Data Center Shell Planning Lead, Industrial Compute

About the Team

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is building the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Site Readiness & Development team is responsible for translating OpenAI’s long-term infrastructure needs into executable data center capacity across self-build campuses, leased facilities, and strategic development partnerships.

The team works across capacity planning, power, land, real estate, design, construction, finance, and commercial execution to ensure the right infrastructure is available in the right locations and on the timelines required to support OpenAI’s growth.

About the Role

We are seeking a Data Center Shell Planning Lead to own portfolio-level planning for future data center shell capacity. This role will translate compute-demand forecasts, power availability, technical requirements, and development schedules into a clear strategy for where, when, and how much shell capacity OpenAI should secure or build.

You will evaluate capacity across self-build, lease, colocation, and development-partner pathways; identify future supply gaps; recommend campus and building phasing; and maintain the integrated plan connecting site readiness to construction, commissioning, and operational handoff.

This is an individual contributor lead role requiring strong analytical judgment, infrastructure-development fluency, and the ability to drive decisions across teams without relying on formal authority.

Key Responsibilities

- Develop and maintain a multi-year portfolio plan for data center shell capacity across priority geographies.

- Translate compute forecasts, IT-load requirements, rack-density assumptions, power schedules, cooling requirements, and deployment timelines into site and building requirements.

- Determine when shell capacity must be secured, designed, constructed, commissioned, and ready for technical fit-out.

- Integrate land, utility, interconnection, permitting, design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and network-readiness schedules into a single capacity view.

- Identify capacity gaps, schedule conflicts, stranded-capacity risks, and dependencies that could prevent infrastructure from becoming operational on time.

- Develop scenario models comparing self-build, lease, colocation, and strategic development-partner options.

- Evaluate delivery pathways based on schedule, cost, control, flexibility, reliability, scalability, and execution risk.

- Recommend campus, building, and utility phasing that preserves optionality while supporting near-term deployment requirements.

- Assess third-party proposals and determine whether proposed facilities, schedules, technical specifications, and commercial structures can satisfy OpenAI’s requirements.

- Partner with capacity planning, energy, real estate, site development, design, construction, commissioning, networking, finance, legal, and commercial teams.

- Establish planning assumptions, readiness criteria, decision gates, and governance for moving opportunities from portfolio planning into execution.

- Build dashboards and executive-ready materials that communicate capacity supply, demand, timing, assumptions, dependencies, and material risks.

- Support investment, build-versus-partner, geographic-prioritization, and portfolio-allocation decisions.

- Create repeatable planning frameworks and playbooks that allow OpenAI to scale shell-capacity decisions across regions and infrastructure generations.

Qualifications

- 8+ years of experience in data center development, infrastructure planning, capacity planning, real estate development, construction planning, program controls, or a related field.

- Experience developing or managing portfolio-level plans across multiple data center sites, buildings, or infrastructure programs.

- Strong understanding of the data center development lifecycle, including site readiness, power delivery, design, permitting, construction, commissioning, and operational turnover.

- Ability to translate technical and demand requirements into facility-capacity, schedule, and phasing decisions.

- Strong quantitative and scenario-modeling skills, including the ability to work with incomplete or changing assumptions.

- Experience evaluating competing delivery strategies and communicating cost, schedule, flexibility, and risk tradeoffs.

- Strong cross-functional program leadership and the ability to create alignment across technical, commercial, and operational organizations.

- Excellent written communication and executive-presentation skills.

- Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment where capacity requirements, technical assumptions, and delivery timelines may change quickly.

Preferred Skills

- Experience planning hyperscale data center campuses or infrastructure supporting high-density compute.

- Familiarity with powered-land development, utility and interconnection schedules, and campus-level power phasing.

- Experience evaluating self-build, build-to-suit, wholesale colocation, and third-party development models.

- Understanding of high-density electrical, mechanical, cooling, and network infrastructure requirements.

- Experience working with developers, capital partners, colocation providers, utilities, engineering firms, and construction organizations.

- Experience creating portfolio-planning systems, capacity dashboards, or executive decision frameworks for large infrastructure programs.