<div class="content-intro"><p>Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world. </p></div><p>We are looking for a Senior Manager of Design and Deployment who is passionate about data center layouts, rack elevations, BOMs, cable design, point-to-point installation documentation, deployment execution, contractor coordination, commissioning, and operational readiness for global AI/GPU infrastructure.</p> <p>As Senior Manager of Design & Deployment, you will lead a specialized team of design engineers and a dedicated deployment organization (deployment engineers and deployment managers) responsible for turning approved data center designs into physically installed, commissioned, production-ready infrastructure — on schedule, to spec, and to a repeatable global standard. You own the full path from floor layout through go-live; Data Center Engineering owns the underlying electrical, mechanical, and infrastructure standards your designs must meet. This role reports directly to the VP of Data Center Operations.</p> <p><strong>Location:</strong> Hub locations, Seattle.</p> <p><strong>Travel:</strong> Expect 20–30% travel to active deployment sites globally, with heavier travel during major buildout or refresh cycles.</p> <h2><strong>What You'll Do:</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Lead and grow a team of Design Engineers and Deployment Engineers/Managers across multiple concurrent, global deployment programs.</li> <li>Own floor layouts, rack elevations, cable routing diagrams, bills of materials (BOMs), and installation packages for new builds, expansions, and hardware refreshes.</li> <li>Develop and maintain point-to-point cabling standards, labeling conventions, and deployment documentation used across all sites.</li> <li>Build and manage the master deployment schedule across concurrent projects, sequencing site readiness, hardware delivery, and contractor availability to hit committed go-live dates.</li> <li>Own the deployment budget for your programs, including contractor labor, equipment staging, and freight/logistics costs; report variances and forecast spend to leadership.</li> <li>Source, qualify, and manage relationships with structured cabling and installation contractors and staffing vendors across all regions, including negotiating statements of work and holding vendors to quality and schedule commitments.</li> <li>Partner with Data Center Engineering to ensure every deployment package complies with current electrical, mechanical, and safety standards before work begins onsite.</li> <li>Partner with Network, Supply Chain, Construction, and Site Operations to align deployment timing with hardware delivery, facility readiness, and network turn-up.</li> <li>Own commissioning and handoff criteria — define what "done" means for a deployment before it's turned over to Site Operations, and hold that bar consistently across sites.</li> <li>Run root-cause reviews on deployment defects and schedule misses, and drive the resulting process or documentation changes so the same issue doesn't recur at the next site.</li> <li>Establish and continuously improve global deployment methodology — playbooks, checklists, and training — so deployment quality doesn't depend on which team or contractor executes it.</li> <li>Develop the design and deployment engineers on your team, including career growth planning and technical mentorship; build a succession plan for key roles on your team.</li> <li>Represent Design & Deployment in capacity planning and new-site scoping discussions, providing realistic lead times and staffing requirements to leadership.</li> <li>Ensure designs from rack layout to network topology are future proof and in a continuous cycle of enhancement</li> <li>Investigate and develop faster deployment methodologies</li> </ul> <p><strong>Key Metrics:</strong></p> <ul> <li>On-time deployment rate against committed go-live dates.</li> <li>Deployment defect rate (post-commissioning issues attributable to design or install error).</li> <li>Design documentation quality and completeness (BOM accuracy, as-built accuracy).</li> <li>Cost per deployment against budget.</li> <li>Adoption and consistency of global deployment standards across sites.</li> </ul> <h2><strong>What You'll Add to DigitalOcean:</strong></h2> <ul> <li>10+ years in data center design, deployment, or infrastructure program management, including large-scale AI/GPU deployments.</li> <li>5+ years leading design or deployment teams, including managing other managers.</li> <li>Deep familiarity with GPU rack/cluster network topologies (e.g., rail-optimized fabrics), structured cabling standards (copper and fiber, including MPO/MTP), and commissioning processes for high-density compute.</li> <li>Hands-on experience with design and documentation tooling (e.g., AutoCAD, Visio, DCIM/NetBox or equivalent) and project/program management tooling for tracking multi-site deployments.</li> <li>Experience negotiating and managing third-party contractor and staffing vendor relationships, including SOWs and performance accountab