Critical Path Hiring logoCritical PathHiring
Book a hiring diagnostic

Data center jobs · Commissioning

Commissioning Manager job

What a data center commissioning manager does day to day, how the role differs from a commissioning engineer or agent, and how senior commissioning agents move up into it.

By Czarina Tabayoyong, Founder, Critical Path Hiring

Last reviewed · First published

Reviewed as terms, pay and markets change.

The job

A commissioning manager runs commissioning for one data center site or several. They own the plan and test scripts, staff the team, set the schedule and work with the owner through turnover. Companies add the role when there is more testing than one commissioning agent can run.

A typical day

  • Write and maintain the commissioning plan and the test scripts
  • Choose and oversee the commissioning firms and vendors
  • Line up the commissioning schedule with construction and turnover dates
  • Assign people across sites that are testing at the same time
  • Run the issue log and get the owner to accept the building
  • Fix problems found on one building in the plan for the next

Location and schedule

Either on the owner side or at a commissioning firm, covering one site or several. Owner-side roles usually involve less travel than the same title at a commissioning firm.

Skills and certifications

Required

  • Senior commissioning agent experience
  • Running commissioning on more than one building at a time

Helpful

  • CxA, CCP or BCxP certification

Routes in

Senior commissioning agents move into this role. Some come from electrical field engineering or from startup and testing firms where they ran one set of test scripts across several projects.

Next roles

This role leads to director of commissioning.

Pay

Pay varies by market and level, and the current ranges are in our commissioning pay ranges page.

Questions

How is a commissioning manager different from a commissioning engineer?
The commissioning engineer writes and runs the tests. The commissioning manager owns the whole program, including getting it through Level 5 on schedule with complete documentation.
When does a company hire a commissioning manager?
When testing runs on more than one building at a time, or when test scripts and the issue log start to differ from site to site.
How do I become a commissioning manager?
Most people get there as a senior commissioning agent who has already run commissioning across several buildings. Director of commissioning is the next step.

Next steps