Manager, IT Infrastructure (Data Centers)
$165,000–$240,000 year
On-siteHawthorne, California, United States
Job Summary
Lead the design, buildout, and ongoing management of next-generation data centers, overseeing site selection, capacity planning, power infrastructure, advanced cooling systems, and scalable racking solutions across SpaceX locations. Oversee core facilities services including HVAC optimization, redundant power systems, fire suppression, and environmental monitoring to ensure 99.999% uptime in mission-critical environments. Build and develop a high-performing team of engineers focused on enterprise infrastructure, virtualization, high-performance storage, and purpose-built servers optimized for HPC and AI workloads. Drive high-availability architectures, disaster recovery strategies, and resilience testing, including multi-site failover and automated recovery. Mentor engineers in designing, procuring, and deploying performance-optimized server fleets while establishing hardware standards and negotiating with vendors. Perform hands-on supervision of installations, configurations, cabling, and commissioning, including rack-and-stack, BIOS tuning, and integration testing. Implement infrastructure-as-code, automation, and holistic monitoring for proactive operations in automated, green data centers. Schedule and execute off-peak maintenance, upgrades, and expansions with 24/7 on-call readiness. Collaborate with engineering, facilities, and security stakeholders to deliver tailored solutions and align data center evolution with long-term roadmap goals.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline
- 5+ years in data center leadership (design/build/ops)
- 8+ years in IT infrastructure leadership with hands-on data center experience
- 7+ years of experience leading two or more of: hyperscale data center design/construction, critical facilities management (power/HVAC), enterprise server/storage infrastructure, or high-availability operations
- Ability to lift 50 lbs unassisted
- Willingness to work extended hours, nights, weekends, and travel to data center sites as needed
- This role is 100% on-site at SpaceX facilities
- Valid driver's license required
- U.S. citizen or national
- U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder)
- Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157
- Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158
- Eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State
Desired Qualifications
- Proven track record building next-gen data centers from greenfield sites, including modular/prefab designs, liquid immersion cooling, green power (renewables/PUE <1.2), and Tier III/IV certifications
- Expertise in data center facilities: power distribution (high-density racks >50kW), advanced cooling (direct-to-chip, rear-door heat exchangers), seismic/structural engineering integration, and sustainability best practices
- Deep knowledge of storage ecosystems (NFS/CIFS/iSCSI, NetApp, Pure Storage, Ceph) and server specs for HPC/AI (e.g., GPU clusters, NVIDIA DGX)
- Experience with DCIM, IaC (Terraform/Ansible), scripting (Python/PowerShell/Bash), and monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana, DC-specific tools)
- Hands-on with virtualization, networking (InfiniBand/Ethernet fabrics), and edge computing in remote/harsh environments
- Strong vendor management for hyperscale procurement and negotiation
- Excellent communicator: Translates complex DC concepts for non-technical audiences and authors clear runbooks/SOPs
- Self-starter thriving in fast-paced, interruption-heavy settings with a passion for innovation
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