Site Director

 

Careers at Keel 

Keel Infrastructure is a publicly traded energy and digital infrastructure company that develops and owns data centers and power assets across North America.

At Keel, you’re not just joining a company, you’re helping build the infrastructure behind the future of compute.

Why Keel

We’re at the intersection of energy and technology, two industries transforming in real time.

The work is complex. The pace is fast. The impact is real.

You’ll be part of a team that values:

• Ownership— we take responsibility and follow through
• Collaboration— we work across teams, functions, and borders
• Curiosity— we ask questions and keep learning
• Endurance— we build for the long term

 What It Feels Like to Work Here

• Fast-moving, high-growth, and hands-on
• Smart, driven people solving real challenges together
• Work that directly supports AI and next-generation infrastructure
• Room to grow, stretch, and take on more

What We Offer

• Competitive salary, bonus and equity opportunities
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits
• Retirement savings with company contribution
• Employee referral program

We are currently looking for a Site Director - Moses Lake to join our team

 

 

Role summary

The senior Keel Operations authority at the Moses Lake facility and the primary point of contact for the anchor tenant. Keel operates a governance model: the FM operations provider runs the plant day to day with its own site organization; this role governs that operator, owns the tenant relationship, and holds the change, escalation, and acceptance authorities that make an outsourced operating model accountable.

The role additionally owns the operations side of the construction-to-operations transition. Commissioning execution and delivery quality belong to the Keel delivery organization under the Director of Data Center Commissioning & Quality Assurance; this role is the operations acceptance counterpart at the formal transition-to-operations gate — delivery attests completion, operations accepts readiness. This transition scope is front-loaded into the first two quarters in seat and burns off after occupancy.

The dual permanent mandate — operator governance and tenant advocacy — is deliberate and concentrated in one accountable role. The Site Operations Coordinator (direct report) absorbs transactional volume so this role does not degrade into administration.

Key accountabilities

• Hold operations acceptance authority at the formal transition-to-operations gate, as dual signatory alongside the Director of Data Center Commissioning & Quality Assurance: delivery attestation by the delivery organization; operational readiness acceptance by this role, on documented evidence.
• Gate FM operator mobilization: CMMS population quality using turnover asset data, PM schedule seeding, shift structure validation, badge and access provisioning, and acceptance of mobilization milestones prior to steady-state operations and billing.
• Verify operational readiness before energization: MOPs/SOPs/EOPs validated through witnessed tabletop and live drills; independent verification of FM operator training competence (beyond training delivery); critical spares confirmed on shelf against the approved list, including long-lead liquid-cooling wet-side spares. Contribute operations scenarios (including thermal transient and CDU failure modes) to the integrated systems test scripts owned by the delivery organization.
• Govern FM operator performance in steady state through independent verification against the Keel-owned KPI framework rather than operator self-reporting; convert findings into corrective action through the operator’s site leadership and, where commercial, through the FM Commercial function.
• Hold change management authority: approval of maintenance windows, MOP deviations, deferral requests, and configuration changes above operator-delegated thresholds.
• Serve as Keel incident command interface during abnormal events; own tenant and executive communications; conduct post-incident review acceptance.
• Own the anchor tenant relationship: SLA reporting delivery, escalation interface to the tenant operations team, quarterly business reviews, and the working relationship that protects occupancy economics.
• Maintain the site duty rotation and delegated-authority matrix with the Site Operations Coordinator; ensure the tenant holds a documented escalation path at all times.
• Supervise the Site Operations Coordinator.

Explicitly not in scope

Commissioning program ownership, test script development, CxA management, L4/L5 test execution, and construction quality assurance (Director, Data Center Commissioning & Quality Assurance scope); directing FM operator technicians or shift staff (direction flows exclusively through FM operator site leadership); executing maintenance, operations, or vendor work; FM invoice adjudication and contract commercial negotiation (FM Commercial function); lease negotiation (leasing team, with Ops review input).

Scope demarcation — FM operations provider and Keel delivery organization

Keel Operations governs and accepts; the FM operator executes operations; the Keel delivery organization (Infrastructure, including the Director of Data Center Commissioning & Quality Assurance) executes and attests delivery. The table defines the boundaries so this role duplicates neither. FM operator counterpart titles are indicative pending the staffing exhibit in the executed FM services agreement.

Function	This role (Keel Ops) owns	Counterpart owns
Commissioning & handover	Operations acceptance at the transition gate; operations input to IST scenarios; readiness verification (drills, spares, training competence)	Keel delivery org (Director, Cx & QA) owns the Cx program, CxA management, L4/L5 execution, turnover documentation, and delivery attestation
Operator mobilization	Acceptance gate: CMMS population quality, PM seeding, shift validation, mobilization milestones before steady-state billing	FM operator mobilization/transition lead recruits, onboards, and trains operator staff and stands up its processes; delivery org coordinates training delivery
Plant operation	Governance, verification, and acceptance; authority to escalate and to approve/deny changes	FM operator site leadership (site/critical facilities manager) runs 24x7 operations, shift coverage, and staff supervision
Incident response	Incident command interface, tenant/executive communications, post-incident review acceptance	The FM operator executes emergency response per EOPs; operator site leadership manages first-line command of its crew
Maintenance program	Approval of windows, deviations, and deferrals; selective witnessing; KPI verification	The FM operator chief engineer / site team plans and executes the PM program and manages subcontracted LTSA vendors
Tenant interface	Primary tenant POC; SLA reporting delivery; QBRs; escalations	The FM operator has no direct tenant relationship except as technically directed through Keel-approved channels
Site staffing	Verification that deployed operator staffing matches contracted levels (feeds commercial true-up)	The FM operator hires, schedules, trains, and manages its site organization

Qualifications

• 10+ years critical facilities operations with at least 3 in a site leadership or owner’s representative capacity at a datacenter or equivalent critical environment.
• Direct experience receiving a facility through commissioning into operations — turnover acceptance, operator mobilization, or operational readiness — on at least one greenfield or major-expansion project.
• Demonstrated client-facing or colocation service-delivery experience; able to represent the owner credibly to a sophisticated hyperscale/AI tenant operations team.
• Working knowledge of FM outsourcing structures (MSA/SoW governance, KPI regimes, vendor management) and CMMS-based verification.
• Liquid-cooled or high-density environment experience preferred.
• Temperament: able to hold acceptance and governance positions under schedule pressure — from the delivery organization at the transition gate and from the operator in steady state — while sustaining productive working relationships with both.

WA 180000 - 220000 USD