Manager, Virtual Design & Construction

Job Type: Full Time | Location: Texas | Department: Innovation | Reporting to: Chief Innovation Officer | Work Location Type: #remote  

IREN is a vertically integrated AI Cloud provider, delivering large-scale data centers and GPU clusters for AI training and inference. IREN’s platform is underpinned by its expansive portfolio of grid-connected land and power in renewable-rich regions across North America, Europe and APAC. 

The Manager, Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) will establish and lead IREN's corporate Virtual Design & Construction function — defining the company-wide strategy, standards, and digital delivery framework through which BIM, model-based coordination, and data-rich design processes are applied across IREN's data center portfolio.

This is a corporate enablement role: it sets the standards, tools, and workflows that every project follows, and supports the project teams who directly oversee VDC activities on their builds — equipping them to deliver coordinated, constructible models and ensuring lessons learned flow back into company-wide standards. The role sits within the Innovation organization and supports its mission of compressing design and delivery timelines through digital, model-first methods.

With 100% renewable energy, we build, own and operate our data centers and take pride in being at the forefront of sustainable solutions for the ever-evolving applications of high-performance compute. We believe that human progress is invaluable, but it should be done in the right way – responsibly, sustainably and having a positive impact on the communities we operate in. 

Responsibilities

Corporate VDC Strategy & Standards 

• Define and own IREN's enterprise VDC roadmap —establishingBIM execution plans, modeling standards, level-of-development (LOD) requirements, naming conventions, and quality benchmarks that create consistency across all projects, consultants, and contractors.
• Develop governance for how design partners, general contractors, and trade partners author, exchange, and federate models — embedding VDC requirements into contracts, RFPs, and consultant agreements so digital deliverables are enforceable and consistent.
• Standardize the transition of model data across the project lifecycle, from early concept through detailed design, fabrication, construction, commissioning, and handover to operations — ensuring the model remains the single sourceof truth at each stage.

Project Team Support & VDC Enablement 

• Support the project teams who directly oversee VDC activities on each build — providing guidance, templates, and best practices for federated model management, clash detection and resolution, constructability reviews, and coordination cadences, without duplicating their day-to-day oversight role.
• Advise project teams on model-based quantity takeoff, sequencing (4D), and cost integration (5D) where these materially improve estimating accuracy, schedule certainty, and procurement timing.
• Support prefabrication and modular construction initiatives by helping teams ensure models are developed to fabrication-level detail where required, enabling off-site manufacturing partners to build directly from coordinated model data.
• Provide hands-on escalation support on complex coordination challenges,settingthe technical bar for what well-executed VDC looks like at IREN.

Technology, Tools & Data Integration 

• Own the corporate VDC technology stack — evaluating, selecting, and administering authoring, federation, coordination, and common data environment (CDE) platforms, and managing licensing, access, and vendor relationships.
• Integrate model data with adjacent systems — project controls, document management, GIS, asset management, and digital twin initiatives — so design data flows into construction management and long-term operations without manual rework.
• Monitor emerging capabilitiesin reality capture, automated clash resolution, generative design, and AI-assisted coordination, piloting those with clear potential to improve delivery speed or quality.

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Partner with Engineering, Construction, Procurement, Commissioning, and Data Center Operations to align VDC deliverables with how each functionactually consumes model data — and with the Innovation team's broader initiatives in industrialized delivery and next-generation architecture.
• Serve as IREN's primary interface with external design firms, general contractors, and fabricators on VDC matters, onboarding partners to IREN standards and holding them accountable for digital deliverable quality.

Leadership & Team Development 

• Build and lead IREN's corporate VDC team — recruiting BIM/VDC coordinators, specialists, and engineers, and structuring the team to support both corporate standards development and embedded project delivery.
• Develop internal VDC capability across the wider organization through training, playbooks, and documented workflows, raising the baseline digital fluency of project engineering and construction teams.

Metrics & Continuous Improvement 

• Establish KPIs for VDC performance — clash resolution cycle time, coordination issue aging, model quality scores, RFI reduction, and rework avoidance — and report outcomes to executive leadership in terms of schedule and cost impact.
• Run structured lessons-learned reviews after each project phase, feeding improvements back into corporatestandardsso the VDC program measurably compounds in effectiveness across the portfolio.

Requirements

• Minimum 8+ years of experience in VDC, BIM management, or digital construction delivery, including 3+ years leading VDC programs or teams — data center, mission-critical, or large industrial project experience strongly preferred.
• Expert proficiency with industry-standard VDC toolsets (e.g., Revit, Navisworks, BIM 360/ACC or equivalent CDE platforms) and demonstrated experience federating and coordinating large multidisciplinary models.
• Proven track record establishing corporate BIM/VDC standards and execution plans, and enforcing them across external design and construction partners.
• Working knowledge of mechanical, electrical, and structural systems sufficient to lead multidisciplinary coordination and constructability reviews with credibility.
• Experience supporting prefabrication or modular construction from fabrication-level models is highly desirable, as is exposure to 4D/5D workflows, reality capture, or digital twin programs.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Architecture, Construction Management, or a related discipline required; relevant certifications (e.g., Autodesk, buildingSMART) are a plus.
• Strong communicationand stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate technical model data into decisions for executives and field teams; willingness to travel to project sites asrequired.