Nupeople

Our client is seeking a Senior Manager, Facility Operations to lead day-to-day critical infrastructure operations at a 20 MW data center in Shakopee, Minnesota, with planned expansion to 40 MW. This leader will run a high-performing operations team today while building the staffing and operational model required to scale as capacity grows. This is a hands-on leadership role accountable for uptime, safety, and operational excellence across electrical, mechanical, and controls systems supporting high-density compute. The role will also serve as a key operational leader as the site expands.

Key Responsibilities:

Critical Facility Operations

• Own 24/7 operational readiness of all critical infrastructure: electrical distribution (switchgear, UPS, generators, PDUs), mechanical systems (CRAH/CRAC, chillers, cooling towers, and liquid/direct-to-chip cooling as applicable to high-density loads), fire/life safety, and BMS/EPMS monitoring platforms.

• Own, maintain, and continuously improve the site’s MOPs, EOPs, and SOPs, including MOP review and approval.

• Own site incident command, including emergency-response activation, resource coordination, escalation, communications, service restoration, and return to normal operations. • Drive root cause analysis and corrective action on incidents or near-misses; own postmortems and track remediation to closure.

• Manage preventive and predictive maintenance programs to maximize equipment reliability and minimize unplanned downtime. Team & Staffing Model

• Build and manage a lean, cross-trained operations team (facility engineers and technicians) sized appropriately for a 20 MW site, with a clear plan to scale staffing, shift coverage, and skill sets as the site expands to 40 MW.

• Define staffing ratios, shift structures, and on-call coverage models that balance cost efficiency with uptime risk.

• Recruit, develop, and retain technical talent; identify cross-training opportunities to reduce reliance on specialized outside vendors where practical.

• Manage relationships with subcontractors, vendors, and Critical Facility Managers (CFMs)/staffing partners as needed to supplement core staff; include vendor qualification, scope-of-work compliance, contract performance, service quality, and accountability. Capacity Expansion (20 MW to 40 MW)

• Serve as the operations stakeholder in expansion planning - partner with Design, Construction, and Commissioning teams to ensure new capacity is integrated without disrupting live production load.

• Support integrated systems testing (IST) and commissioning of new electrical/mechanical infrastructure.

• Update staffing plans, spares strategy, and maintenance programs to reflect the expanded footprint.

• Own operational readiness and acceptance for construction and commissioning, including test witnessing, sequence validation, and turnover documentation.

Safety & Compliance

• Serve as the site safety leader by championing a safety-first culture that protects people and assets, reinforces safe-work practices, and empowers individuals to stop work that is unsafe, inadequately planned, or presents unacceptable operational risk; ensure compliance with OSHA, NFPA 70E, and site-specific electrical safety programs.

• Maintain compliance with local Shakopee/Minnesota code requirements, environmental permits, and utility interconnection agreements tied to load growth. Systems & Compliance

• Own CMMS governance, maintenance-calendar compliance, program auditing, and verification that preventive and corrective maintenance is completed to established standards. Reporting & Stakeholder Management

• Own site-level KPIs: uptime/availability, PUE, MTTR/MTBF, PM completion rate, and safety metrics.

• Provide regular operational reporting to regional and corporate leadership.

• Manage the site OpEx budget, including labor, spares, contracts, and utilities; manage annual budgeting, forecasting, variance reporting, capital planning, and development of business cases for operational improvements.

• Lead and participate in Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs) and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), including presenting site performance, operational risks, financial results, action items, and improvement initiatives.

• Serve as the primary facility-operations interface among the site team, remote operations, Construction, Commissioning, Reliability, Cloud, Compute, and Hardware organizations.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years managing operations in a data center environment, including direct responsibility for critical infrastructure (electrical and mechanical systems).

• Demonstrated experience building, right-sizing, or optimizing a lean staffing model - including shift design, cross-training, and vendor/staff balance.

• Strong working knowledge of electrical distribution and mechanical cooling systems typical of enterprise, hyperscale, or colocation data centers.

• Experience managing teams (direct reports and/or contracted staff) in a 24/7 operational environment.

• Working knowledge of BMS/EPMS/DCIM monitoring platforms.

• Familiarity with NFPA 70E, OSHA, and industry-standard safety programs.

• Strong incident management and root-cause-analysis discipline.

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Facilities Management, or equivalent experience.