Head of AI Factory Commissioning

Firmus Technologies Firmus Technologies is a global leader pioneering the development and operation of efficient AI infrastructure across Asia Pacific. Founded in Australia in 2019, our mission is to create the most efficient AI infrastructure by combining cutting-edge technology with a steadfast commitment to sustainability. At Firmus, we are unique in our approach. We design, build, and operate a new class of digital infrastructure – the AI Factory. Through our model-to-grid technology approach, we have pushed the boundaries of multi-generational liquid cooling systems, energy management, AI software orchestration, and construction. For our customers, this approach allows us to make every watt count and deliver low-cost AI tokens globally. Firmus AI Cloud Our large-scale GPU cloud platform, Firmus AI Cloud, is purpose-built to deliver energy-efficient AI compute at scale to customers. It empowers developers, enterprises, educational institutions, and government users to train and deploy AI models with unmatched efficiency and cost savings. With an ever-growing suite of services and applications, we are committed to delivering a cloud experience that is market-leading, proprietary, and built to scale. Role Summary Firmus Technologies is seeking a Head of AI Factory Commissioning to build and lead the function responsible for commissioning the physical infrastructure of our AI Factories across the Asia Pacific region. You will set the strategy, standards and governance that ensure every AI Factory is proven safe, resilient and performing to design before any compute is deployed. An AI Factory is a building scale computer that places unprecedented demands on power density, liquid cooling, controls integration, operational resilience, and commissioning rigor. This role is responsible for ensuring these next-generation facilities are proven ready to support large-scale GPU deployments before handover to AI Cluster Commissioning. Firmus has AI factories under development ranging in size from tens of MW to GW scale. This is a function lead role, at the same level as the Head of AI Cluster Commissioning. You will lead a team of Commissioning Managers who run the day-to-day commissioning. Your focus will be building the function, setting direction, managing risk across the portfolio, and owning the “ready for IT” gate: no data hall is handed over for cluster bring-up until its infrastructure has passed the appropriate level of commissioning acceptance. Key Responsibilities Leadership & Function Build • Build, lead and develop a high-performing team of Commissioning Managers and commissioning professionals. • Define the structure, capability and resourcing model for the function so it can scale with Firmus’ national and APAC project pipeline. • Allocate leadership and resources across the portfolio of AI Factory projects, balancing priorities and managing delivery risk. • Build a culture of safety, ownership, technical rigour and continuous improvement. Commissioning Strategy & Governance • Set the strategic direction for AI Factory commissioning, including the methodology, commissioning levels (L1–L5), Integrated Systems Testing (IST) approach and acceptance criteria. • Direct the development of commissioning standards, frameworks and templates, delivered through the Commissioning Manager. • Set up governance, assurance and reporting that give leadership clear visibility of commissioning progress, readiness and quality across all projects. • Make sure commissioning strategies cover all critical infrastructure, including: • HV/MV/LV power distribution, UPS, generators and battery energy storage • Liquid cooling (CDUs, secondary fluid networks, chillers and heat rejection) • Air-side cooling (CRAH/CRAC units, fan walls, air handling and containment) • Controls and monitoring: BMS, EPMS and the CubeSense SCADA platform • Fire detection and suppression, security and other life-safety systems • Act as the final escalation point for complex technical issues, commissioning failures and acceptance decisions. Handover & Stakeholder Interfaces • Own the facility “ready for IT” gate, jointly with the Head of AI Cluster Commissioning, so commissioned data halls hand over cleanly to cluster bring-up. • Set the standard for handover to operations, including as-built documentation, training, known issues and operational readiness. • Work with Engineering & Technology, Construction/Delivery, Operations and the AI Infrastructure Platform (AIIP) teams to embed commissionability from concept design onwards. • Represent commissioning with executive leadership, customers, partners and key suppliers. Commercial, Performance & Continuous Improvement • Set the strategy for engaging third-party commissioning agents and oversee their commercial and delivery performance. • Own the commissioning budget and oversee schedule, cost and risk across the portfolio. • Drive the use of digital commissioning platforms, automation and data-driven validation, so each AI Factory is commissioned faster and more repeatably than the last. • Make sure design performance (PUE, thermal and resilience) is validated, and feed lessons learned back into Firmus’ AI Factory designs and standards. Skills & Experience Required Skills • Bachelor’s degree in electrical or mechanical engineering, or a related discipline. • 12+ years’ experience in mission-critical or data centre environments, building on a foundation in engineering. This should include substantial experience leading commissioning programmes, typically after starting in engineering design, delivery or operations. • Proven experience leading and developing commissioning managers or multi-disciplinary commissioning teams across multiple concurrent projects. • Strong understanding of L1–L5 commissioning and IST for large-scale critical power, liquid and air cooling, and controls systems. • Experience building or maturing a commissioning function, methodology or standards in a growing organisation. • Strong commercial acumen, including budget ownership and managing commissioning agents, contractors and OEMs. • Ability to influence senior stakeholders and report clearly and credibly to executive leadership. • A strong safety leadership record. • Ownership and delivery mindset. Preferred Experience • Commissioning of high-density AI/HPC environments, including direct-to-chip liquid cooling combined with air-side cooling. • Experience with hyperscale or GPU cloud builds and the handover into IT/cluster commissioning. • Experience introducing digital commissioning platforms and automated testing.