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.
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.
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.
Location: Hub locations, Seattle.
Travel: Expect 20–30% travel to active deployment sites globally, with heavier travel during major buildout or refresh cycles.
What You'll Do:
- Lead and grow a team of Design Engineers and Deployment Engineers/Managers across multiple concurrent, global deployment programs.
- Own floor layouts, rack elevations, cable routing diagrams, bills of materials (BOMs), and installation packages for new builds, expansions, and hardware refreshes.
- Develop and maintain point-to-point cabling standards, labeling conventions, and deployment documentation used across all sites.
- Build and manage the master deployment schedule across concurrent projects, sequencing site readiness, hardware delivery, and contractor availability to hit committed go-live dates.
- Own the deployment budget for your programs, including contractor labor, equipment staging, and freight/logistics costs; report variances and forecast spend to leadership.
- 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.
- Partner with Data Center Engineering to ensure every deployment package complies with current electrical, mechanical, and safety standards before work begins onsite.
- Partner with Network, Supply Chain, Construction, and Site Operations to align deployment timing with hardware delivery, facility readiness, and network turn-up.
- 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.
- 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.
- Establish and continuously improve global deployment methodology — playbooks, checklists, and training — so deployment quality doesn't depend on which team or contractor executes it.
- 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.
- Represent Design & Deployment in capacity planning and new-site scoping discussions, providing realistic lead times and staffing requirements to leadership.
- Ensure designs from rack layout to network topology are future proof and in a continuous cycle of enhancement
- Investigate and develop faster deployment methodologies
Key Metrics:
- On-time deployment rate against committed go-live dates.
- Deployment defect rate (post-commissioning issues attributable to design or install error).
- Design documentation quality and completeness (BOM accuracy, as-built accuracy).
- Cost per deployment against budget.
- Adoption and consistency of global deployment standards across sites.
What You'll Add to DigitalOcean:
- 10+ years in data center design, deployment, or infrastructure program management, including large-scale AI/GPU deployments.
- 5+ years leading design or deployment teams, including managing other managers.
- 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.
- 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.
- Experience negotiating and managing third-party contractor and staffing vendor relationships, including SOWs and performance accountability.
- Track record of building or scaling repeatable deployment processes across multiple sites or regions, not just executing a single build.
- Strong cross-functional partnership skills — this role sits at the intersection of Engineering, Network, Construction, Supply Chain, and Site Operations and needs to align all of them to a schedule.
Compensation Range:
- $156,800.00 - $196,000.00
*This is a hybrid role
JR: 2026-8189
#LI-Hybrid
Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean
- We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.
- We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.
- We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.
- We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.
- DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.
Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.
