Senior Director, Special Projects – Data Center Operations (Nashville, TN)

About the Role

As Senior Director, Special Projects, you will lead a construction-focused portfolio of strategic data center projects that improve capacity, reliability, safety, maintainability, and operational readiness across Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This role owns the operating model for complex remediation, retrofit, expansion, lifecycle, and infrastructure improvement programs that sit outside routine delivery but are critical to long-term site performance. You will lead directors, managers, technical SMEs, project managers, vendors, and cross-functional partners across Construction, Engineering, Commissioning, Data Center Operations, Reliability, Procurement, Finance, Safety, and Security.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategy, operating model, and governance framework for the Special Projects construction portfolio across assigned sites, regions, or global programs.
• Lead teams responsible for remediation, retrofits, infrastructure upgrades, capacity improvements, lifecycle replacements, and construction-driven operational improvements.
• Own portfolio prioritization, staffing strategy, budget alignment, risk governance, executive reporting, and escalation management.
• Partner with Construction, Engineering, Operations, Reliability, Commissioning, Procurement, Finance, Safety, Security, and vendors to align project scope with operational needs.
• Ensure projects are planned and executed with strong safety controls, change management, outage planning, customer impact awareness, and operational readiness discipline.
• Drive resolution of complex construction, design, commissioning, procurement, schedule, and stakeholder issues.
• Establish portfolio dashboards, KPIs, risk registers, decision logs, and governance cadences for leadership visibility.
• Ensure special projects produce complete turnover documentation, asset data, commissioning evidence, warranty records, and operational handoff materials.
• Lead development of playbooks, standards, templates, and repeatable project delivery practices.
• Build and develop leaders and senior individual contributors, reinforcing accountability, technical rigor, and cross-functional execution.
• Identify systemic risks across the portfolio and sponsor corrective actions that improve reliability, maintainability, and capital efficiency.
• Represent Special Projects in executive reviews, funding discussions, site readiness forums, and major incident or remediation planning.

Requirements

• 15+ years of experience in construction, data center delivery, mission-critical infrastructure, engineering, facilities operations, capital projects, or special projects leadership.
• 7+ years of people leadership experience, including leading managers, senior project leaders, technical SMEs, or distributed construction teams.
• Experience managing large, complex construction or remediation portfolios in active data center, utility, industrial, manufacturing, or high-availability environments.
• Strong understanding of MEP infrastructure, commissioning, construction closeout, operational handoff, safety, change management, and site operations constraints.
• Demonstrated ability to build governance models, dashboards, operating rhythms, and executive reporting for complex portfolios.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, construction management, architecture, facilities management, operations, or equivalent practical experience.

Skills

• Executive leadership with strong judgment across construction risk, operational impact, schedule, budget, and safety.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity and align multiple executive stakeholders around clear priorities.
• Strong team development, coaching, staffing, and performance management capability.
• Deep cross-functional partnership across build, operate, procure, engineer, and finance functions.
• High accountability for portfolio visibility, issue resolution, governance, and measurable outcomes.
• Continuous improvement mindset focused on scalable standards and repeatable delivery quality.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with hyperscale data centers, colocation facilities, utilities, semiconductor, critical manufacturing, or complex infrastructure portfolios.
• PMP, PgMP, CCM, PE, LEED, OSHA, Six Sigma, or related construction, engineering, or project management certification.
• Experience with Primavera, MS Project, Procore, Smartsheet, CMMS, DCIM, BIM, commissioning tools, or portfolio reporting platforms.
• Familiarity with BMS/EPMS, switchgear, UPS, generators, cooling systems, controls, fire/life safety, and operational procedures.
• Experience leading projects in live critical environments with outage, change, safety, access, and customer-impact constraints.

Work Environment

This role operates across office, remote collaboration, construction, commissioning, and active data center environments. The position requires travel to project sites and leadership reviews. Site visits may involve walking large facilities, standing for extended periods, using stairs, and following all safety, PPE, security, and access-control requirements.

This role is onsite in Nashville, TN.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
• Short term disability and long term disability
• Life insurance and AD&D
• Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
• Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
• 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
• Paid time off: Flexible Vacation for salaried employees; accrued vacation for others (13 days annually for the first three years, 18 days annually thereafter, prorated for part-time)
• 11 paid holidays
• 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire, refreshes annually, with a maximum cap of 112 hours
• Paid parental leave
• Adoption assistance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Financial planning and group legal
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner, and pet insurance

Pay

Hiring range in USD from: $193,600 - $414,400 per year. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.