Director of Data Center Construction & Engineering

About the role

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.

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.
• 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 correct

Benefits

Additional Information

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

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Company Intel

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