Technical Programs Manager Jobs in Houston, TX (NOW HIRING)

Houston, USA

Technical Program Manager — Data Center Delivery (Houston, TX - USA)

Location: Houston, TX

Type of Contract: Full Time / Permanent

Travel Requirements: 50%

About Submer

Submer designs and delivers end-to-end AI datacenter infrastructure built around industry-leading liquid cooling.

We help organizations scale AI beyond the limits of traditional datacenters by enabling higher density, greater efficiency and lower environmental impact – accelerating time-to-AI from first deployment to full production

What impact you will have

We are seeking a customer- and partner-facing Technical Program Manager (TPM) to lead the delivery of modular and traditional data center infrastructure programs from solution definition through commissioning and customer handover. This role coordinates internal engineering, construction, manufacturing, supply-chain, field-services, and operations teams with customers, general contractors, equipment vendors, utilities, and technology partners.

The ideal candidate combines strong data center infrastructure knowledge with disciplined program leadership, commercial awareness, and the ability to communicate clearly with executive stakeholders and technical teams.

What you’ll do

Customer and partner leadership

• Serve as the primary technical program interface for customers, channel partners, consultants, general contractors, OEMs, and key subcontractors throughout the project lifecycle.
• Lead customer discovery, technical requirements definition, design reviews, site-readiness discussions, milestone reporting, risk reviews, and acceptance planning.
• Translate customer business requirements, IT loads, growth forecasts, resilience objectives, and deployment schedules into actionable delivery requirements.
• Coordinate with partners including electrical and mechanical equipment providers, modular-system manufacturers, network/IT vendors, commissioning agents, utilities, permitting authorities, and construction firms.
• Present program status, decisions, risks, schedule impacts, and recovery plans to customer executives and internal leadership.
• Establish clear ownership, governance, escalation paths, communications cadence, and decision logs across multi-party programs.
• Lead end-to-end delivery of modular, prefabricated, containerized, edge, and conventional brick-and-mortar data center projects.
• Develop and manage integrated program plans covering scope, schedule, budget, engineering deliverables, procurement, factory acceptance testing, logistics, construction, commissioning, and turnover.
• Define and maintain technical requirements for capacity, redundancy, availability, maintainability, security, monitoring, network connectivity, and operational readiness.
• Coordinate technical design decisions across power, cooling, controls, civil, structural, fire/life safety, physical security, network, and IT infrastructure disciplines.
• Ensure alignment between customer IT deployment plans and facility readiness, including rack layouts, power density, cooling strategy, cable pathways, network demarcation, staging, and installation sequencing.
• Drive change control, documenting requirements changes, design impacts, cost and schedule implications, risks, and approvals.

Construction oversight and fit-out coordination

• Coordinate site due diligence, site-readiness assessments, utility-service requirements, permitting dependencies, civil works, building shell readiness, and physical-security requirements.
• Oversee construction and infrastructure fit-out activities in partnership with general contractors, construction managers, field engineers, and trade contractors.
• Coordinate installation and integration of critical infrastructure, including:
• Utility interconnection, medium-voltage distribution, switchgear, transformers, UPS systems, generators, ATS/STS equipment, PDUs/RPPs, busway, and rack power.
• Chillers, cooling towers, dry coolers, pumps, CDUs, liquid-cooling loops, CRAH/CRAC systems, containment, and associated controls.
• Fire detection and suppression, BMS/DCIM/EPMS, leak detection, access control, surveillance, structured cabling, and carrier/network connectivity.
• White-space fit-out, racks, containment, cable tray, grounding/bonding, lighting, equipment clearances, and labeling.
• Validate that construction sequencing, installation methods, material deliveries, and site conditions support the program schedule and equipment requirements.
• Conduct regular site reviews to identify quality, safety, schedule, scope, integration, and commissioning risks; drive corrective-action plans where needed.
• Coordinate factory acceptance tests, site acceptance tests, integrated systems testing, commissioning, punch-list closure, customer acceptance, and final turnover documentation.

Modular and prefabricated systems

• Lead coordination between modular manufacturing, site preparation, transportation, craning/setting, interconnection, and commissioning workstreams.
• Ensure factory-built modules meet approved design specifications, quality standards, shipping constraints, site-access limitations, and field-integration requirements.
• Manage interface requirements between modules and site infrastructure, including electrical tie-ins, cooling loops, controls, network connectivity, fire/life-safety systems, and structural/civil interfaces.
• Identify opportunities to reduce deployment time, risk, and field labor through standardization, prefabrication, repeatable design, and off-site integration.

Governance, risk, and financial management

• Maintain program RAID logs, action registers, decision logs, critical-path schedules, milestone dashboards, and executive reporting.
• Identify technical and delivery risks early, including long-lead equipment exposure, utility constraints, permitting delays, site-access limitations, construction dependencies, and design-interface gaps.
• Partner with finance, procurement, engineering, and construction teams to manage budgets, forecasts, purchase dependencies, contingency usage, and cost-to-complete.
• Support contract-scope reviews, statements of work, technical exhibits, acceptance criteria, and partner obligations.
• Champion quality, environmental health and safety, security, and compliance requirements across all program phases.

What you’ll need

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, architecture, information technology, or a related discipline; equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
• 7+ years of technical program, project, engineering, construction, commissioning, or data center delivery experience.
• Demonstrated experience delivering critical infrastructure projects in one or more of the following environments: colocation, hyperscale, enterprise data center, edge/modular data center, telecommunications, industrial power, or mission-critical facilities.
• Working technical knowledge of data center electrical and mechanical infrastructure, including power distribution, backup power, cooling systems, controls, monitoring, and white-space fit-out.
• Experience coordinating general contractors, subcontractors, OEMs, equipment suppliers, commissioning providers, and customer technical teams.
• Strong understanding of project controls, critical-path scheduling, dependency management, risk management, change control, and executive-level reporting.
• Ability to interpret technical drawings and specifications, including single-line diagrams, floor plans, rack elevations, mechanical piping diagrams, equipment schedules, and control/interface documentation.
• Proven customer-facing communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical tradeoffs to business and executive stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites, manufacturing facilities, construction locations, and partner meetings as required.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with prefabricated, containerized, modular, or skid-based data center systems.
• Experience supporting high-density AI/HPC deployments, including liquid cooling, CDUs, high-voltage power distribution, high-density rack design, and accelerated-computing infrastructure.
• Familiarity with Uptime Institute Tier concepts, ANSI/TIA-942, NFPA requirements, ASHRAE thermal guidance, NEC, and relevant local building and electrical codes.
• Knowledge of BMS, DCIM, EPMS, SCADA, remote monitoring, and facilities-management integrations.
• PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP, LEED, CDCDP, DCDC, or comparable program/project or data center certification.
• Experience with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Primavera P6, Jira, Monday.com, or similar planning and program-management tools.
• Experience in a fast-growth, productized infrastructure, manufacturing, or multi-site deployment environment.

Core competencies

• Customer-centered technical leadership.
• Cross-functional program execution.
• Construction and commissioning coordination.
• Critical-infrastructure systems thinking.
• Commercial and contractual awareness.
• Clear escalation and stakeholder management.
• Structured problem solving under schedule pressure.
• High ownership, attention to detail, and operational discipline.

Success measures

Success in this role will be measured by safe, on-time, and on-budget delivery of customer programs; adherence to approved technical requirements; successful commissioning and acceptance; effective management of partners and construction interfaces; high customer satisfaction; and reduced deployment risk through standardized, repeatable delivery practices.

What we offer

• Attractive compensation package reflecting your expertise and experience.
• Medical Insurance Plan.
• A great work environment characterized by friendliness, international diversity, flexibility, and a hybrid-friendly approach.
• You´ll be part of a fast-growing scale-up with a mission to make a positive impact, offering an exciting career evolution.

Our job titles may span more than one job level. The actual base pay is dependent on a number of factors, such as transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands.

Our inclusive responsibility

Submer is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected category under applicable law.