Senior Director, Special Projects – Data Center Operations (Nashville, TN)
Oracle · Nashville, United States · 2mo ago
Role Overview
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. The role requires executive leadership, deep construction and operational judgment, and the ability to create scalable governance for high-risk work across active mission-critical environments.
Key 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.
Ideal Candidate Profile
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 and Competencies
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 Skills / Certifications
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.
Physical Demands / 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.
Why Oracle Cloud Infrastructure?
Global impact at cloud scale supporting mission-critical infrastructure for customers around the world.
Technically rigorous environment where reliability, safety, documentation, and operational readiness matter every day.
Culture built on ownership, operational excellence, continuous improvement, and cross-functional partnership.
Long-term career development across cloud infrastructure, data center operations, construction delivery, and global portfolio leadership.
***This role is onsite in Nashville, TN.***
Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client-facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.
Range and benefit information provided in this posting are specific to the stated locations only
US: Hiring Range in USD from: $193,600 to $414,400 per annum. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.
Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle's differing products, industries and lines of business.
Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.
Oracle US offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes the following:
1. Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
2. Short term disability and long term disability
3. Life insurance and AD&D
4. Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
5. Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
6. Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
7. 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
8. Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position. Accrued Vacation is provided to all other employees eligible for vacation benefits. For employees working at least 35 hours per week, the vacation accrual rate is 13 days annually for the first three years of employment and 18 days annually for subsequent years of employment. Vacation accrual is prorated for employees working between 20 and 34 hours per week. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week are not eligible for vacation.
9. 11 paid holidays
10. Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance will carry over each year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.
11. Paid parental leave
12. Adoption assistance
13. Employee Stock Purchase Plan
14. Financial planning and group legal
15. Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance
The role will generally accept applications for at least three calendar days from the posting date or as long as the job remains posted.
Career Level - M5