Director, Generation Operations

Fleet Data Centers • Mercer Island, WA

1d • $205,000 - $245,000

About The Position

The Director – Generation Operations serves as Fleet’s operational leader for behind-the-meter on-site power generation solutions, including a combination of leased engines operated by third-party vendors and Fleet-operated generation assets, and other combinations and types of BTM solutions. This leader is accountable for safe, compliant, and reliable generation operations across the fleet—ensuring maintenance excellence, vendor performance, operational readiness, and integration with critical facilities operations. This role is central to Fleet’s ability to deliver predictable outcomes for customer power availability, site resiliency, and operational scalability. The Director will build the operating model, define performance standards, stand up governance, and (where appropriate) hire and develop internal teams to support execution.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in power generation operations, O&M, or reliability engineering (reciprocating engines and/or gas turbines preferred), including multi-site fleet oversight or a portfolio role.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience, including building programs, managing vendors, and setting measurable performance standards.
• Strong knowledge of maintenance programs and reliability practices (PM optimization, failure analysis, parts strategy, vendor performance governance).
• Working familiarity with mission-critical environments (data centers, hospitals, industrial plants) and operating discipline (MOP/SOP/EOP, change control, incident management).
• Comfort working cross-functionally with site operations, engineering, commissioning, procurement, legal, finance, and EHS.
• Experience with compliance-heavy operations (safety programs; environmental/emissions compliance exposure is a plus).
• Willingness and ability to travel to Fleet sites/vendors as needed.
• Integrity and Ethical Standards: Build trust, ensure fairness, and foster long-term, transparent relationships with suppliers.
• Effective Communication: The ability to clearly convey expectations and requirements to suppliers and negotiation parties, while understanding their needs and concerns. Comfortable delivering written and verbal presentations to internal leadership teams.
• Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Ability to understand the emotions, cultural nuances, and motivations of others, while effectively managing one's own emotions during high-pressure negotiations.
• Strategic Thinking: Recognize how supplier relationships and negotiations align with the broader organizational goals, while aiming for outcomes that benefit both parties.
• Critical Thinking Skills: Finding innovative solutions and being flexible in addressing unexpected challenges.
• Analytical Ability: Make data-driven decisions, assess cost structures, and identify potential risks, ensuring informed and strategic outcomes.
• Influence and Persuasion: Able to effectively advocate for their position, build consensus, and secure favorable agreements without compromising relationships.
• Operational Paranoia: Anticipate risks, identify vulnerabilities, and proactively implement mechanisms to prevent and minimize disruptions and safeguard safety, security, availability, and scale.
• Relationship Management: Cultivate trust, collaboration, and long-term partnerships, while building a broad network that provides valuable benchmarking, industry insights, and alternative sourcing options.

Nice To Haves

• Experience integrating generation assets into data center electrical ecosystems (paralleling switchgear, protection, controls, monitoring/alarming).
• Relevant certifications (OSHA 30, NFPA 70E training, PMP, CMRP) are a plus.

Responsibilities

• Safety, security, and availability are the most important things we do. Help Fleet deliver near-perfect execution on these dimensions by building a generation operations program that is measurable, enforceable, and continuously improving.
• Fleet-wide generation operations ownership (portfolio/program leadership)
• Own the operating and maintenance for behind-the-meter generation across Fleet campuses (multi-site portfolio management, standards, and governance).
• Define operational requirements for reliability (availability targets, start/transfer performance expectations, spares strategy, service coverage, documentation).
• Establish KPIs and reporting for fleet performance (availability, forced outage rate, MTTR, maintenance compliance, fuel/consumables usage, cost/MWh or cost/hour, vendor SLA attainment).
• Partner with Critical Facilities leadership to ensure operating modes align with site electrical design, protection schemes, and overall uptime objectives.
• Third-party vendor operations management (primary near-term accountability)
• Own operational oversight of leased engine vendors (24/7 response readiness, preventive maintenance execution, corrective maintenance quality, spares availability, and staffing competency).
• Establish and run vendor governance: scorecards, QBRs, safety performance reviews, incident/post-incident reviews, and continuous improvement plans.
• Ensure vendors execute work safely and to Fleet standards (LOTO, NFPA 70E alignment, MOP/SOP discipline, and change/permit-to-work controls).
• Coordinate vendor mobilization and site access requirements; ensure clear demarcation of responsibilities between Fleet, vendors, and any EPC/commissioning partners.
• Maintenance, reliability, and asset stewardship
• Build/own the maintenance strategy for generation assets (PM/CM, condition-based maintenance where applicable, lifecycle planning, and spares/critical parts).
• Ensure maintenance execution is documented and auditable; integrate work management into Fleet’s CMMS standards (PM plans, job plans, failure coding, and closeout quality).
• Own performance troubleshooting and reliability improvement: recurring issue elimination, vendor technical escalation, root cause analysis, and corrective action tracking.
• Drive “operational readiness” for new deployments: acceptance criteria, commissioning/turnover requirements, as-builts, O&M manuals, training, and steady-state handoff.
• Compliance, risk, and safety management
• Own operational compliance for behind-the-meter generation where applicable: air permitting interfaces, emissions monitoring/reporting requirements, environmental controls, and site inspections (in partnership with internal EHS/legal and external specialists).
• Establish emergency response expectations and drills for generation events (failed starts, trips, fuel or exhaust issues, abnormal vibration/temperature, paralleling faults).
• Ensure disciplined change management and risk review for generation operational changes (control setpoints, protection settings, maintenance deferrals, operating hours strategy).
• Operations integration (Fleet command centers and site teams)
• Ensure generation telemetry/alarming is correctly integrated into Fleet monitoring (dashboards, alarm priorities, escalation paths, and runbooks) and that incident response roles are clear between vendors, Fleet operations centers, and site teams.
• Partner with site operations to coordinate switching windows, maintenance outages, and readiness for customer-driven power events.
• Provide clear internal and customer-facing communications inputs during power events as needed (status updates, ETAs, post-event summaries).
• Build the internal Fleet generation team
• Define the future-state org model for Fleet-operated generation (headcount plan, roles, shift/on-call coverage, training/qualification program).
• Recruit and develop internal talent (field technicians/engineers or a hybrid model) as Fleet expands its scope from oversight to direct operation/maintenance.
• Establish internal technical standards for competency, safety, documentation, and vendor interface.
• Financial stewardship and contract interface
• Own the OPEX budget for generation operations oversight (vendor O&M, consumables, spare parts strategy, third-party services, test/inspection costs).
• Partner with Finance/Procurement/Legal on operational components of vendor agreements (SOW clarity, SLA/KPI definitions, escalation remedies, reporting requirements, safety requirements).
• Drive cost and reliability optimization across the portfolio while maintaining Fleet’s mission-critical service expectations.

Benefits

• Fleet Data Center employees enjoy competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits, including 100% employer-covered medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401K program, standard paid holidays, and unlimited PTO.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed