Interim Managing Director — Data Centre Commissioning

The mandate

Late utility energisation and failed integrated systems testing have pushed an anchor customer's ready-for-service date beyond contract, and the project sponsor has resigned. Construction, critical facilities and commercial teams now need one India executive who can decide the commissioning sequence and customer settlement posture.

The interim must start within three weeks and lead for fourteen months through energisation, phased opening and two quarters of steady operation. Permanent MD recruitment begins after the first hall is accepted; extension is possible for up to two months if final capacity acceptance overlaps successor notice.

Handover requires all contracted phase-one halls to pass integrated systems tests, the anchor customer to accept service or a board-approved settlement, critical operations to sustain agreed availability for two quarters, and the permanent MD to chair one investment and risk review.

The interim may sequence commissioning, redeploy the approved completion budget, appoint temporary specialists and negotiate claims within a ₹20 crore delegation. Capital increases above ₹50 crore, customer settlement above ₹25 crore, design changes reducing resilience, permanent C-suite hires and new land commitments require investment committee approval.

Phase-two expansion, unrelated land acquisition and entry into edge facilities are outside scope. The interim must open and stabilise the committed campus before the board revisits growth options.

Why this seat is open

The delay removed the sponsor who had carried tacit trade-offs across construction and commercial commitments. Functional leaders cannot settle those choices from within their own cost or customer objectives. A temporary MD provides integrated authority until the campus is operating and a long-term leader can inherit facts rather than forecasts.

What you will own

• Decide the commissioning sequence across power, cooling, fire, security, network and customer deployment dependencies.
• Re-baseline ready-for-service dates using tested critical-path evidence and quantified contractual consequence.
• Approve each integrated systems test scenario and reject results that exclude realistic component or utility failure.
• Negotiate anchor-customer recovery milestones and concessions within delegated authority.
• Govern completion capital through forecast-at-completion, change control, claims and contingency draw decisions.
• Demonstrate two quarters of stable critical-facility operation with trained shifts, spares and exercised emergency procedures.
• Transfer customer obligations, test records, capital claims, capacity pipeline and executive talent decisions to the permanent MD.

Candidate qualifications

• Served as country MD, data-centre COO or infrastructure programme executive with P&L and commissioning authority.
• Opened a hyperscale or mission-critical facility through integrated systems testing and customer acceptance.
• Managed utility, EPC, equipment and network dependencies under contractual delay.
• Negotiated material customer and construction claims without weakening resilience standards.
• Directed critical-facilities operations into steady state with measurable availability and emergency readiness.
• Presented capital and risk decisions to infrastructure investors or boards.

Non-negotiables

• Available for full-time Hyderabad site leadership within three weeks.
• No current commercial interest in the EPC, utility adviser or anchor customer.
• Will not accept commissioning tests that omit realistic failure scenarios.
• Must have opened a live mission-critical facility, not only financed or designed one.

1. 49 words maximum. State your start date and any contractor, utility or customer conflict.
2. 49 words maximum. Describe an integrated systems test you failed and the defect it exposed.
3. 49 words maximum. Which evidence makes a data hall ready for customer service?