Project Director / VP - Data Center Campus (California)

Location: California | On site five days a week, relocation supported
Industry: Hyperscale Data Centers | AI and Digital Infrastructure
Employment: Full-Time, Direct Hire | Director / Vice President
Compensation: USD $250,000 - $375,000 base | Bonus and equity participation

The Opportunity

We are partnering with an early-stage data center developer that has a large project pipeline and a deliberately small delivery team. This is the senior-most role on the ground at its data center campus in California.

You own delivery outright: schedule, budget, contractor performance, the end-client relationship and the site itself. The campus is delivered as multiple data halls, each under its own lease, with its own milestone obligations and its own financial consequences for late delivery. Each hall is measured against its own date, and that shapes every decision in this seat.

Process is being written while the work proceeds, and you will build the site organization yourself.

What You'll Own

• Take full accountability for delivery of the campus, covering schedule, budget, quality and safety, from site mobilization through ready-for-service on each data hall.
• Own the general contractor relationship day to day: challenge the schedule, manage change, and hold contractor commitments to the milestone structure.
• Run the end-client relationship on site, including milestone verification, turnover sequencing and the commissioning path to RFS for each hall.
• Coordinate with the design team and the owner-furnished equipment program, where the owner carries procurement risk and the contractor carries installation.
• Set the execution strategy for the site, including infrastructure and utility coordination, procurement interfaces and risk management.
• Recruit, onboard and lead the site project team as it scales through the build.
• Decide what leadership needs to know, when, and with what recommendation attached. That includes saying no when no is the right answer.

What You Bring

• Leadership of delivery on projects of comparable scale and capital value, with direct accountability for the outcome.
• Experience on both sides of the industry: general contractor, typically four to seven years covering budgets, schedules, contracts, purchase orders and payment applications, followed by developer or consultancy-side roles with visible progression.
• On site five days a week. This is a job-trailer role, and fly-in, fly-out arrangements will not be considered.
• Comfort operating without established process, dedicated support functions or a mature organization behind you.
• Demonstrable data center delivery experience. This is non-negotiable at this level. Hospital, oil and gas or general commercial construction experience does not substitute.

Who Gets Our Attention

The career path we like best runs from a general contractor foundation, into meaningful data center delivery, then owner, developer or consultancy exposure, with increasing leadership responsibility at each step. A contractor career that has moved deliberately toward owner-side accountability stands out.

Hyperscaler backgrounds can be a strong fit when you stayed close to construction delivery. We also look for leaders who are well-rounded across the trades.

Experience with multi-lease or multi-phase turnover structures, where each milestone is enforced on its own, is a plus. So is a record of building and retaining site teams in tight labor markets.

Expect to be asked what you personally delivered, how big it was, who reported to you, and what you did when the project went sideways.

The Person

You can walk onto an ambiguous project, work out what is missing, build the structure around it and still deliver.

You make decisions without waiting for permission, challenge contractors and consultants on the substance, and understand the commercial side of delivery as well as the technical side. You stay close enough to the work to know exactly what is happening on site.

You communicate concisely. You don't need layers of support around you to operate.

Why This One?

You are the senior delivery leader on a hyperscale campus at the stage where the site organization, the execution strategy and the standards are still being set. What you build becomes how the campus runs.

You work directly with the company's senior delivery leadership, inside a team whose leaders have delivered data centers at major developers and hyperscalers.

Location

California, on site five days a week. Relocation support is available.

Compensation

USD $250,000 to $375,000 base salary, plus bonus and equity participation, and relocation support.