Head of DC Infrastructure

About the role

We are hiring a Head of DC Infrastructure for our client — a company building a large-scale AI data center (with a planned capacity of 300 MW) in Poland, on a site currently undergoing active reconstruction into modern technological infrastructure. The first phase, with a capacity of 50 MW, is planned to go live this year. This role requires regular business trips to the construction site in Poland (full relocation is not required).

Role description

The Head of DC Infrastructure builds and leads the on-site engineering team responsible for the MEP systems (cooling, power, UPS, generators) that keep the data center running. This role owns day-to-day reliability of the facility's physical infrastructure post-handover — from preventive maintenance and incident response to commissioning support for new capacity expansions — ensuring MEP systems perform to design intent throughout the facility's operational life.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the on-site engineering team responsible for MEP systems (cooling, power, UPS, generators)

• Own day-to-day reliability and performance of all MEP systems at the site

• Develop and maintain SOPs/MOPs/EOPs for cooling and electrical operations, aligned with facility standards

• Lead incident response and root-cause analysis for MEP-related outages or failures

• Own the preventive maintenance program and schedules across cooling and electrical systems

• Coordinate maintenance windows and redundancy switching to minimize IT service impact

• Manage vendor/contractor relationships for MEP maintenance and warranty service, in coordination with other teams

• Support commissioning of new MEP infrastructure and expansions (FAT/SAT, handover from construction)

• Ensure compliance with safety protocols and manufacturer/regulatory requirements

• Manage on-call rotation and emergency response coverage for engineering staff

Required experience

• 7+ years of hands-on data center facilities/MEP engineering experience, with 3+ years in a leadership role already owning a full-scale DC Infrastructure/Operations function — this is a Head-level position, not a stepping stone into one

• Demonstrated experience operating and maintaining mechanical and electrical systems (cooling, UPS, generators, switchgear) specifically in a data center environment

• Hands-on experience developing SOPs/MOPs/EOPs for critical facility operations

• Proven track record leading incident response and root-cause analysis for MEP outages

• Experience managing preventive maintenance programs and vendor/contractor relationships

• Experience supporting or leading FAT/SAT and commissioning handover for MEP infrastructure

• Experience building and managing on-call/shift rotations for 24/7 facility coverage

• English proficiency sufficient for international vendor and technical communication

• Willingness to travel regularly to the construction/operations site in Poland

Nice to Have

• Experience with high-density liquid-cooled (DLC) infrastructure and CDU operations (traditional HVAC/air-cooling background is fully acceptable)

• Uptime Institute or EPI certification

• Experience managing MEP teams across multiple sites

• Background transitioning facilities from construction/commissioning into steady-state operations