Commissioning Project Lead, Data Center Delivery

The role

You will own the commissioning strategy and execution for a large-scale, self-build data center project. You will lead the commissioning program from construction planning through startup, testing, and final turnover.

What you will do

• Own the project commissioning strategy and execution plan.
• Lead the hybrid OpenAI and commissioning-partner delivery model.
• Integrate commissioning into the master project schedule.
• Lead commissioning coordination across multiple stakeholders and teams.
• Drive multidisciplinary commissioning readiness across electrical, mechanical, and controls infrastructure.
• Own visibility into commissioning risks and schedule constraints.
• Coordinate QA/QC inspections and test execution.
• Review commissioning plans, test procedures, and deliverables.
• Provide project and executive reporting on readiness and progress.
• Drive final system acceptance and turnover readiness.

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in commissioning, construction, engineering, technical program management, or project delivery for mission-critical facilities or similarly complex technical infrastructure.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary commissioning programs through construction readiness, startup, functional performance testing, integrated systems testing, and turnover.
• Strong working knowledge of electrical and mechanical commissioning workflows.
• Experience integrating commissioning activities into construction schedules, energization plans, and turnover milestones.
• Strong owner, contractor, equipment vendor, and commissioning-agent management skills.
• Experience managing commissioning documentation, test procedures, and quality governance.
• Ability to identify commissioning and operational-readiness risks early.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Nice to have

• Owner-side commissioning experience
• Experience establishing or scaling hybrid owner/vendor commissioning delivery models
• PE license
• QCxP
• CxA
• BCxP
• CCP
• PMP
• Other relevant commissioning, engineering, construction, or project management certification

About the company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The Industrial Compute organization builds the infrastructure required to support the next generation of frontier AI systems.