Senior Director, Lifecycle Engineering

Systems Engineering

Position Overview

The Senior Director, Lifecycle Engineering is the enterprise leader for the systems, data, and operating model that governs equipment digital thread from product definition through procurement, manufacture, logistics, commissioning and handover into asset, Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)/ Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and data-centre maintenance operations. 

The role sets the lifecycle engineering strategy, investment portfolio, architecture, and governance required to establish a scalable equipment digital thread: a canonical equipment and asset master, controlled product, configuration, Bill of Materials (BOM), and technical-documentation data, a single asset identity across system boundaries, and CMMS/EAM capabilities that operations and reliability teams can trust. This is a senior cross-organizational leadership role accountable for aligning executive stakeholders, building a high-performing organization, and closing the seams between engineering, procurement, logistics, construction, commissioning, and operations across the estate.

Reports To: VP, Data Center, Systems Engineering

Direct Reports: Lifecycle Engineering leaders and team

Travel: Regular travel to data-center sites, supplier factories, and FAT/commissioning activity

Key Responsibilities

Strategy, operating model and investment

• Set the enterprise lifecycle engineering strategy and translate it into a costed, sequenced multi-year portfolio roadmap with clear business outcomes, operating-model implications, investment cases, dependencies, and executive decision gates.
• Own the lifecycle engineering investment portfolio, business cases and executive-level reporting for CMMS/EAM, Product Information Management (PIM)/ Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), integration, data-platform, and related capabilities; prioritize investment against enterprise risk, scalability, and operational value.
• Establish the enterprise lifecycle data governance and design-authority operating model, including domain ownership, stewardship, standards, exceptions, escalation, decision forums, and adoption accountability.
• Set and maintain the enterprise target architecture, authoritative-source model, and lifecycle engineering standards so every critical data object has one system of record, one identity, and a controlled route of entry.

Equipment and asset master data and lifecycle 

• Own the end-to-end equipment and asset data operating model from product definition through procurement, manufacture, logistics, installation, commissioning, handover, maintenance, and reliability.
• Establish and enforce canonical equipment and asset identity, taxonomy, hierarchy, naming, units of measure, item-master, configuration, and BOM standards.
• Lead data-cleansing, deduplication, and validation-at-source programs that replace unmanaged workbooks and free-text records with governed lifecycle objects and structured exception management.
• Set data and document acceptance gates for material readiness, receiving, commissioning completion, and handover into the asset and maintenance environment.

Maintenance, reliability and operational readiness

• Own the CMMS/EAM master-data and configuration baseline, including hierarchy, class codes, criticality, PM strategy data, task plans, intervals, labor and skills, parts, closing codes, warranties, and spares.
• Establish controlled Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Method of Procedure (MOP), Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), and libraries linked to asset class, configuration, revision, approval, and point-of-work availability.
• Ensure condition data from Data Center Information Management (DCIM), Building Management System (BMS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), and operational technology systems is deterministically mapped to assets so condition-based maintenance and work orders are trustworthy.
• Establish the reliability learning loop across failure coding, bad-actor identification, root-cause analysis, and preventative maintenance optimization so operational learning improves maintenance strategy.

Cross-functional leadership and team development

• Serve as the senior accountable escalation point and executive partner for equipment and asset data, lifecycle-readiness, and operating-model disputes across Engineering and Design, Procurement and Supply Chain, Construction and Commissioning, DC Operations and Maintenance, Reliability Engineering, IT, Platform and Data, Finance, and HSE.
• Negotiate and enforce supplier and OFCI data and document deliverables, including submittals, FAT evidence, IOMs, serial data, spares, configuration data, and acceptance criteria.
• Build, lead, and develop a scalable Lifecycle Engineering organization, including leadership succession, capability planning, talent development, and accountable delivery ownership; set enterprise standards with the Principal Engineer and ensure quality, adoption, and measurable outcomes.
• Provide executive and operational leadership through a clear performance system that connects lifecycle engineering investment to PM compliance, MTTR, backlog age, spares fill rate, availability, delivery readiness, and data-quality performance.

Required Experience and Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in engineering, asset management, enterprise systems, or a closely related field, including 7+ years leading complex cross-functional systems, data, or operational programs at director, senior-director, or equivalent level.
• Proven ownership of a CMMS/EAM platform at scale, such as Attune, IBM Maximo, SAP PM/EAM, Infor EAM, Nuvolo, or equivalent, including master data, PM strategy, work management, and reporting.
• Hands-on depth in PIM and/or PLM, configuration management, item master, product variants, BOM structures, engineering change, and effectivity control.
• Strong enterprise systems background spanning ERP, procurement and supply-chain systems, document management, integration patterns, and master data governance.
• Experience applying ITIL-aligned service management, including change, incident, problem, configuration, and CMDB discipline, to a live operational estate.
• Practical experience with controlled SOP, MOP, EOP, LOTO, and permit-to-work regimes in a mission-critical environment.
• Experience with Palantir Foundry or an equivalent industrial data platform, and with data stewardship, golden records, validation at source, deduplication, and measurable data-quality KPIs.
• Proven responsibility for enterprise strategy, investment governance, organization design, and executive stakeholder management in a complex, high-growth or mission-critical environment.
• Demonstrated enterprise leadership ability to set strategy, establish standards, secure adoption, and influence senior leaders across organizational boundaries without direct authority.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

• Data-center plant literacy across electrical and mechanical systems, including UPS, switchgear, transformers, chillers, dry coolers, PDU, busway, BMS/EPMS, and OFCI/CFI delivery models.
• Experience integrating DCIM, BMS/SCADA, and OT/IIoT systems, including tag-to-asset mapping and alarm rationalization.
• Exposure to reliability engineering methods and standards, including RAM, RCM, FMEA, RCA, ISO 14224, and ISO 55000.
• Experience with BIM/COBie handover, digital-twin data exchange, and supplier contract requirements for lifecycle data and documentation.

For information on how Nscale handles candidate personal data, please see our Employee & Candidate Privacy Notice: Here.