Data Center Operations Lead - Partner Site Operations

About Anthropic Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems. About the role Anthropic's Data Center Operations (DCO) team ensures compute fleet availability through hardware and IT operations. At our partner-operated sites, this role manages the interface between Anthropic and the strategic site operations partner performing day-to-day data hall work. As the site lead, you own site outcomes for your assigned sites including: deployment velocity, availability, and incident response. Rather than managing operations staff directly, you provide tactical direction, set priorities, and define the standards for the vendor's on-site teams, paired with performance oversight and ongoing operational assessment to ensure all operational commitments are met. You will define the operational processes, quality gates, and governance rhythms for partner-operated sites. Expect to build the playbook as much as you run it, not just at a site level, but defining and developing program improvements fleet-wide. What you’ll own - Operational outcomes. Own site availability, deployment milestones, and repair turnaround, verified with independent data rather than vendor self-reporting. - Vendor direction. Set daily and weekly priorities and lead the operating cadence, including standups and business reviews. - Process definition. Author and improve procedures for deployment, break-fix, change management, security, and EHS compliance. Analyze operational trends and standardize lessons across the program. - Performance management. Track vendor performance against SLAs and staffing commitments, driving corrective actions when necessary. - Incident response and on-call. Participate in the incident escalation on-call rotation. When designated Anthropic Incident Commander for a site-specific incident, direct vendor response, own communications, and close out post-incident actions. - Internal interface. Translate engineering requirements into vendor direction and communicate site constraints and risks to leadership. Representative work - Leading weekly operations reviews and scorecards with vendor site leads. - Directing deployment surges to meet first-compute-online milestones. - Analyzing failure patterns to identify root causes and driving fixes with owners. - Creating break-fix ownership matrices and training vendor teams. - Serving as Incident Commander for facility events and producing post-mortems. - Establishing operational readiness for new data halls, including spares and security. - Identifying process gaps and codifying improvements as program standards. You may be a good fit if you - Have 8+ years of experience in data center operations (hardware, IT infrastructure, or critical facilities) as a manager, technical lead or related role, including accountability for production availability. - Have managed vendors, MSPs, or contract workforces to measurable outcomes: SOWs, SLAs, operational reviews, and corrective action. - Carry hands-on technical depth in server, network, and rack-level infrastructure, enough to independently verify vendor claims and audit quality. - Have built or substantially improved operational processes, not just run them. - Have served in an incident command or lead-responder role and communicate clearly under ambiguity. - Can support non-standard hours, including an on-call rotation and availability during deployment surges and maintenance windows. - Bachelor's degree in relevant domain or equivalent practical experience. Strong candidates may also have - Experience with third-party colocation providers or partner-operated sites, delivering IT operations outcomes inside a facility someone else runs. - Experience standing up operations at a new site or data hall, from commissioning handoff through first deployment. - Experience with GPU/accelerator or high-density liquid-cooled infrastructure. - Familiarity with multi-vendor sites where facilities and IT operations are performed by different partners. - Experience leading projects from initiation to completion across teams you didn't own. - Background in incident management frameworks, contract/SLA design, or EHS programs. The annual compensation range for this role is listed below. For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role. Annual Salary: $320,000—$405,000 USD Logistics Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience Required field of study: A field relevant to th