Senior Manager - Physical Security Design

About Cipher Digital

Cipher Digital develops and operates industrial-scale data centers purpose-built for high-performance computing and AI workloads. We bring together deep expertise across power sourcing, real estate, engineering, construction, operations, and technology to deliver facilities engineered to the highest standards of precision and performance.

The Opportunity

Everything downstream starts with the design. Delivery quality, operational reliability, and the cost of getting it wrong are all decided on the drawing board.

Physical security at Cipher is led by three senior managers, each owning one phase of a project’s life: the Design lead owns the security design, the Integration lead owns installation, commissioning, and turnover, and the Operations lead owns the program once it is live.

This role owns the physical security design program end to end — translating threat and risk into a coherent, standardized, buildable design, and staying engaged through construction administration and record documentation so that what gets built matches design intent.

You will set the reference designs and standards our delivery teams and integrators build against, and you will own the design package to a level of completeness that lets integrators build directly from it, with no integrator-produced drawings and no shop drawings. That bar is deliberate and meeting it is the core of the job.

This is an individual contributor role at the outset, with the scope to build and lead a design team as Cipher grows.

Core Responsibilities

DESIGN STANDARDS & REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE

• Develop and maintain the corporate physical security design standards, reference designs, and technical guidelines that drive consistency and repeatability across the portfolio.
• Lead the technology strategy: platform and device standardization and sequences of operation (SOO), developed in partnership with the digital security and cybersecurity engineering functions so that what we specify is defensible on the network as well as at the door.
• Incorporate operational requirements and lessons learned from the Operations lead into the design standards, so each new reference design reflects what it actually takes to run a site.

OWNERSHIP OF THE DESIGN PACKAGE

• Own the physical security design lifecycle from concept and basis of design, through construction administration and record documentation, across new builds and expansions.
• Drive consistent, on-time production of every security design package handed to Construction.
• Hold every design package to a standard of completeness and accuracy that lets integrators build directly from it without integrator-produced drawings or shop drawings.
• Translate threat and vulnerability assessments into layered security designs appropriate to a critical-infrastructure environment, applying established principles such as defense in depth, CPTED, standoff, DORI, and the five Ds.

CROSS-DISCIPLINE COORDINATION & DESIGN REVIEW

• Own the security scope of coordination with the architectural, civil, structural, MEP, telecommunications, and IT/network engineering disciplines, so security is integrated early into designs rather than tacked on late.
• Run formal design reviews at each milestone (SD, DD, CD), including constructability review and security-lens value engineering. Before issue for construction, include the Integration lead as the downstream consumer to confirm each package is complete enough to build from and testable as drawn.
• Provide cost and constructability input to project estimates, including consultant and EOR fee assumptions, device counts, and value-engineering trade-offs.

CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION & RECORD DOCUMENTATION

• Direct design consultants and EORs through CA services: responding to RFIs, reviewing product submittals, and conducting strategically timed site visits to benchmark installation against design intent.
• Own RFI resolution and incorporation, directing EOR responses to field questions and folding agreed changes back into the design and the record set.
• Own final record and as-built documentation, incorporating field redlines, RFIs, and change-order additions.

CONSULTANT & VENDOR LEADERSHIP

• Select, direct, and hold accountable the external design consultants, EORs, and specialty vendors who extend the design function, managing scope, schedule, and deliverable quality across multiple concurrent projects.
• Serve as the senior physical security design authority for the organization, representing and defending design decisions to executive leadership, customers, and authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs).

Qualifications

REQUIRED

• Eight or more years in physical and electronic security systems (ESS), including several years leading design work, a design team, or design consultants.
• A proven track record turning over complex ESS designs on schedule.
• Demonstrated depth in access control, intrusion detection, video management, and emergency communications, along with integration architecture, including hands-on experience authoring or owning CSI Division 28 specifications.
• Demonstrated ability to translate threat and vulnerability assessments into layered security designs, applying established principles such as defense in depth, CPTED, standoff, DORI, and the five Ds.
• Experience coordinating security design with the civil, architectural, electrical, and telecommunications disciplines to produce complete, buildable design packages.
• Experience running or directing construction administration for ESS scopes of work: RFIs, submittal review, and record and as-built production.
• Working fluency with the network and cybersecurity considerations of modern security systems (segmentation, device hardening, and standards such as NIST and IEC 62443), sufficient to collaborate credibly with a cybersecurity engineering function.
• Working fluency with the codes and standards that govern security design, such as NFPA 101 and IBC egress requirements, NFPA 72, and UL 294, and with AHJ review for security and low-voltage systems.
• Comfort in the tools of design coordination and review, such as Revit, AutoCAD, and Bluebeam, even if you do not produce drawings personally.
• Working knowledge of Genetec, or an equivalent enterprise access control, intrusion alarm, and video surveillance platform.
• Demonstrated leadership across teams and through external partners, with the ability to hire, develop, and lead a team as the role scales.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with executive leadership and customers.

PREFERRED

• Design experience in data center, mission-critical, or other critical-infrastructure construction.
• Experience designing to customer- or tenant-imposed physical security standards, such as those of hyperscale cloud providers.
• Familiarity with contractual security frameworks such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II, and with SLA-driven delivery.
• CPP, PSP, CSPM, or PMP certification.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, architecture, security management, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Core Competencies

• Standardization instinct. The discipline to turn one-off solutions into repeatable standards, and to defend them.
• Cross-discipline credibility. The confidence to advocate for security requirements among architects, engineers, and construction managers, who are optimizing for other priorities.
• Clean role boundaries. The judgment to hold the line between design authority and field execution without creating friction with Construction or with the Integration lead.
• Leadership of external teams. Setting direction, standards, and accountability for consultants, EORs, and vendors who do not report to you.
• Executive communication. Clear, concise presentation of design decisions, risk trade-offs, and cost implications to leadership and customers.
• Delivery under pressure. Strong schedule and stakeholder management against hard deadlines, with sound independent judgment at a senior level.
• Broad collaboration. Effective across construction, operations, IT, compliance, HR, legal, and the vendor community.

How This Role Fits

This role sits in the Physical Security group of Cipher Digital’s converged security organization, which brings physical and information security together under a single leadership structure, and works closely with the enterprise GRC and information security functions.

All three senior managers report to the Director, Physical Security, who integrates them into a single program and serves as the escalation point between them. The Design lead defines what right looks like, the Integration lead proves it was built right and works, and the Operations lead runs with it from there.

• Manager, Physical Security Integration is your closest partner, in a relationship that is deliberately interlocking rather than a clean handoff. You stay engaged through construction administration and own the as-built and record documentation; they own technical performance in the field and review each package as its downstream consumer before issue for construction. Field judgments about whether a condition falls within design intent sit with them, and they escalate genuine design changes back to you through the RFI process.
• Manager, Physical Security Operations owns the program once a site is live. They supply the operational requirements and lessons learned that shape your design standards. Design standards are yours; operating standards are theirs.

Location, Travel, and Working Conditions

This position is remote. Travel runs up to approximately 25%, driven by project needs: design coordination, milestone design reviews, and site visits to benchmark installation against design intent during construction administration. When not traveling, you will work from your home office or a local office where one is available.

This role requires periodic standing and walking across large data center campuses and around active construction areas and climbing stairs and ladders. You should be comfortable working on active and energized construction sites, with the safety awareness such sites require, and willing to wear required personal protective equipment. Cipher Digital will make reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential fun