Capacity Deployment Lead - Data Center 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 As a Capacity Deployment Lead within Anthropic's Data Center Operations (DCO) organization, you will support and scale how we bring new compute capacity online across a growing fleet of partner-operated data centers. Deployment runs from construction kickoff to ready for service (RFS). You are engaged during planning and construction, and on-site and hands-on from EFA through infrastructure delivery and receiving, integration QA, power-on and network turn-up, burn-in and validation, and acceptance. You work with hardware vendors and operations partners for completion of each CU (capacity unit) with a structured handover into production operations and the maintenance program. The scope is compute: accelerator systems, racks, and the infrastructure around them - at the sites in service today and the ones coming online behind them. This is a program and execution role. You will work with the Global Capacity Delivery Program Lead and the broader Data Center Operations organization, to extend its coverage across more sites and platforms as the fleet grows. Expect 50%+ travel: you get eyes on via boots-on-the-ground for each site in preparation for and during delivery, deployment, QA, and close-out, and your authority comes from being there. Working with vendors and partners, you set direction, priorities, and standards for execution, and you prove results with Anthropic-owned data rather than self-reported status. What you learn at one site - what worked, what slipped, what should become standard - becomes the playbook for the next wave. If you have delivered data center hardware at scale, are passionate about HPC data centers, & enjoy working in complex, fast-paced environments, we welcome you to apply. Responsibilities Include: • Own deployment outcomes for your assigned sites and data-hall waves: CUs and hall ready-for-service dates met, with exceptions closed out, or risk called early enough for leadership to act. • Engage from construction kickoff and confirm deployment readiness ahead of each wave - floor access, power, network, receiving paths, and partner staffing - working the gaps with the site operations partner and facilities counterparts before racks arrive. • Be on site at key points before and during delivery, deployment, QA, and close-out; verify the work with your own eyes rather than from a dashboard, and support the on-site teams with your direct expertise. • Work with partner's site leadership to ensure success through rack delivery and receiving, integration QA, power-on and network turn-up, and burn-in and validation, setting daily priorities and quality gates and confirming results against Anthropic-owned ticket and telemetry data. • Validate the handover gate for each CU and data hall: acceptance criteria met, burn-in complete, documentation delivered, spares positioned, ticketing live, and a structured handover into production operations and the maintenance program. • Turn best practices, optimization, and lessons learned from each deployment into program-wide improvements: procedures, checklists, acceptance standards, and metrics, so the next wave runs faster and cleaner than the last. • Extend the deployment program to new sites and platforms, adapting standards and acceptance criteria as the hardware changes. • Communicate deployment status, dependencies, constraints, and risk to engineering, capacity planning, the team that owns the overall site schedule, and leadership. You may be a good fit if you: • Have 8+ years of experience in data center operations or hardware deployment as a manager, technical lead or related role, including accountability for delivery milestones. • Can demonstrate a proven track record leading compute or network hardware deployments at a large scale across multiple sites or data-hall waves, from early floor access through ready for service. • Have managed vendors, OEMs, or contract workforces to measurable outcomes: milestones, quality gates, operational reviews, and corrective action. • Possess hands-on technical depth in server, network, and rack-level hardware, enough to independently verify deployment quality and audit vendor claims. • Have built or substantially improved operational processes. • Are comfortable working with schedule, ticket, and telemetry data to drive decisions. • Can travel heavily and work on site for extended stretches, including during delivery surges and turn-up windows. 50% Travel expected. • Possess a bachelor's degree in relevant domain or equivalent practical experience. It’s a bonus if you have: • Experience with GPU/accelerator or high-density liquid-cooled infrastructure, including bring-up of liquid-cooled racks. • Experience standing up operations at a new site or data hall, from commissioning handoff through first deployment. • Experience deploying more than one accelerator platform, or introducing a new hardware platform into an existing deployment program. • Experience delivering deployment outcomes inside partner-operated or colocation sites where on-the-floor operations are staffed via third parties. • Familiarity with dense accelerator network cabling, optics, and high-speed interconnect at rack and pod scale. 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, trai