Director, Power Plant Operations - Memphis

The role

Leads the operations, maintenance, commissioning and expansion of the gas turbine power plant that supplies electrical power to the Colossus data center campus in Memphis, Tennessee. Owns reliable, high-availability power delivery and leads cross-functional teams in a 24/7 environment.

What you will do

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for the Memphis gas turbine power plant, including 24/7 operations, maintenance, commissioning and capacity expansion
• Own end-to-end delivery of electrical power to the Colossus data center sites, ensuring reliability, availability, power quality and redundancy
• Lead multidisciplinary teams of operators, technicians, engineers, contractors and support staff
• Oversee plant performance, commissioning, testing and integration with data center electrical infrastructure
• Develop and execute operations and maintenance strategies, including outage planning and OEM coordination
• Manage concurrent construction and phased capacity expansion while keeping the existing plant safe and reliable
• Ensure compliance with environmental, safety and regulatory requirements, including air permits, emissions controls, TDEC, EPA, OSHA and local authorities
• Partner with data center operations, engineering, fuel suppliers, OEMs, utilities and regulators
• Formulate and execute operating budgets, fuel management, O&M, capital projects and annual operating plans
• Serve as site leader and primary representative to the Memphis community, regulators and stakeholders

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, electrical or another engineering discipline
• 8+ years of experience in power generation operations, plant management, or industrial or aerospace operations
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing teams of operators, technicians and engineers
• Experience operating or managing gas turbine power plants (simple cycle or combined cycle)
• Ability to support operations and construction outside normal business hours, including nights, weekends and on-call
• Must be based at the Memphis, TN site
• Willingness to work extended hours to support plant reliability and construction milestones
• General physical fitness; ability to walk the plant site, access equipment and work in heat, noise and outdoor industrial environments

Nice to have

• Experience managing large-scale gas turbine facilities (100 MW+), preferably with high-availability critical power applications
• Proven track record of achieving and sustaining high plant availability, reliability and low forced outage rates
• Hands-on experience with plant construction, commissioning, start-up and concurrent operations and expansion
• Deep knowledge of gas turbine technology, performance optimization, emissions controls (SCR) and balance of plant systems
• Experience with high-voltage electrical systems, generators, switchgear, protection and industrial or data center interconnection
• Strong understanding of environmental permitting, air quality compliance and regulatory reporting for combustion turbines
• Experience managing budgets, fuel costs, contractors and complex stakeholder relationships
• Excellent oral and written communication, leadership and interpersonal skills
• Comfort with major, abrupt changes in strategic direction and aggressive timelines
• Ability to work in a demanding, autonomous, start-up atmosphere

About the company

xAI builds Super Intelligence, including the Colossus supercomputers, Grok models and applications such as Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice and X. The company is a SpaceX affiliate and is an equal opportunity employer.