---
title: 'Data Center Operations and Maintenance Engineering Leader at Designworks Talent'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/data-center-operations-and-maintenance-engineering-leader-designworks-talent-4vrdykfpj6e4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Data Center Operations and Maintenance Engineering Leader at Designworks Talent

- **Company:** Designworks Talent
- **Location:** Bellevue, WA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-07-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/designworkstalent/7da479ad-5ed1-4c5b-9ccc-a13e3ce2ad5e

## Job description

## DATA CENTER OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE LEADER

Location: Hybrid | Bellevue, WA Area Titles: Manager, Director, Senior Director, VP (multiple roles available)

LEAD THE OPERATIONS ORGANIZATION BEHIND NEXT-GENERATION AI INFRASTRUCTURE

## ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

A well-funded, rapidly growing AI infrastructure company is building a next-generation cloud platform designed to power the full lifecycle of artificial intelligence. The organization is developing a comprehensive AI infrastructure, platform, and services portfolio that supports the full spectrum of AI workloads—including large-scale compute, model training, fine-tuning, inference, and emerging agentic AI applications.

Backed by significant long-term investment, the company combines the speed, ownership, and innovation of a startup with the stability and resources of an established parent organization. Engineering teams are intentionally lean, highly collaborative, and AI-native, leveraging automation and modern tooling to operate world-class infrastructure at scale.

As AI data centers come online across North America, the company is building its Operations & Maintenance leadership organization. We're seeking experienced operational leaders who have built and scaled production infrastructure organizations and can establish the people, processes, tooling, and operational discipline required to deliver exceptional reliability and customer experience.

## THE OPPORTUNITY

This is a leadership role responsible for building and scaling the Operations & Maintenance function supporting mission-critical AI infrastructure. Depending on experience, responsibilities may range from leading a regional operations team to defining the long-term operational strategy across multiple facilities.

You will partner closely with Engineering, Infrastructure, Networking, Hardware, and Customer Operations leadership to create a highly reliable, scalable operating model capable of supporting one of the industry's most advanced AI infrastructure platforms.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Build, lead, mentor, and grow high-performing Operations & Maintenance teams.
- Develop the operational strategy, organizational structure, and execution model supporting large-scale AI infrastructure.
- Establish world-class operational processes, including incident response, change management, problem management, and service reliability.
- Lead major incident management efforts and executive communications during production events.
- Drive operational excellence through proactive monitoring, observability, automation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Partner with Engineering to ensure operational readiness for new infrastructure deployments and platform launches.
- Define service level objectives (SLOs), operational KPIs, and reliability metrics across the infrastructure portfolio.
- Build scalable on-call programs, escalation models, runbooks, and operational governance.
- Champion root cause analysis and long-term corrective actions to improve platform resilience.
- Influence infrastructure architecture and operational tooling to improve availability, efficiency, and customer experience.
- Help shape the long-term operations organization as the company expands globally.

## WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

- Experience leading Operations, Site Reliability, Infrastructure Operations, Data Center Operations, or Production Engineering organizations.
- Proven success building or scaling operations teams within cloud infrastructure, hyperscale environments, AI infrastructure, or large distributed systems.
- Deep expertise in production operations, incident management, service reliability, and operational excellence.
- Experience leading cross-functional teams during high-severity production incidents.
- Strong understanding of infrastructure operations across compute, networking, storage, and hardware environments.
- Demonstrated success building operational processes, organizational structure, and scalable support models in high-growth environments.
- Executive-level communication skills with the ability to influence engineering and business leadership.
- Comfortable operating in an early-stage organization where many systems and processes are being built for the first time.

## PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Experience supporting hyperscale cloud platforms, GPU infrastructure, AI platforms, HPC environments, or large-scale data centers.
- Experience with modern observability and monitoring platforms such as Grafana, Prometheus, Datadog, or similar technologies.
- Familiarity with incident management platforms including PagerDuty, Opsgenie, or equivalent solutions.
- Experience implementing operational maturity frameworks and reliability engineering best practices.
- Track record of building globally distributed operations organizations.

## COMPENSATION

- Competitive base pay for Bellevue market
- Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, including merit increases, annual bonus, and long term incentives. These awards are allocated based on individual performance
- U.S. based employees have access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan and company match, employees also receive per calendar year, paid holidays.

## LOCATION

- Hybrid role based in the Bellevue, WA area.
- Approximately three days per week in the office.
- U.S. work authorization is required. Visa sponsorship is not currently available.

WHY JOIN?

- Build and lead the Operations & Maintenance organization from its earliest stages.
- Influence the strategy, processes, tooling, and culture supporting next-generation AI infrastructure.
- Work alongside experienced engineering leaders solving some of the industry's most complex infrastructure challenges.
- Join a company combining startup agility with substantial long-term investment and stability.
- Play a foundational leadership role in scaling the infrastructure powering tomorrow's AI applications.

## About Designworks Talent

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Designworks Talent provides custom, AI-enhanced recruiting solutions and enterprise workforce strategies to help companies hire smarter, faster, and with greater precision.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Privately Held)
- **Headquarters**: Los Angeles, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2009
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Staffing and Recruiting, Talent Acquisition, Enterprise Workforce Solutions
- **Target customers**: B2B; high-growth startups to global enterprises, including HR and Talent Acquisition teams
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Exceptional teams build exceptional companies. We combine human expertise with AI to help you hire smarter, faster, and with greater precision." [designworkstalent.com](https://www.designworkstalent.com/)

## Products & Services
- **Recruiting Process Outsourcing (RPO)**: Scalable, end-to-end recruiting that acts as an extension of the client's team, managing part or all of the hiring process to reduce costs and improve candidate experience. [designworkstalent.com/Services](https://www.designworkstalent.com/Services)
- **Recruiting Strategy & Consulting**: Design of systems and strategies for hiring, including process design, interview best practices, employer branding, tech stack selection, budget planning, and workforce forecasting. [designworkstalent.com/Services](https://www.designworkstalent.com/Services)
- **Executive Search**: Confidential, precision-focused search for senior-level executives (C-suite, VP, Director roles) with an emphasis on cultural alignment. [designworkstalent.com/Services](https://www.designworkstalent.com/Services)
- **Direct Hire Placement**: Full-time placements for core teams across engineering, operations, finance, HR, and more, focused on skill and cultural fit. [designworkstalent.com/Services](https://www.designworkstalent.com/Services)
- **Fractional & Interim Talent**: Agile, flexible recruiting support for early-stage startups, scaling companies, or those navigating key transitions. [designworkstalent.com/Services](https://www.designworkstalent.com/Services)
- **Early Stage Start-Up Solution**: End-to-end recruiting function tailored to tech startups, from sourcing and interviewing to closing critical hires. [designworkstalent.com/Services](https://www.designworkstalent.com/Services)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – Not disclosed (Privately held, bootstrapped or self-funded)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly available
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew by 50% year-over-year (from 2 to 3 employees) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/designworks-talent-llc). Website traffic grew 69% month-over-month with 708 monthly visits [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/designworks-talent-llc). Employer rating of 5.0/5.0 based on 3 reviews [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/designworks-talent-llc).

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI + Human Expertise**: Combines AI-driven tools with deep recruiting expertise to cut time-to-fill and deliver top talent quickly. [designworkstalent.com](https://www.designworkstalent.com/)
- **Flexible Engagement Models**: Offers full-service searches, project-based hiring, and a pay-as-you-go model, providing clients with on-demand support without long-term commitments. [designworkstalent.com](https://www.designworkstalent.com/)
- **Customized Solutions**: Every search is tailored to the client's goals, culture, and growth stage, avoiding a cookie-cutter approach. [designworkstalent.com](https://www.designworkstalent.com/)
- **Agile Talent Strategies**: Delivers flexibility, speed, and continuous improvement, partnering with a range of organizations from startups to global enterprises. [designworkstalent.com](https://www.designworkstalent.com/)

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the business through a flexible, on-demand recruiting model that appeals to companies of all sizes.
- Expanding into new markets and verticals by leveraging AI and data-driven insights to improve hiring efficiency.
- Building long-term partnerships with clients by focusing on candidate experience, employer branding, and strategic workforce planning.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: High employee satisfaction with a 5.0/5.0 rating across work-life balance, compensation, and culture [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/designworks-talent-llc).
- **Work Environment**: Hybrid workspace model, with offices in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Palm Springs [Built In](https://builtin.com/company/designworks-talent-llc).
- **Team**: Small, agile team (3 employees) offering a close-knit, entrepreneurial environment with significant ownership and impact.
- **Growth**: Company is in a growth phase (50% headcount growth YoY), presenting opportunities for early employees to shape the company’s trajectory.

## Sources
1. [Designworks Talent Website](https://www.designworkstalent.com/)
2. [Designworks Talent Services Page](https://www.designworkstalent.com/Services)
3. [Designworks Talent LinkedIn Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/designworks-talent-llc)
4. [Designworks Talent Careers on Built In](https://builtin.com/company/designworks-talent-llc)
5. [Designworks Talent Job Openings](https://www.designworkstalent.com/postions)

## Other roles at Designworks Talent

- [Chief Information Officer (CIO SVP/IT)](https://feeny.ai/job/chief-information-officer-cio-svp-it-designworks-talent-bellevue-pcvjkqnprhq3) — Bellevue, WA
- [Director of Project Development - Forensic Investigations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-project-development-forensic-investigations-designworks-talent-tampa-hjhxc7ezktwv) — Tampa, FL
- [Director of Project Development - Forensic Investigations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-project-development-forensic-investigations-designworks-talent-1gwxg1921g1j) — Dallas, TX
- [Infrastructure Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/infrastructure-systems-engineer-designworks-talent-indianapolis-a6sy57ct4xft) — Indianapolis, IN
- [Principal Data Center Infrastructure Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-data-center-infrastructure-software-engineer-designworks-talent-p3yej8s4j42x) — Bellevue, WA
- [IT Consultant](https://feeny.ai/job/it-consultant-designworks-talent-indianapolis-chm1sqbbvs8m) — Indianapolis, IN
- [Staff Inference Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-inference-engineer-designworks-talent-bellevue-4q7758cdc709) — Bellevue, WA
- [Staff Virtualization & Orchestration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-virtualization-orchestration-engineer-designworks-talent-bellevue-wtp6p2exdscf) — Bellevue, WA
- [Staff GPU Performance / Kernel Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-gpu-performance-kernel-engineer-designworks-talent-bellevue-fvqk4w1cf1x2) — Bellevue, WA
- [Staff AI Training Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-ai-training-infrastructure-engineer-designworks-talent-bellevue-w25acyb6f2gr) — Bellevue, WA