Data Center Development Lead

ABOUT xAI

xAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

As a Datacenter Development Lead at xAI, you’ll lead the charge at our datacenters, building and maintaining the robust, scalable systems that power xAI’s cutting-edge AI workloads. Working onsite with cross-functional teams, you’ll oversee the full lifecycle of datacenter infrastructure—from hardware deployment to ongoing optimization—solving complex challenges to ensure high performance and availability. Expect to guide your team, streamline operations, and keep everything running smoothly to fuel xAI’s mission of accelerating human scientific discovery through AI.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Oversee the design, installation, and commissioning of datacenter infrastructure, including power, cooling, networking, and compute systems tailored for high-performance AI workloads.
• Work closely with AI researchers, software engineers, and hardware teams to align infrastructure capabilities with xAI’s computational needs.
• Coordinate with vendors and contractors to procure equipment, manage installations, and ensure compliance with xAI’s technical and safety standards.
• Support the facilities team with real estate matters such as identifying prospective properties of interest, negotiating lease and own acquisitions, dispositions (terminations and subleases/assignments), exercising operations and any related matters.
• Work closely with legal, finance and other related departments to execute real estate transactions, including acceptable terms and conditions, timely and accurate payment, and required document and information delivery.
• Forecast and plan for future datacenter capacity needs to support xAI’s growing AI initiatives.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree and 2+ years of professional experience, or 5+ years of professional experience without a degree

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Licensed real estate agent in CA, WA, TX, and/or FL.
• Contract management experience.
• Familiarity with the infrastructure demands of AI and machine learning workloads, including GPU/TPU clusters and high-bandwidth networking.
• Experience working in fast-paced, mission-driven organizations.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams.

xAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.