Critical Environments Program Manager

PURPOSE The Critical Environments Program Manager leads customer-facing programs that protect the availability, safety, and performance of mission-critical facilities across multiple sites. This role partners with customers and internal teams to plan and execute preventative and corrective maintenance, projects, incident response, operational governance, and budget planning while strengthening relationships that support customer retention, new business growth, and team expansion.

This is a customer-facing, multi-site leadership role supporting high-reliability and mission-critical environments. The position requires close coordination with customers, facility leaders, finance partners, technical specialists, and executive stakeholders, with travel to customers and operating sites required approximately 20% of the time. Success depends on maintaining operational discipline, protecting uptime, responding decisively to incidents, and balancing near-term reliability needs with long-term maintenance and capital plans.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The following duties are typical for this job. These are not to be construed as exclusive or all inclusive. Other duties may be required and assigned.

Team Leadership and Development:

• Mentor and scale a high-performing team that supports customer operations.
• Reinforce a safety-first culture, disciplined execution, and strong knowledge-management practices.

Customer Partnership and Program Management:

• Build trusted relationships with existing customers and proactively develop partnerships that attract and secure new clients.
• Develop and manage programs that sustain a consistent preventative and corrective maintenance cadence for mission-critical infrastructure across multiple sites.
• Provide oversight tailored to customer operating environments, including data centers, hospitals, pharmaceutical facilities, and other high-reliability settings.
• Ensure maintenance, projects, and uptime commitments are planned and executed in accordance with service-level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Mission-Critical Infrastructure Oversight:

• Partner with customers to plan and execute preventative and corrective maintenance and projects across multiple facilities.
• Coordinate maintenance schedules, standard operating procedures, and escalation processes to maximize uptime and operational continuity.
• Direct the operational cadence for mechanical and electrical systems; electrical power monitoring systems (EPMS); building automation and management systems (BAS/BMS); life-safety systems; power distribution; uninterruptible power supplies (UPS); generators; specialized cooling, including computer room air handlers (CRAHs), chillers, and coolant distribution units (CDUs); security; and very early smoke detection apparatus (VESDA).

Incident Leadership and Risk Management:

• Serve as the primary escalation point for facility emergencies in collaboration with customers and internal stakeholders.
• Coordinate rapid triage, incident communications, and root cause analysis (RCA) to prevent recurrence.
• Help teams anticipate operational risk and identify single points of failure (SPOFs) before they affect availability.

Strategic Planning, Financial Management, and Governance:

• Lead short- and long-term budget planning for preventative and corrective maintenance, near-term operational needs, and future capital improvements.
• Partner with finance and facility leaders to forecast spending, track performance, and adjust plans as risks and priorities change.
• Align annual and multi-year budgets with maintenance, upgrade, and replacement schedules and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Evaluate cost renegotiations, support contract negotiations, and assess return on investment (ROI) to maximize value while protecting uptime.
• Provide executive leadership with regular reporting and recommendations on operating expenditure, capital planning, and budget variances.
• Guide teams in developing the Master Scope of Work (MSOW), Method of Procedure (MOP), and Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) to promote safety and effective project execution in high-risk environments.

MINIMUM EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED TO PERFORM ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in mission-critical operations, such as data centers, hospitals, pharmaceutical facilities, or nuclear environments.
• Minimum of three (3) years of experience leading and developing technical or operations teams, including direct people leadership responsibility.
• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, facilities management, or a related technical field preferred.
• Deep knowledge of infrastructure redundancy concepts, including N+1 and 2N configurations.
• Strong working knowledge of building management systems (BMS), data center infrastructure management (DCIM), and electrical and mechanical distribution systems.

Preferred Certifications

• Data center certifications such as Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP) or Certified Data Centre Specialist (CDCS), or equivalent mission-critical facilities credentials.

MENTAL AND PHYSICAL COMPETENCIES REQUIRED TO PERFORM ESSENTAL FUNCTIONS

• Operational vigilance: Anticipates risk, identifies SPOFs, and drives preventive action before issues affect availability.
• Regulatory knowledge: Familiarity with EPA environmental permitting requirements and applicable local building, electrical, and mechanical codes.
• Stakeholder management: Translates complex technical risks into clear business terms for customers’ executive leadership and for clinical and IT stakeholders.
• Executive communication: Presents concise reporting, recommendations, and trade-offs related to operations, capital planning, budgets, and uptime.
• Collaborative leadership: Aligns customers, facility teams, finance partners, and technical specialists around safe, reliable, and measurable outcomes.

ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTABILITY

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally
• Significant field and client interactions on construction job sites, which may require prolonged periods of standing, walking and/or climbing stairs and exposure to a variety of temperate and weather conditions.
• This position requires travel approximately 20% of the time.

EQUIPMENT/TOOLS

• Laptop Computer

Baker Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Baker Group will consider reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and encourage prospective employees and incumbents to discuss potential accommodations with the Employer.