Construction Manager, Industrial Compute

About the Team

OpenAI’s Compute organization is building the physical infrastructure required to support the next generation of AI systems. We are developing and scaling large, complex data center campuses that integrate high-density compute, power, cooling, networking, and supporting infrastructure at unprecedented speed and scale.

The Construction organization is responsible for translating these designs into operating facilities. We work across engineering, infrastructure delivery, procurement, supply chain, commissioning, operations, and external construction partners to safely deliver highly complex data center infrastructure on aggressive schedules.

As OpenAI’s infrastructure footprint expands, we are looking for construction leaders who can operate effectively in high-velocity environments, manage large contractor ecosystems, and develop repeatable approaches to delivering increasingly complex facilities.

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Construction Manager to lead field execution for large-scale AI data center projects from mobilization through commissioning and operational handoff.

This role will serve as a senior construction leader and primary point of contact for general contractors, trade partners, and other external construction organizations. You will be responsible for coordinating multidisciplinary construction activities, driving schedule performance, resolving field issues, and ensuring that infrastructure is delivered safely, efficiently, and to the required technical standards.

The role requires someone who is equally comfortable operating at the project level and in the field: reviewing designs for constructability, developing construction sequencing, coordinating thousands of workers and multiple trades, identifying bottlenecks, and making rapid decisions when conditions change.

You will work closely with engineering, commissioning, infrastructure delivery, procurement, logistics, and operations teams to accelerate delivery while maintaining a high bar for quality, safety, and reliability.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead construction execution for large-scale data center campuses and critical infrastructure from site mobilization through commissioning and operational handoff.

• Serve as a senior field leader and primary point of contact for general contractors, trade contractors, and construction partners across assigned projects.

• Direct large multidisciplinary contractor organizations across electrical, mechanical, structural, civil, controls, networking, and data hall construction activities.

• Develop and drive construction sequencing strategies that enable parallel execution across multiple workstreams while maintaining safety, quality, and schedule integrity.

• Own construction schedules, progress reporting, critical-path management, and recovery plans for projects operating under aggressive delivery timelines.

• Review engineering designs and construction documents for constructability, identifying opportunities to simplify execution, reduce field conflicts, and accelerate installation.

• Partner with engineering and design teams to resolve constructability issues before they become field constraints and minimize unnecessary RFIs and rework.

• Lead rapid field problem solving across construction, engineering, commissioning, and contractor teams, making decisions that keep projects moving.

• Coordinate construction activities with equipment deliveries, logistics, commissioning, energization, and infrastructure readiness requirements.

• Establish clear performance expectations for contractors and trade partners, and hold them accountable for safety, schedule, quality, productivity, and execution.

• Support contractor selection, onboarding, scope development, and performance management across major construction packages.

• Identify construction risks, emerging schedule constraints, resource bottlenecks, and interface issues and develop mitigation strategies before they impact project delivery.

• Partner with commissioning teams to ensure systems are installed, tested, and transitioned into operational readiness according to project requirements.

• Develop scalable construction processes, reporting mechanisms, and execution standards that can be applied across OpenAI’s growing data center portfolio.

• Provide senior leadership with clear visibility into project status, critical risks, contractor performance, schedule confidence, and required decisions.

Preferred Skills

• 10+ years of experience leading construction delivery for large-scale data centers, industrial facilities, semiconductor facilities, power infrastructure, or other highly complex mission-critical environments.

• Demonstrated experience delivering hyperscale or high-density data center infrastructure with significant electrical and mechanical complexity.

• Proven ability to lead very large contractor and trade workforces across multiple simultaneous construction workstreams.

• Deep understanding of data center construction sequencing, including data halls, electrical distribution, mechanical systems, controls, cooling infrastructure, and supporting site infrastructure.

• Strong understanding of constructability and the ability to translate engineering designs into practical, executable field plans.

• Experience managing aggressive construction schedules and developing innovative sequencing or parallelization strategies to materially accelerate delivery.

• Strong field-based problem-solving skills, with the ability to make sound technical and operational decisions under significant time pressure.

• Experience managing general contractors, specialty contractors, vendors, and construction consultants across complex project environments.

• Strong understanding of construction project controls, including critical path scheduling, progress measurement, forecasting, productivity, and recovery planning.

• Experience leading construction through commissioning, energization, integrated systems testing, and operational handoff.

• Demonstrated ability to identify and resolve construction issues directly with field engineers, contractors, and trade partners rather than relying solely on formal escalation processes.

• Experience with contractor procurement, bid evaluation, scope development, and contractor performance management.

• Strong understanding of construction safety requirements and the ability to maintain a high safety standard across large and rapidly scaling workforces.

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to operate effectively with executives, engineers, contractors, vendors, and field personnel.

• Experience working in fast-moving environments where priorities, designs, schedules, and execution plans can change rapidly.

• Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Architecture, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

• Willingness to spend significant time in the field and travel regularly to active construction sites.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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