission-critical engineering, including direct experience with data center infrastructure.
• 5+ years leading engineering teams, including hiring, developing, and retaining senior technical talent.
• 5+ years experience managing outsourced engineering teams.
• Deep hands-on experience with liquid cooling systems (chillers, heat exchangers, pumps, CDUs, secondary loop design, leak detection and mitigation), UPS, generators, switchgear, and controls/automation platforms.
• Experience running or dire