Director, Physical Deployment (AI Infrastructure)

Location: UK; other location: Seattle. This is a field leadership role requiring travel to data center sites for 90% or more of the time, often at short notice.

Base salary: $290,000–$350,000 USD, with potential bonus, equity, and/or commission.

Company

Nscale builds and operates large-scale AI infrastructure, delivering GPU clusters for hyperscalers, AI labs, and enterprises across North America, EMEA, and APAC.

What you will do

• Own integrated physical deployment schedules from data center early access through rack delivery, power and cooling activation, structured cabling, L10/L11 testing, and handoff to Logical Deployment.
• Set milestone dates, manage critical paths and buffers, and lead recovery plans when construction, supply, staffing, or vendor schedules slip.
• Run site cadences with data center partners, OEMs including Dell, Lenovo, and Supermicro, cabling vendors, and onsite teams.
• Track every rack and required GPU, rack, switch, transceiver, and cabling material against need dates.
• Lead, hire, and develop Physical Deployment TPMs while holding vendors accountable to SOWs, staffing plans, quality standards, documentation, and test results.
• Define the physical deployment playbook and partner with tooling teams on rack tracking, cabling verification, automation, and status reporting.

Requirements

• 15+ years of experience in data centers, hyperscale infrastructure, or large-scale hardware deployment, including 5+ years leading teams.
• Direct experience delivering multi-megawatt GPU or HPC clusters from data hall readiness through rack energization.
• Working knowledge of data center power, liquid and air cooling, structured cabling, and rack integration.
• Experience managing OEMs, data center operators, and construction partners against firm commitments.
• Strong ability to build integrated schedules and critical paths across multiple parties and recover them when they slip.
• Clear, concise executive communication in writing and in meetings, with honest forecasts.
• Ability to travel 90% or more of the time, primarily to data center sites and often at short notice.
• Director-level leadership characterized by decisive ownership, partner accountability, steadiness under pressure, executive credibility, hands-on site engagement, and development of future leaders.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience with NVIDIA GB200/GB300 or Vera Rubin NVL72-class rack deployments.
• Experience at a hyperscaler, neocloud, or AI lab deploying 10K+ GPU clusters.
• Familiarity with L10/L11 hardware validation and rack-level burn-in.
• Experience introducing tooling or automation for rack tracking and deployment reporting.
• PMP certification or a construction or engineering background.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits may be available.
• Flexible paid time off, parental leave, and retirement plan participation may be available.
• The role may be eligible for bonus, equity, and/or commission programs.
• The position requires hands-on leadership from the data center floor and ownership of site outcomes rather than status reporting.