Planning & Deployment Engineer

Oracle•Reston, VA

10d•$102,300 - $209,500

About The Position

The Planning & Deployment Engineer serves as the planning and technical-readiness function between program management, engineering, low-voltage vendors, and Data Center Build and Deployment Engineers. The role owns upfront technical and operational review of deployment projects, ensuring requirements are complete, accurate, executable, and ready for field implementation. It identifies design gaps, material issues, dependencies, risks, and omissions before work reaches the data hall so field engineers can focus on execution, vendor oversight, validation, testing, troubleshooting, and capacity delivery. The successful candidate combines low-voltage infrastructure knowledge, project-management capabilities, technical deployment experience, and vendor and stakeholder management skills. The role coordinates projects from intake through field handoff and capacity delivery; tracks plans, schedules, milestones, dependencies, and risks; manages design changes and vendor coordination; and develops repeatable processes that improve deployment quality, speed, and predictability. Success means delivering deployment-ready projects with accurate requirements, validated documentation, clear execution plans, identified dependencies, and mitigation plans, contributing to faster capacity delivery, fewer field-discovered issues, improved vendor execution, reduced rework, and more predictable deployments.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience with data center, telecommunications, or low-voltage infrastructure deployments.
At least 5 years of structured cabling infrastructure experience, including copper and optical fiber deployment methodologies and industry best practices.
Ability to review and validate cut sheets, patching matrices or schedules, Bills of Materials, rack layouts, and hardware requirements.
Knowledge of network infrastructure, connectivity, networking layers, and testing and validation methodologies.
Experience coordinating or managing low-voltage vendors and contractors in complex deployment environments.
Strong project-management skills, including project scoping, scheduling, dependency management, resource planning, risk management, and critical-path management.
Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and prioritize effectively as requirements and business needs change.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including identifying risks and gaps before they affect delivery schedules.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical issues, project status, risks, and required actions to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Ability to work independently while coordinating effectively across multiple teams and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Ingest data center build and capacity deployment projects and drive them through deployment readiness.
Conduct technical reviews of project requirements before field execution.
Validate hardware requirements, Bills of Materials, cut sheets and patching documentation, rack positioning, passive infrastructure, and related deployment requirements.
Identify technical gaps, omissions, inconsistencies, and dependencies early enough to prevent deployment delays.
Review project scope, schedules, milestones, resources, and critical-path activities for execution readiness.
Coordinate RFQ activities and vendor engagement; develop and coordinate early-access plans.
Validate materials, documentation, resources, and dependencies before handoff to field engineering teams.
Coordinate deployment from project intake through field handoff and capacity delivery.
Partner with Data Center Build and Deployment Engineers, Technical Program Managers, Delivery teams, Automation teams, and other stakeholders to align scope, schedule, dependencies, and execution.
Attend project meetings and communicate project decisions, changes, risks, and requirements to field engineering stakeholders.
Track milestones, deliverables, dependencies, risks, and blockers across concurrent projects and data center build deployments.
Identify schedule and execution risks, drive mitigation plans, and escalate critical issues with impact assessments, resolution owners, and recommended resolutions.
Maintain clear and timely communication about project status, risks, decisions, and changes.
Review Design Change Requests for technical and operational impact and coordinate approved changes across engineering, vendors, program management, and field deployment teams.
Evaluate time-bound impacts of changes on materials, documentation, schedules, resources, and capacity commitments; re-establish execution plans and communicate schedule risks and impacts.
Coordinate with low-voltage vendors on scope, schedules, technical requirements, quality expectations, planning, readiness, and execution.
Conduct vendor project and business reviews; monitor progress, risks, roadblocks, quality, and schedule performance; hold vendors accountable for commitments and drive issue resolution.
Partner with field engineers to address vendor challenges and develop mechanisms to improve vendor quality, predictability, and execution.
Collaborate across Engineering, Delivery, Automation, Supply Chain, Program Management, Operations, and vendor organizations to enable capacity delivery.
Provide Technical Program Managers with visibility into deployment readiness, progress, dependencies, and risks; translate program and design requirements into actionable guidance for field teams and vendors.
Build stakeholder relationships, identify concerns early, and facilitate alignment on competing priorities, dependencies, and technical constraints.
Develop scalable, repeatable processes that improve deployment quality, speed, and predictability; address recurring defects at their root causes.
Recommend and implement improvements to planning, technical validation, vendor management, handoff, and deployment workflows.
Partner with Automation and Program Management to reduce manual effort and improve data and documentation quality.
Document best practices, lessons learned, and standardized deployment processes, and evaluate the effectiveness of process improvements.
Maintain current knowledge of data center technologies, deployment methodologies, tools, and industry best practices; seek feedback and apply lessons learned.
Share technical and operational knowledge, coach less-experienced team members, contribute to best practices, and participate in candidate interviews and talent development activities.