Director of Data Center Construction & Engineering

Job description

**Title:** Owner’s Representative, Data Center Development & Construction (AI/HPC) **Location:** [Austin, TX area /On-Site] **Reports To:** [CTO / VP of Infrastructure] **Job Type:** Full-time **The Opportunity:** We are building the infrastructure that powers the future of Artificial Intelligence. We are seeking a seasoned Owner’s Representative to serve as the owner’s technical, commercial, and field-side advocate in the development of our flagship AI Inference Data Center, beginning with an initial ~7MW phase and expanding over time to a 50MW campus. This is not a standard colocation build, and this is not a traditional internal construction management role. This person will represent the owner’s interests from site master planning and permitting through design review, procurement, construction, commissioning, and operational handoff. The mandate of this role is straightforward: make sure the facility is designed and built correctly, economically, and to the performance standard required for high-density AI/HPC workloads. This person must be able to identify where cost is being padded, where systems are being overbuilt or underbuilt, where contractor assumptions do not match reality, and where technical or execution risk is being introduced. This facility is being designed for 100kW+ liquid-cooled racks, and direct-to-chip liquid cooling experience is strictly required. We are not looking for someone who is learning liquid cooling on our project. We need someone who already understands, in detail, how a high-density liquid-cooled data center should be designed, integrated, built, tested, and commissioned — and who can protect the owner from overpaying, overbuilding, or accepting poor execution. **Key Responsibilities:** Owner-Side Leadership & Governance - Act as the owner’s primary representative across planning, design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and turnover. - Protect the owner’s interests in scope, quality, schedule, commercial terms, and technical decision-making. - Establish owner-side reporting, decision gates, risk tracking, and project governance for a large-scale AI/HPC data center build. - Provide leadership with direct, practical recommendations on budget exposure, construction risk, schedule health, and major decision points. Strategic Planning & Design Review - Review and help shape the master plan for an initial ~7MW deployment and long-term expansion to a 50MW campus, ensuring optimal utilization of power, cooling, and space for 100kW+ liquid-cooled AI compute racks. - Serve as the owner-side authority in evaluating whether the basis of design, MEP systems, and construction approach are appropriate for high-density inference workloads. - Collaborate with compute architects, design engineers, and vendors to validate infrastructure supporting direct-to-chip liquid cooling, including facility water systems, CDUs, secondary cooling loops, heat rejection strategy, controls, redundancy, serviceability, and integration with rack-level cooling distribution. - Review redundancy strategies (N+1, 2N, etc.) to ensure reliability targets are met without unnecessary capital spend or overengineering. - Identify scope gaps, technical risks, maintainability issues, and design choices that increase cost without delivering meaningful owner value. Commercial Oversight & Cost Control - Lead the owner-side evaluation and selection of pre-fabricated / modular data center vendors, helping determine which vendor and design approach best align with the project’s cost, quality, schedule, density, and scalability requirements. - Review and challenge EPC, GC, subcontractor, OEM, and engineering proposals from an owner’s perspective. - Scrutinize budgets, GMPs, equipment pricing, change orders, contingencies, allowances, pay applications, and schedule assumptions. - Benchmark costs across major scopes including utility infrastructure, electrical distribution, mechanical plant, CDUs, liquid-cooling distribution, switchgear, generators, and commissioning. - Identify where margin leakage is occurring and where the owner may be paying for unnecessary capacity, redundancy, scope, or contractor markups. - Help ensure the project does not drift into inflated cost-per-megawatt outcomes that are inconsistent with real market value. Construction & Project Delivery - Support selection and oversight of pre-fab / modular data center vendors, EPC firms, General Contractors, specialty trades, commissioning partners, and equipment vendors. - Represent the owner in schedule reviews, construction sequencing decisions, quality reviews, and site coordination. - Drive visibility into critical path items to ensure “First Packet” deadlines are met without compromising safety, quality, or long-term operability. - Monitor procurement strategies for long-lead equipment, including generators, chillers, CDUs, pumps, heat exchangers, cooling distribution components, and switchgear. - Perform site walks and field reviews to verify that work is being installed correctly and in accordance with design intent and mission-critical standards. Power & Cooling Engineering Oversight - Oversee owner-side coordination with utility providers and ensure infrastructure planning supports ramp-up to 50MW. - Evaluate whether electrical and mechanical systems are properly designed for high-density AI/HPC deployment, including medium-voltage distribution, backup generation, cooling plant capacity, and controls integration. - Oversee implementation of advanced liquid-cooling systems required for next-generation GPUs/TPUs, with particular focus on direct-to-chip cooling architectures supporting 100kW+ racks. - Validate that the design and installation approach support performance, maintainability, leak management, commissioning readiness, and long-term operations. - Challenge designs and field execution against reliability, TCO, and efficiency targets, including PUE goals of <1.2, where applicable. Commissioning, Turnover & Operational Readiness - Oversee owner-side readiness for factory testing, pressure testing, flushing, startup, integrated systems testing, commissioning, and handoff. - Review commissioning plans and acceptance criteria for mission-critical systems, especially liquid cooling infrastructure and its interaction with the broader facility. - Ensure punch list, turnover documentation, as-builts, O&M manuals, and training are complete and aligned with operational needs. - Help ensure the facility is not just built, but built in a way that can be operated reliably on day one. Compliance & Safety - Ensure all design and construction activities comply with local building codes, environmental regulations, and safety standards, including OSHA/HSE. - Maintain owner-side visibility into safety performance, quality issues, and compliance risks throughout the project lifecycle. Qualifications Required Experience - 10+ years of experience in mission-critical data center construction, development, engineering, owner’s representation, or similar infrastructure delivery roles. - Proven experience on projects, with meaningful responsibility for owner-side oversight, major design/construction decision-making, or mission-critical project delivery. - Direct experience delivering liquid-cooled data center environments supporting 100kW+ racks is required. - Direct-to-chip liquid cooling experience is strictly required. - Demonstrated experience overseeing or materially influencing the design, build, and commissioning of high-density AI/HPC infrastructure. - Deep technical understanding of medium-voltage electrical distribution, mechanical cooling systems, hydronics, thermodynamics, and liquid-cooling integration. - Experience reviewing and challenging CAPEX budgets, contractor pricing, vendor proposals, change orders, and schedule assumptions on large-scale projects. Preferred Background - Prior experience serving specifically as an Owner’s Representative on data center projects. - Experience with greenfield and/or brownfield AI/HPC data center development. - Familiarity with next-generation GPU/TPU deployments and the infrastructure implications of very high rack densities. - Experience with utility coordination, permitting, long-lead procurement, and mission-critical commissioning programs. Education & Certifications - Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Construction Management, or a related field. - PE license, PMP, or equivalent professional credential is strongly preferred. Key Competencies - Owner Mindset: Protects capital, schedule, quality, and long-term operability with disciplined judgment. - Vendor Negotiation: Knows how to push back on GCs, EPCs, and equipment vendors and separate real cost from padded cost. - Technical Depth: Understands how high-density, direct-to-chip liquid-cooled data centers should actually work in the field. - Field Credibility: Can walk the site, review execution, and quickly identify when something is wrong, excessive, missing, or headed toward failure. - Crisis Management: Solves complex engineering and construction problems under pressure and without drama. - Cross-Functional Leadership: Can translate infrastructure realities to executive, hardware, software, and operations stakeholders. Why Join Us? Impact: Help build the physical foundation for the next generation of AI applications. Scale: Play a central role in an AI/HPC data center project beginning with an initial ~7MW deployment and expanding to a 50MW campus, with significant owner-side influence. Innovation: Work at the leading edge of high-density compute, liquid cooling, and mission-critical infrastructure. Leverage: Capture value for the owner by ensuring the project is scoped correctly, priced correctly, and executed correctly. Important Screening Note **Candidates must have direct experience with direct-to-chip liquid-cooled data center deployments supporting 100kW+ racks. Applicants whose experience is limited to traditional air-cooled data centers, lower-density environments, or theoretical liquid-cooling exposure will not be considered.**