Director, Data Center Strategy and Capacity Planning

US, Arizona, Phoenix April 17, 2026 Full Time Workday

Job Details:

Job Description: 

We are seeking a senior individual contributor to define and drive the multi-year infrastructure strategy and capacity plan across our global IT data center environments, spanning on-prem data centers, colocation, and cloud. This role operates at a strategic altitude, shaping where and how we invest to support enterprise workloads, ensuring the right balance between performance, scalability, cost, and resiliency.

The role is responsible for defining and evolving a holistic multi-year capacity strategy across on-prem data centers, colocation footprint, and public cloud platforms. This includes incorporating the diverse requirements of all workloads needed to support Intel's business, with a strong focus on real-world constraints such as power availability, cooling capacity, space, latency, and performance. The individual will develop clear strategic direction and trade-offs across on-prem, cloud, and colocation environments, including workload placement, scaling strategies, and decisions around site expansion versus consolidation.

In addition, the role builds integrated demand forecasts and leads scenario planning to evaluate trade-offs across rapid compute growth, burst demand, and power and space constraints, as well as hybrid and cloud offload models. A key expectation is the ability to identify capacity risks and constraints 12-36 months in advance and translate them into actionable mitigation strategies.
The role also owns multi-year infrastructure investment frameworks, including development of CapEx and OpEx projections and total cost of ownership (TCO) models. It drives and influences enterprise-level trade-offs across engineering, operations, and finance, and plays a key role in shaping budget planning and prioritization.

From a lifecycle perspective, the role defines multi-year infrastructure refresh strategies aligned with capacity, cost, and performance needs, while anticipating the impact of increasing rack density, accelerator-driven workloads, and evolving cooling technologies.
Finally, the role establishes and governs a single source of truth for demand, capacity, and forecasts, and drives quarterly executive reviews focused on capacity risks, investment priorities, and strategic trade-offs. A critical aspect of the role is translating complex data and models into clear, decision-ready narratives that enable timely executive decision-making.

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field required; Master’s degree preferred.
  • 10+ years of experience in infrastructure strategy and capacity planning (or similar roles), including shaping multi-year infrastructure strategy at scale in complex, global environments and managing data center constraints such as power, cooling, and space.
  • 10+ years of experience working with enterprise IT applications, data infrastructure platforms, and cloud architectures, including hybrid environments (on-premises, cloud, and colocation), with familiarity in HPC, EDA, and emerging technologies.
  • 5+ years of experience building and defending financial models, including CapEx, OpEx, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
  • 5+ years of experience influencing senior executive stakeholders and driving alignment across cross-functional leadership without direct authority.

          

Job Type:

Experienced Hire

Shift:

Shift 1 (United States of America)

Primary Location: 

US, Arizona, Phoenix

Additional Locations:

US, California, Folsom, US, California, Santa Clara, US, Oregon, Hillsboro

Business group:

IT is the trusted technology partner for Intel's business, relentlessly focused on the experience of our people, our end users, and our customers. We design and support Intel's IT infrastructure, driving e-Commerce and web services with a focus on robust security and identity protection.

Posting Statement:

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.

Position of Trust

This role is a Position of Trust. Should you accept this position, you must consent to and pass an extended Background Investigation, which includes (subject to country law), extended education, SEC sanctions, and additional criminal and civil checks. For internals, this investigation may or may not be completed prior to starting the position. For additional questions, please contact your Recruiter.

Benefits

We offer a total compensation package that ranks among the best in the industry. It consists of competitive pay, stock bonuses, and benefit programs which include health, retirement, and vacation. Find out more about the benefits of working at Intel.

 

 

Annual Salary Range for jobs which could be performed in the US: $188,330.00-363,860.00 USD

 

 

The range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target compensation for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific compensation range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

 

 

Work Model for this Role

This role will be eligible for our hybrid work model which allows employees to split their time between working on-site at their assigned Intel site and off-site. * Job posting details (such as work model, location or time type) are subject to change.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Intel is committed to Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) compliance and ethical hiring practices. We do not charge any fees during our hiring process. Candidates should never be required to pay recruitment fees, medical examination fees, or any other charges as a condition of employment. If you are asked to pay any fees during our hiring process, please report this immediately to your recruiter.
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