Critical Environments Program Manager

Baker Group•Ankeny, IA

About The Position

The Critical Environments Program Manager leads customer-facing programs that protect the availability, safety, and performance of mission-critical facilities across multiple sites. The role partners with customers and internal teams to plan and execute preventative and corrective maintenance, projects, incident response, operational governance, and budget planning while strengthening relationships that support customer retention, new business growth, and team expansion. This is a multi-site leadership role supporting high-reliability environments, including data centers, hospitals, pharmaceutical facilities, and other mission-critical settings. It requires close coordination with customers, facility leaders, finance partners, technical specialists, and executive stakeholders. Travel to customers and operating sites is required approximately 20% of the time. The position oversees maintenance and projects for mechanical and electrical systems, monitoring and building management systems, life-safety systems, power distribution and backup power, specialized cooling, and security systems. It leads incident escalation and risk management, and guides short- and long-term operational and capital budget planning. Success depends on operational discipline, protecting uptime, decisive incident response, and balancing immediate reliability needs with long-term maintenance and capital plans.

Requirements

At least five years of experience in mission-critical operations, such as data centers, hospitals, pharmaceutical facilities, or nuclear environments.
At least three years of experience leading and developing technical or operations teams, including direct people leadership responsibility.
Deep knowledge of infrastructure redundancy concepts, including N+1 and 2N configurations.
Strong working knowledge of building management systems (BMS), data center infrastructure management (DCIM), and electrical and mechanical distribution systems.
Familiarity with EPA environmental permitting requirements and applicable local building, electrical, and mechanical codes.
Ability to translate complex technical risks into clear business terms for customers’ executive leadership and clinical and IT stakeholders.
Ability to present concise reporting, recommendations, and trade-offs related to operations, capital planning, budgets, and uptime.
Ability to align customers, facility teams, finance partners, and technical specialists around safe, reliable, and measurable outcomes.
Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally.
Ability to work on construction job sites, including prolonged periods of standing, walking, and/or climbing stairs and exposure to varying temperatures and weather conditions.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, facilities management, or a related technical field.
Data center certifications such as Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP) or Certified Data Centre Specialist (CDCS), or equivalent mission-critical facilities credentials.

Responsibilities

Mentor and scale a high-performing team that supports customer operations.
Reinforce a safety-first culture, disciplined execution, and strong knowledge-management practices.
Build trusted relationships with existing customers and develop partnerships to attract and secure new clients.
Develop and manage programs that sustain consistent preventative and corrective maintenance across multiple sites.
Provide oversight tailored to customer operating environments, including data centers, hospitals, pharmaceutical facilities, and other high-reliability settings.
Ensure maintenance, projects, and uptime commitments are planned and executed in accordance with service-level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Partner with customers to plan and execute preventative and corrective maintenance and projects across multiple facilities.
Coordinate maintenance schedules, standard operating procedures, and escalation processes to maximize uptime and operational continuity.
Direct the operational cadence for mechanical and electrical systems; electrical power monitoring systems (EPMS); building automation and management systems (BAS/BMS); life-safety systems; power distribution; uninterruptible power supplies (UPS); generators; specialized cooling, including computer room air handlers (CRAHs), chillers, and coolant distribution units (CDUs); security; and very early smoke detection apparatus (VESDA).
Serve as the primary escalation point for facility emergencies in collaboration with customers and internal stakeholders.
Coordinate rapid triage, incident communications, and root cause analysis (RCA) to prevent recurrence.
Help teams anticipate operational risk and identify single points of failure (SPOFs) before they affect availability.
Lead short- and long-term budget planning for preventative and corrective maintenance, near-term operational needs, and future capital improvements.
Partner with finance and facility leaders to forecast spending, track performance, and adjust plans as risks and priorities change.
Align annual and multi-year budgets with maintenance, upgrade, and replacement schedules and applicable regulatory requirements.
Evaluate cost renegotiations, support contract negotiations, and assess return on investment (ROI) to maximize value while protecting uptime.
Provide executive leadership with regular reporting and recommendations on operating expenditure, capital planning, and budget variances.
Guide teams in developing the Master Scope of Work (MSOW), Method of Procedure (MOP), and Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) to promote safety and effective project execution in high-risk environments.