Senior Project Manager – Network Infrastructure Design & Standards

About this role

Job Type: Full-Time | Location: Texas | Department: Data Center Delivery | Reporting to: Director, Network Delivery | Work Location Type: #remote
IREN is a vertically integrated AI Cloud provider, delivering large-scale data centers and GPU clusters for AI training and inference. IREN’s platform is underpinned by its expansive portfolio of grid-connected land and power in renewable-rich regions across North America, Europe and APAC.
Reporting to the Director, Network Delivery, the Senior Project Manager – Network Infrastructure Design & Standards is the portfolio design authority for the passive and physical network infrastructure that supports IREN’s data center campuses: outside-plant and inside-plant fiber, carrier entrances and meet-me rooms, campus backbone, structured cabling, pathways, and the rack, rack-unit and power placement of network equipment.
The role develops and maintains the network infrastructure standards the Director approves, and then holds every campus to them: approving designs, deviations and test packages, directing external architecture and engineering partners on telecom design, and setting the acceptance criteria that construction is measured against. It is an individual-contributor role with design-approval authority, working alongside the Senior Project Manager – Route Planning, the Senior Project Managers – Network Delivery and the Senior Project Managers – Site Network Delivery.
With 100% renewable energy, we build, own and operate our data centers and take pride in being at the forefront of sustainable solutions for the ever-evolving applications of high-performance compute. We believe that human progress is invaluable, but it should be done in the right way – responsibly, sustainably and having a positive impact on the communities we operate in. Responsibilities
Standards and governance

• Develop and maintain the portfolio network infrastructure standards – fiber architecture, cable and connector types, panel and splice architecture, pathways, MMR and MDF/IDF design, labeling, testing and acceptance criteria – and submit them to the Director, Network Delivery for approval.

• Approve or reject telecom and fiber designs, deviations and substitutions against the approved standards; maintain the technical exception record and the remediation conditions that go with it.

• Run design reviews at 30 / 60 / 90 percent and IFC for every campus; no construction package is released and no carrier order is placed before the gate is passed.

• Set and track engineering KPIs: standards compliance, RFI and change-order reduction, first-pass test acceptance, documentation completeness and turnover quality.
Fiber infrastructure engineering

• Lead the engineering review of OSP and ISP fiber infrastructure across the portfolio: carrier connectivity, campus backbone, inter-building and inter-campus connectivity, and the fiber serving compute, enterprise and operational technology networks.

• Establish fiber-count and capacity requirements from current demand, redundancy, customer growth and future expansion; own the spare-capacity strategy for strands, panel ports, pathways and telecommunications spaces.

• Set fiber-loss budgets, optical performance requirements and standardized distribution and patching architectures, including splice-versus-patch decisions.

Carrier entrance, MMR and diversity criteria

• Set the standards for carrier entrance facilities, meet-me rooms, duct banks, manholes, handholes and diverse building entrances.

• Define the physical-diversity and shared-risk criteria that the Senior Project Manager – Route Planning applies to candidate routes; review route packages for compliance.

• Define demarcation, rack, cross-connect, power, grounding and carrier equipment placement standards in the MMR.

Campus infrastructure and equipment placement

• Develop and approve campus fiber backbone architectures and MMR, core, MDF, IDF and telecommunications-room connectivity requirements.

• Determine the room, rack and rack-unit position for new network equipment; coordinate A/B power and PDU outlet assignments with Electrical and Facilities Engineering.

• Coordinate telecommunications infrastructure with civil, electrical, architectural, structural and mechanical design so pathways, rooms and power are protected in every building.

A/E and consultant direction

• Direct external A/E firms and engineering consultants on telecom design: scopes of work, deliverables, milestones and review expectations.

• Review and approve basis-of-design documents, specifications, drawings, fiber schematics, rack elevations, pathway plans, splice diagrams, port assignments and fiber matrices.

• Hold consultants accountable for quality, completeness, constructability and compliance with IREN standards; evaluate performance across projects.

Construction support and engineering assurance

• Conduct constructability reviews before construction packages are issued; superintendents and Senior Project Managers – Site Network Delivery attend the 60 percent review.

• Provide technical direction on field conditions and engineering conflicts raised through RFIs by the Senior Project Managers – Site Network Delivery; evaluate proposed changes for reliability, capacity, cost, schedule and future expansion.

• Participate in engineering-verification walks and confirm installed infrastructure matches approved design intent.
Testing and acceptance

• Set the portfolio fiber acceptance standard: Tier 1 testing, Tier 2/OTDR, insertion loss, optical return loss where applicable, polarity, end-face inspection, splice-loss limits and launch/receive requirements.

• Review and approve test packages before infrastructure is accepted; define the process for failed tests and deficiencies.

• Apply acceptance criteria consistently across campuses and contractors.

NetBox, DCIM and documentation

• Own the NetBox/DCIM data standard for physical infrastructure: asset, rack, panel, port, cable,…