Senior Manager, Data Center Commissioning & Validation
Employer not yet confirmed · Nashville, Tennessee, United States
As Senior Commissioning Validation Manager, you will lead commissioning validation governance for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure data center delivery programs, ensuring critical electrical, mechanical, controls, life-safety, and supporting infrastructure systems are tested, validated, documented, and accepted before operational turnover. This role provides site- and program-level leadership across commissioning readiness, test execution oversight, issue resolution, and acceptance quality for new builds, expansions, retrofits, and high-priority capacity programs.
You will serve as a senior people leader within the Data Center Commissioning organization, partnering with Construction, Engineering, Site Deployment, Facilities Operations, Reliability, Security, Network, Supply Chain, and third-party commissioning agents to drive predictable, safe, and auditable commissioning outcomes. The role requires deep mission-critical infrastructure judgment, strong field execution discipline, and the ability to lead managers, engineers, vendors, and cross-functional stakeholders through complex commissioning milestones.
This is not a purely administrative project management role. It is a technical commissioning leadership role responsible for ensuring installed systems perform as designed, commissioning evidence is complete, risks are surfaced early, and operational teams receive facilities that are ready to run without latent defects or unresolved acceptance risk.
Responsibilities
- Lead commissioning validation execution across assigned data center sites, campuses, regions, or major capacity programs, with accountability for readiness, test governance, quality, safety, and operational acceptance.
- Own commissioning validation standards for L1-L5 activities, including factory witness testing, pre-functional checks, functional performance testing, integrated systems testing, failure-mode validation, sequence-of-operations verification, and turnover documentation.
- Provide technical and management oversight of internal commissioning teams, commissioning agents, general contractors, trade partners, equipment vendors, and other third-party service providers.
- Partner with Engineering and Construction teams to review design intent, submittals, commissioning plans, method statements, test scripts, acceptance criteria, and system readiness before field execution.
- Ensure commissioning activities validate critical MEP and controls systems, including medium- and low-voltage power distribution, generators, UPS systems, switchgear, HVAC, chilled water systems, pumps, BMS, EPMS, SCADA/DCIM interfaces, fire/life-safety systems, and supporting infrastructure.
- Drive commissioning schedule integration with construction completion, site readiness, network deployment, rack energization, operations staffing, CMMS activation, and customer capacity milestones.
- Identify commissioning risks, blockers, failed test conditions, recurring deficiencies, documentation gaps, and acceptance issues; drive clear ownership, escalation, root-cause analysis, corrective action, and closure discipline.
- Establish portfolio-level reporting for commissioning progress, defect aging, test completion, system readiness, vendor performance, safety observations, punch-list health, and operational turnover risk.
- Ensure commissioning deliverables meet OCI standards for safety, quality, operability, maintainability, security, compliance, and long-term operations supportability.
- Lead continuous improvement of commissioning playbooks, validation templates, test-script quality, lessons learned, vendor scorecards, and readiness gates across the data center delivery lifecycle.
- Develop and coach commissioning managers and senior technical contributors, building capability, accountability, and consistent execution practices across the organization.
- Represent commissioning status, risk, and acceptance recommendations to senior leaders, ensuring executive communications are clear, evidence-based, and tied to business-critical capacity delivery decisions.
Skills and Competencies
- Senior-level leadership of data center commissioning programs. Strong field judgment with the ability to challenge incomplete evidence, weak test scripts, premature acceptance, and unresolved commissioning risk before turnover.
Ability to translate data center commissioning findings into clear business, schedule, safety, reliability, and operational-risk recommendations.
- Strong stakeholder management across data center commissioning engineering, construction, operations, deployment, network, safety, security, vendors, and executive leadership.
- Written and verbal communication skills, including concise commissioning reporting, executive escalation, issue framing, and action tracking.
- High attention to detail in data center commissioning documentation, evidence review, punch-list closure, readiness certification, and turnover package quality.
- Bias for structured execution, accountability, repeatable commissioning mechanisms, and continuous improvement across multiple data center sites or programs.
- Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, high-visibility data center commissioning environments where capacity delivery, uptime, safety, quality, and compliance are critical.
Preferred Candidate Profile
- 5-7+ years of data center commissioning experience.
- 5+ years leading commissioning teams, contractors, or commissioning partners on large-scale, schedule-driven data center projects.
- Deep experience with data center commissioning workflows, including pre-functional testing, functional testing, integrated systems testing, factory witness testing, site acceptance testing, failure-mode validation, and operational turnover.
- Strong technical command of the electrical, mechanical, controls, and life-safety systems commissioned in high-availability data centers.
- Demonstrated ability to manage data center commissioning schedules, cross-functional dependencies, vendor performance, field quality, issue resolution, and executive-level risk communication.
- Experience building and improving data center commissioning standards, test scripts, readiness gates, acceptance packages, operating rhythms, and performance reporting.
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering OR Mechanical Engineering.
- Construction Management, Facilities Engineering, or related field preferred; equivalent data center commissioning experience will be considered.
Preferred Skills / Certifications
- Experience in hyperscale cloud data centers, colocation campuses, semiconductor facilities, utilities, power generation, or large industrial infrastructure portfolios is strongly preferred.
- Professional Engineering (PE), Certified Commissioning Professional (CCP), Certified Commissioning Authority (CxA), PMP, LEED AP, or equivalent technical credential is a plus.
- Familiarity with commissioning standards and methods such as ASHRAE commissioning principles, NETA testing practices, NFPA requirements, NEC, OSHA, local authority requirements, and applicable reliability or quality frameworks.
- Experience with commissioning management platforms, punch-list systems, CMMS, BMS, EPMS, SCADA, DCIM, asset management, document control, change management, and operational reporting tools.
- Experience managing third-party commissioning agents, general contractors, trade partners, equipment vendors, testing firms, and owner’s representatives.
- Experience validating control sequences, automation logic, alarm response, failover behavior, emergency operating modes, and integrated system performance.
Physical Demands / Work Environment
- This is a mission-critical commissioning leadership role supporting active construction, retrofit, and operational data center environments where safety, uptime, and execution quality are essential. Regular attendance, travel, schedule flexibility, and availability during major commissioning m