General Manager, Data Center (New Build)
Independence, Missouri$240.5k - $300.6kfull-timePosted 1w ago
About the role
Lead the organizational build-out, hardware deployment, operational readiness, and ongoing performance of Nebius’s gigawatt-scale data center campus in Independence, Missouri. On-site leadership responsible for data center IT operations, critical facilities, networking, logistics, and supporting functions from construction through production service.
Responsibilities
- Design and build the campus organization, including functional leadership, building and shift coverage, reporting lines, and clear decision authority.
- Hire, lead, and develop directors, data center managers, and operations teams in partnership with Talent Acquisition and HR.
- Own the phased workforce plan, aligning recruitment, training, contractor support, and leadership coverage with hardware deployment, acceptance testing, and production milestones.
- Establish performance expectations, consistent technical competency standards, and succession plans that support reliable campus operations and sustained performance.
- Own the integrated operational readiness plan connecting facility completion and handover milestones, equipment delivery, hardware installation, network and storage integration, staffing, and customer service readiness.
- Coordinate with construction and facilities teams to verify power, cooling, and space readiness before deployment; manage dependencies and escalate gaps that could delay bringing capacity into service.
- Define operational acceptance criteria for the campus and deployed infrastructure, coordinate readiness and acceptance testing with technical owners, and accept or withhold operational handover against agreed requirements.
- Ensure trained teams, tested procedures, critical spares, asset records, monitoring, and vendor support are in place before production operations begin.
- Coordinate GPU, server, network fabric, storage, and cloud readiness with technical owners, and jointly confirm that released capacity can support customer workloads.
- Sequence hardware installation, integration, and production changes to protect live environments as additional compute capacity comes online.
- Own end-to-end campus operations across critical facilities and IT infrastructure, delivering agreed uptime, performance, and service levels.
- Establish 24/7 coverage, maintenance governance, change control, incident command, root-cause analysis, and business continuity practices.
- Ensure clear responsibility across power, liquid cooling, controls, hardware, networking, and cloud interfaces; hold owners accountable for corrective actions.
- Use monitoring, automation, and performance reporting to improve deployment throughput, repair turnaround, reliability, and operating efficiency.
- Own campus operating budgets, workforce costs, vendor expenditure, and forecasts within delegated authority; contribute to capital planning and investment priorities.
- Align power, cooling, rack space, equipment, and staffing capacity with deployment plans, and address constraints affecting customer commitments.
- Establish asset inventory, receiving, logistics, critical spares, repair, warranty-return, and secure disposition processes.
- Track budget variance, rework, delayed capacity, and operational losses; drive corrective actions and report financial impacts clearly.
- Serve as the primary operational interface with utilities, infrastructure providers, equipment manufacturers, vendors, and service partners.
- Coordinate with City of Independence departments alongside Public Affairs and Legal on site readiness, permitting and inspections, utility interfaces, emergency preparedness, and ongoing operational matters; align external communications and commitments with the responsible teams.
- Hold providers accountable for safety, quality, delivery milestones, response times, and contractual service performance.
- Ensure safety, environmental, physical security, and applicable compliance requirements are implemented with the responsible specialists and corporate teams.
- Provide executive visibility into launch progress, workforce readiness, operating performance, financial forecasts, and risks requiring decisions.
- Develop repeatable deployment standards, staffing models, acceptance practices, and operating procedures that support the campus as compute capacity scales.
- Build leadership succession and delegation practices that sustain reliable operations and develop future infrastructure leaders.
- Share lessons and operational improvements with the broader Nebius infrastructure organization.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of experience in data center, cloud infrastructure, or comparable mission-critical operations, including senior leadership responsibility.
- A track record of building and scaling organizations and leading managers across multiple technical and operational functions.
- Experience leading hardware deployment, infrastructure integration, operational acceptance, or major compute capacity expansion into production service.
- Strong understanding of critical facilities, including power and cooling, and how those systems affect IT availability and high-density compute operations.
- Leadership experience across compute, networking, storage, and infrastructure lifecycle management, with the technical judgment to coordinate specialist teams.
- Demonstrated ownership of operating budgets, workforce planning, vendor performance, and executive reporting.
- Experience leading incident response, change management, risk reduction, and service improvement in high-availability environments.
- The ability to exercise sound judgment, make decisions with incomplete information, address underperformance directly, and align stakeholders around clear outcomes.
- Ability to work on site in Independence, Missouri and provide visible leadership through deployment, launch, and ongoing operations.
Skills
Required:Organizational design and leadershipProject/Program managementBudget management
Benefits
- Health insurance: 100% company-paid medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and families.
- 401(k) plan: Up to 4% company match with immediate vesting.
- Parental leave: 20 weeks paid for primary caregivers, 12 weeks for secondary caregivers.
- Remote work reimbursement: Up to $85/month for mobile and internet.
- Disability and life insurance: Company-paid short-term, long-term and life insurance coverage.
Last updated Oct 14, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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