Facilities Operations Manager

About the Team

OpenAI is helping build the infrastructure that powers the next generation of artificial intelligence. Through Stargate, we are developing and operating large-scale AI compute campuses that require world-class execution across data center design, construction, commissioning, and operations.

The Infrastructure Operations team is responsible for bringing AI infrastructure online and ensuring it operates reliably at scale. We partner closely with hardware, network, deployment, construction, and operations teams to deliver mission-critical environments capable of supporting frontier AI workloads. As our footprint expands, operational excellence becomes increasingly important to ensuring safe, reliable, and efficient campus operations.

About the Role

We are seeking a Facilities Operations Manager to support the commissioning, operational readiness, and long-term operation of next-generation AI data center campuses.

This role sits at the intersection of construction, commissioning, hardware deployment, and facilities operations. You will be responsible for ensuring mission-critical infrastructure is prepared to support hardware deployment, transitioned successfully into production operations, and maintained to the highest standards of reliability and availability.

You will lead day-to-day operational execution across electrical, mechanical, controls, and supporting infrastructure systems while partnering closely with commissioning teams, site operators, vendors, and engineering organizations. This role requires a strong blend of technical depth, operational leadership, and cross-functional execution.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead day-to-day operations of mission-critical facility infrastructure across AI compute campuses.

- Own operational readiness activities supporting new campus deployments and infrastructure expansion.

- Partner with commissioning teams to transition facilities from construction and startup into steady-state operations.

- Develop, implement, and continuously improve operating procedures, maintenance programs, and response plans.

- Lead infrastructure incident response efforts and coordinate recovery activities during critical events.

- Drive root cause analysis investigations and corrective action programs to improve reliability and operational performance.

- Manage vendors, contractors, and service providers supporting facility operations.

- Partner with hardware deployment, networking, and engineering teams to coordinate infrastructure changes and maintenance activities.

- Monitor facility performance, operational risk, and capacity utilization across critical systems.

- Support staffing, training, and development of facilities operations personnel.

- Ensure compliance with safety, environmental, and operational standards.

- Establish operational processes that scale alongside OpenAI's rapidly growing infrastructure footprint. (OpenAI https://openai.com/careers/facilities-operations-lead-stargate-san-francisco/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

Qualifications

- 8+ years of experience operating mission-critical facilities, data centers, industrial infrastructure, or large-scale technical operations environments.

- Possess strong knowledge of electrical distribution systems, generators, UPS systems, cooling systems, and building controls.

- Have experience supporting commissioning, operational readiness, or infrastructure turnover programs.

- Have led facility operations teams, contractors, and third-party vendors.

- Are comfortable responding to incidents and making decisions in high-pressure operational environments.

- Have experience developing maintenance strategies, operating procedures, and reliability programs.

- Enjoy operating in fast-paced environments with significant ambiguity and rapid growth.

- Communicate effectively across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Skills

- Experience supporting hyperscale, cloud, AI, HPC, or mission-critical data center environments.

- Experience with liquid cooling systems and high-density compute deployments.

- Familiarity with reliability engineering methodologies, root cause analysis, and preventative maintenance programs.

- Experience supporting large-scale infrastructure deployment programs.

- Experience working across construction, commissioning, engineering, and operations organizations.

- Experience scaling operational processes across multiple campuses or geographic regions.

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.

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