Data Center Infrastructure Engineering Program Manager (Network and Whitespace)

Job description

About the Team OpenAI is building the infrastructure foundation for the next generation of AI. The Data Center Engineering team defines the strategy, reference architectures, technical requirements, and delivery standards for the large-scale data centers that support OpenAI research, products, and infrastructure partners. As a Data Center Infrastructure Engineering Program Manager, you will help turn complex infrastructure strategy into executable programs across electrical, mechanical, controls, network, hardware, construction, commissioning, deployment, and operations workstreams. You will partner with research, hardware engineering, data center engineering, site development, supply chain, security, EHS, finance, legal, operations, and external delivery partners to bring OpenAI's infrastructure vision to life. About the Role We are looking for an Engineering Program Manager (EPM) to lead assigned infrastructure programs focused on production and non-production network integration, controls coordination, and the design and deployment of data hall or whitespace facilities. The EPM will support functional Directly Responsible Individuals (DRIs) across network, controls, structural, electrical, and mechanical disciplines. Key responsibilities include coordinating assigned workstreams and program controls, maintaining risks and interfaces, and supporting readiness within the network and data hall deployment track. The ideal candidate thrives on bringing structure to complex environments characterized by ambiguous technical requirements, large partner ecosystems, tight deadlines, and high operational stakes. This individual must be adept at keeping teams aligned on decisions, risks, dependencies, schedules, and readiness criteria, and escalating gaps or decision points when needed. Candidates should have a proven track record of managing technically challenging engineering programs across major lifecycle phases, including design, validation, procurement, construction, commissioning, deployment, and operational handoff. Key Responsibilities - Translate assigned infrastructure goals into clear workstream charters, scopes, milestones, owners, decision points, success metrics, resourcing assumptions, and execution plans. - Build and maintain integrated execution plans for assigned programs covering network, controls, data hall design, whitespace deployment, commissioning preparation, and deployment readiness. - Support coordination across network, controls, structural, electrical, mechanical, hardware integration, construction, commissioning, and operations teams. - Work with third-party design teams to define design milestones from concept through detailed design, including basis-of-design development, requirements tracking, design reviews, technical comment resolution, change management, and release readiness. - Maintain the dependency map, issue log, risk register, action tracker, and decision log for assigned network and data hall workstreams. - Coordinate design and review milestones for network rooms, non-production network services, OT / IT interface points, rack deployment assumptions, telemetry interfaces, controls dependencies, and data hall deployment packages. - Track building-level network and support-space interfaces such as MPOE, MMR, Network Core, WAN, support rooms, and associated handoff points where they affect assigned programs. - Support the network and controls DRIs by organizing reviews, resolving cross-discipline gaps, surfacing decisions, and keeping partner deliverables aligned to schedule. - Manage partner and vendor deliverables such as submittals, interface packages, installation assumptions, turn-up plans, readiness evidence, field issue logs, and corrective action tracking. - Drive readiness tracking for assigned 1P, 3P, colo, and selected CSP programs, including bring-up sequencing, installation readiness, access dependencies, maintenance windows, and first-use criteria. - Prepare clear status updates, dashboards, and executive-ready summaries for the Industrial Compute lead and project stakeholders. - Capture lessons learned from deployment and handoff activities and feed them back into playbooks, standards, and interface definitions. Qualifications - Extensive experience in engineering program management, technical program management, mission-critical infrastructure delivery, data center deployment, or comparable complex execution environments, typically gained through 10+ years of relevant work or equivalent depth of experience. - Proven ability to operate within ambiguous, cross-functional engineering programs with shifting requirements, urgent timelines, and high-stakes operational risk, driving from concept through design, validation, procurement, construction, commissioning, deployment, and operations. - Proven experience coordinating cross-functional programs that include network, controls, mechanical, electrical, structural, construction, commissioning, or operations participants. - Strong technical fluency in at least several of the following areas: data hall deployment, non-production network, production network interfaces, controls coordination, telemetry, rack deployment, mission-critical support spaces, and infrastructure handoff. - Experience building and maintaining integrated schedules, dependency maps, risk registers, decision logs, readiness trackers, and partner action plans. - Experience coordinating external partners, vendors, design firms, delivery teams, or operators in a multi-party infrastructure environment. - Ability to understand complex technical tradeoffs, ask strong questions, identify hidden dependencies, and help teams move toward clear decisions without needing to be the sole technical owner. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce crisp status reporting and drive action across matrixed teams. - Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Construction Management, Operations, Business, or a related technical or quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience. Preferred Skills - Direct experience with hyperscale data centers, AI infrastructure, HPC environments, colocation, or partner-delivered data center programs. - Experience supporting high-density data hall or HAC-related design and deployment efforts. - Experience with non-production network and support-service readiness for large-scale infrastructure deployments. - Experience coordinating controls integration, network-room layouts, telemetry interfaces, rack deployment packages, or early operational handoff. - Comfort with technical documentation such as one-line diagrams, P&IDs, controls sequences, network diagrams, equipment specifications, interface control documents, telemetry schemas, test procedures, and commissioning scripts. - Familiarity with 1P, 3P, colocation, and cloud service provider delivery models and the differing owner-partner interface expectations in each. Work Environment and Travel - This role may require periodic travel to data center campuses, manufacturing partners, equipment suppliers, laboratories, construction sites, commissioning activities, and partner program reviews. - The program manager should be comfortable working across office, lab, manufacturing, construction, and operating data center environments, including environments that require PPE, safety briefings, change-control discipline, and coordination with site operations. - Work may include time-sensitive escalations during design reviews, procurement, manufacturing validation, commissioning, startup, production deployment, vendor testing, operational readiness, or operational incidents. About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. 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