Director, Data Center Strategy and Capacity Planning

Intel • Chandler, AZ

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a senior individual contributor to define and drive the multi-year infrastructure strategy and capacity plan across our global IT data center environments, spanning on-prem data centers, colocation, and cloud. This role operates at a strategic altitude, shaping where and how we invest to support enterprise workloads, ensuring the right balance between performance, scalability, cost, and resiliency. The role is responsible for defining and evolving a holistic multi-year capacity strategy across on-prem data centers, colocation footprint, and public cloud platforms. This includes incorporating the diverse requirements of all workloads needed to support Intel's business, with a strong focus on real-world constraints such as power availability, cooling capacity, space, latency, and performance. The individual will develop clear strategic direction and trade-offs across on-prem, cloud, and colocation environments, including workload placement, scaling strategies, and decisions around site expansion versus consolidation. In addition, the role builds integrated demand forecasts and leads scenario planning to evaluate trade-offs across rapid compute growth, burst demand, and power and space constraints, as well as hybrid and cloud offload models. A key expectation is the ability to identify capacity risks and constraints 12-36 months in advance and translate them into actionable mitigation strategies. The role also owns multi-year infrastructure investment frameworks, including development of CapEx and OpEx projections and total cost of ownership (TCO) models. It drives and influences enterprise-level trade-offs across engineering, operations, and finance, and plays a key role in shaping budget planning and prioritization. From a lifecycle perspective, the role defines multi-year infrastructure refresh strategies aligned with capacity, cost, and performance needs, while anticipating the impact of increasing rack density, accelerator-driven workloads, and evolving cooling technologies. Finally, the role establishes and governs a single source of truth for demand, capacity, and forecasts, and drives quarterly executive reviews focused on capacity risks, investment priorities, and strategic trade-offs. A critical aspect of the role is translating complex data and models into clear, decision-ready narratives that enable timely executive decision-making.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field required; Master’s degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure strategy and capacity planning (or similar roles), including shaping multi-year infrastructure strategy at scale in complex, global environments and managing data center constraints such as power, cooling, and space.
• 10+ years of experience working with enterprise IT applications, data infrastructure platforms, and cloud architectures, including hybrid environments (on-premises, cloud, and colocation), with familiarity in HPC, EDA, and emerging technologies.
• 5+ years of experience building and defending financial models, including CapEx, OpEx, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
• 5+ years of experience influencing senior executive stakeholders and driving alignment across cross-functional leadership without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the multi-year infrastructure strategy and capacity plan across our global IT data center environments, spanning on-prem data centers, colocation, and cloud.
• Define and evolve a holistic multi-year capacity strategy across on-prem data centers, colocation footprint, and public cloud platforms.
• Develop clear strategic direction and trade-offs across on-prem, cloud, and colocation environments, including workload placement, scaling strategies, and decisions around site expansion versus consolidation.
• Build integrated demand forecasts and leads scenario planning to evaluate trade-offs across rapid compute growth, burst demand, and power and space constraints, as well as hybrid and cloud offload models.
• Identify capacity risks and constraints 12-36 months in advance and translate them into actionable mitigation strategies.
• Own multi-year infrastructure investment frameworks, including development of CapEx and OpEx projections and total cost of ownership (TCO) models.
• Drive and influence enterprise-level trade-offs across engineering, operations, and finance, and plays a key role in shaping budget planning and prioritization.
• Define multi-year infrastructure refresh strategies aligned with capacity, cost, and performance needs, while anticipating the impact of increasing rack density, accelerator-driven workloads, and evolving cooling technologies.
• Establish and govern a single source of truth for demand, capacity, and forecasts, and drives quarterly executive reviews focused on capacity risks, investment priorities, and strategic trade-offs.
• Translate complex data and models into clear, decision-ready narratives that enable timely executive decision-making.

Benefits

• We offer a total compensation package that ranks among the best in the industry. It consists of competitive pay, stock bonuses, and benefit programs which include health, retirement, and vacation.
• Find out more about the benefits of working at Intel .

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees