DC Project Manager

Fermi Inc•Amarillo, TX

80d•Onsite

About The Position

Fermi America is seeking a Data Center Project Manager to assume single-point accountability for delivering all data center buildings associated with an assigned tenant account. This owner-side delivery role owns scope, cost, schedule, quality, and the commercial position with the delivery partner from building release through commissioning and turnover to operations. The Project Manager directs Fermi’s position with the design-build or construction partner and makes and defends decisions with significant capital and schedule consequences. The Project Manager is accountable for the assigned tenant account and serves as Fermi’s delivery representative to the tenant, maintaining the credibility of Fermi’s commitments and reporting. The Director of DC Construction governs partner relationships, contracting strategy, and portfolio delivery standards. The Project Manager reports to the Director of DC Construction and works closely with the DC Senior Technical Specialist, DC QA/QC and Commissioning, project controls, Procurement and Sourcing, safety, facility operations, and the tenant’s project team. When assigned, the DC Construction Manager’s day-to-day field priorities are established by the Project Manager, although the Construction Manager continues reporting to the Director. Independent verification findings, progress confirmation, and maintenance of the field record remain outside the Project Manager’s direction. The assigned scope may involve lump-sum turnkey, design-build, construction management at risk, or multiple-prime contracting structures, and may include concurrent and sequential builds within the same tenant account. The role includes account-wide sequencing and resource prioritization, commercial and schedule management, tenant relationship ownership, systems completion, commissioning support, and handover to operations. Fermi America expects the Project Manager to embrace and champion AI and advanced analytics in project-delivery workflows, including cost and schedule analysis, benchmarking, document and contract analysis, automated reporting, predictive analysis, and incorporation of lessons learned into delivery standards.

Requirements

15 or more years of experience in construction or project delivery, including at least eight years working on data centers, mission-critical facilities, or comparable complex, MEP-intensive programs.
Demonstrated single-point accountability for at least one building or asset delivered from contract award through commissioning and turnover, with documented performance against the sanctioned baseline.
Experience delivering multiple buildings or assets concurrently for a single customer or account, including sequencing decisions, shared-resource allocation, and management of the customer relationship throughout a multiyear program.
Strong command of lump-sum turnkey, design-build, construction management at risk, guaranteed maximum price, and multiple-prime contract structures, including how owner exposure differs among them.
Proven success in change-order negotiation, entitlement assessment, and claims defense on large capital projects.
Strong knowledge of data center scope, including shell and core, MEP systems, critical power, cooling and direct-liquid cooling, controls, IT infrastructure, and the effects of design decisions on construction and operations.
Experience owning a project cost forecast and presenting and defending variances to executive leadership.
Working knowledge of schedule development and analysis in Oracle Primavera P6, with the ability to critically assess contractor schedules.
Experience leading commissioning and turnover to operations, including accepting demonstrated performance against contractual requirements.
Owner-side experience with a developer, operator, or end user, in addition to any contractor-side experience.
Excellent executive communication skills, including the ability to present positions clearly and precisely to leadership, lenders, and customers.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, or a related field.
Ability to work on active construction sites, including walking job sites, climbing ladders, and navigating unfinished structures in varying weather conditions.
Willingness to wear required PPE, including a hard hat, safety glasses, high-visibility vest, steel-toe boots, and hearing protection.
Flexibility to work extended hours during critical construction milestones, commissioning events, and schedule-recovery efforts as needed.

Nice To Haves

Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
Direct delivery experience on hyperscale data center programs for major technology companies or leading data center developers.
Experience delivering successive buildings using a repeatable playbook, including standardized design packages and framework agreements.
Experience with high-density and liquid-cooled deployments and their effects on construction sequencing and commissioning.
Familiarity with Oracle Primavera P6, Oracle Primavera Unifier, and Oracle Aconex, or equivalent enterprise project-delivery systems.
Experience managing owner-furnished equipment under an owner-managed delivery model.
Experience supporting project-financing workstreams, including lender and independent-engineer due diligence and drawdown substantiation.
Comfort working in a high-growth organization where the role will help define delivery standards as the campus expands.

Responsibilities

Serve as the single point of accountability for all buildings within the assigned tenant account throughout design development, procurement, construction, commissioning, and turnover to operations.
Own sequencing and prioritization across concurrent and successive buildings, including allocation of shared resources, contractor capacity, long-lead equipment, and campus infrastructure.
Apply proven design packages, contracting terms, and execution approaches to drive standardization and repeatability across the account.
Manage interfaces with shared campus infrastructure, including power interconnection, water, connectivity, and common site work.
Develop and maintain the project execution plan, including contracting approach, work and cost breakdown structures, organization and interface plan, risk register, and turnover strategy.
Establish and defend the scope, cost, and schedule baseline and control deviations through formal change management.
Administer the delivery agreement as Fermi’s representative, including notice obligations, milestone certification, pay-application recommendations, retention, and liquidated-damages provisions.
Lead evaluation, negotiation, and disposition of change orders; substantiate entitlement and quantum positions and defend Fermi against unsupported cost and time claims.
Direct Fermi’s review of design deliverables against the approved basis of design in coordination with the DC Senior Technical Specialist, who retains technical authority.
Own account-wide cost forecasts and monthly variance analysis, working with project controls to produce estimate-to-complete and estimate-at-completion positions by building and in aggregate.
Own account-wide milestone and schedule outcomes, working with the DC Scheduler to validate contractor schedules and quantify the effects of changes and delays.
Drive interface definition and closure across power interconnection, connectivity, tenant fit-out, campus infrastructure, and adjacent construction.
For powered-shell buildings, own the commercial consequences of changes to the base-building and tenant fit-out demarcation, including pricing, entitlement, and schedule impacts; the DC Senior Design Integration Manager is responsible for defining the boundary.
Drive systems-completion and turnover planning, including system-boundary definition, mechanical-completion walkdowns, punch-list management, and turnover-package acceptance.
Support commissioning through Level 4 and Level 5 testing and IT load delivery, and validate demonstrated performance against contractual requirements before acceptance.
Coordinate handover to facility operations, including spare parts, training, as-built documentation, and warranty transfer.
Own the tenant relationship for delivery matters, including scope, schedule, technical resolution, and reporting, while protecting Fermi’s position and maintaining a productive relationship.
Support Procurement with bid-package development, technical and commercial evaluations, and partner selection.
Establish and enforce the safety standard for the assigned scope, holding the partner accountable to Fermi requirements and applicable regulations.
Deliver decision-grade leadership reporting on cost, schedule, risk, and required decisions.
Use AI-assisted cost and schedule analytics to test contractor forecast credibility and identify differences between reported and actual performance.
Use AI-driven benchmarking against completed buildings to validate pricing, durations, and change-order positions.
Apply AI-assisted document and contract analysis to support change-order evaluation, entitlement assessment, and claims defense.
Deploy automated reporting that assembles project status from source systems rather than manual compilation.
Use predictive analysis of procurement, delivery, and installation data to identify threats to milestone dates.
Incorporate delivery outcomes and lessons learned into execution standards to improve delivery speed and reduce variance on successive buildings.