Data Centre Operations Engineering Lead - AI / GPU Infrastructure

Location: Paris, France (on-site) | Type: Full time | Languages: French and English required

About the role

We're partnered with a fast-growing GPU-as-a-Service provider running mission-critical AI and HPC compute, where uptime, throughput, and ultra-low latency are non-negotiable. We're looking for a Data Centre Operations Engineering Lead to own the operational buildout, stabilisation, and long-term SLA execution of a major European site.

This is a senior, site-based leadership role with full accountability for on-the-ground engineering, team performance, and operational standards across ultra-high-density hardware. You'll take command of site commissioning through to steady state, set the physical and cooling standards, and be the definitive technical authority on site.

What you'll own

• Day-to-day site operations and technical leadership, directing a team of Data Centre Operations Engineers and owning physical practices, hardware handling, cooling, and SLA delivery.
• Site commissioning from physical readiness to steady state: liquid cooling workflows (CDU commissioning, coolant loop management, leak detection), high-density power distribution, cabling, and full documentation.
• Operation and troubleshooting of Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) systems - CDUs, rear-door heat exchangers, in-row cooling, and coolant infrastructure.
• Structured break/fix on rack-scale, high-density GPU platforms and busbar-based power distribution, plus authoring the SOPs that keep it safe, repeatable, and low-MTTR.
• Site-level capacity management across power, space, and cooling, with asset lifecycle tracked in the CMDB.
• Incident response and postmortems, vendor/RMA management to SLO, and 24x7x365 production support including on-call.
• Close partnership with HPC SRE, Network Engineering, and strategy teams.

What you'll bring

• Degree in Computer Science / Electrical Engineering, or 10+ years of directly relevant senior data centre operations experience.
• 5+ years in data centre operations or HPC, with progression into technical leadership and ownership of standards and SLAs.
• Hands-on track record with HPC NVIDIA GPU (or equivalent) systems, high-performance storage, and networking.
• Direct Liquid Cooling experience: CDU operation, coolant loop management, leak detection, thermal monitoring.
• Experience with, or strong working knowledge of, ultra-high-density platforms and busbar-based power distribution above 30kW/rack.
• Structured break/fix methodology, low-level maintenance, firmware management, and strong capacity modelling.
• Solid grasp of ITSM / service operations. Fluent French and English.

Nice to have

Large-scale private cloud and capacity planning; HVAC qualifications; hardware/networking certifications; ITIL Foundation; data centre facilities qualifications (Uptime Institute ATD, EPI CDCP, or equivalent); vendor-endorsed NVIDIA / HPE qualifications.

What's in it for you

Hands-on work with some of the world's most advanced GPU and AI infrastructure, genuine ownership of a world-class site, and the chance to lead at the forefront of ultra-high-density AI compute as the business scales.