Ada Infrastructure is a global data center business committed to being a positive force for technology, people, and the planet. As part of the digital infrastructure platform of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES), a leading global alternative investment manager, Ada Infrastructure is positioned to be a leader in the industry in reliable, safe, secure, and sustainable digital infrastructure. With eight in-flight campuses across Japan, the UK, and Brazil, we have over 850 MW of power currently available and more than 1,500 MW in our global pipeline. To learn more about Ada Infrastructure, visit www.adainfrastructure.com or to learn more about Ares Management visit www.aresmgmt.com.

Job Description

APAC Commissioning Lead

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Ada Infrastructure is a global data center business committed to being a positive force for technology, people, and the planet. As part of the digital infrastructure platform of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES), a leading global alternative investment manager, Ada Infrastructure is positioned to be a leader in reliable, safe, secure, and sustainable digital infrastructure. With in-flight campuses across Japan and other global markets, Ada is focused on developing, delivering, and operating scalable data center infrastructure for customers.

Job Description

About the company:

Ada Infrastructure is part of the digital infrastructure platform of Ares Management Corporation, a leading global alternative investment manager offering clients complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across credit, real estate, private equity, and infrastructure asset classes.

We are a global data center business grounded in sustainability, safety, and security. Ada Infrastructure is executing on our mission to lead the world in sustainable digital infrastructure that drives customer success and social benefit.

Why Join Us:

This role is an excellent opportunity to join a deeply experienced and high-performing team with the opportunity to directly impact Ada APAC’s growth. As Ada expands its APAC portfolio, commissioning will be critical to ensuring that facilities are safely tested, fully integrated, operationally ready, and delivered to customers with predictable quality, performance, and reliability.

The Team you are joining:

The Ada Japan / APAC team is responsible for developing, delivering, and operating Ada data centers across the APAC region. We collaborate cross-functionally and partner with global and regional teams to drive efficient and effective solutions that meet the needs of internal and external stakeholders. The team works across development, design, delivery, operations, safety, security, procurement, commercial, and customer-facing functions to deliver scalable and future-ready data center campuses.

Summary:

The APAC Commissioning Lead is responsible for defining, managing, and governing Ada APAC’s end-to-end commissioning strategy across development and delivery projects. This role ensures that mission-critical systems are properly tested, integrated, documented, and handed over before Ready for Service.

This role also owns the end-to-end management of third-party Commissioning Agents across APAC, including vendor prequalification, RFI/RFP development, proposal evaluation, award recommendation, onboarding, scope management, performance governance, and ongoing vendor management throughout project execution.

The role provides regional leadership for commissioning standards, execution planning, vendor coordination, testing governance, quality control, issue resolution, operational readiness, and customer acceptance support. The APAC Commissioning Lead works closely with delivery, design, operations, safety, security, procurement, and external commissioning agents to ensure commissioning is planned early, executed safely, and completed with clear evidence of system performance.

This position is expected to create regional consistency while adapting global minimum commissioning requirements to local project conditions, utility interfaces, contractor capabilities, customer requirements, and operational handover needs.

Responsibilities:

·       Lead Ada APAC’s commissioning strategy and execution across data center development and delivery projects.

·       Define, publish, and maintain APAC commissioning requirements, procedures, templates, reporting cadence, and acceptance criteria by collaborating with Global commissioning lead.

·       Establish commissioning governance from design development through construction, Level 1 to Level 5 testing, integrated systems testing, operational readiness, customer acceptance, and Ready for Service.

·       Ensure commissioning requirements are embedded early into design, procurement, construction packaging, schedule development, contractor scopes, and project execution plans.

·       Partner with design, delivery, operations, safety, security, and customer-facing teams to confirm that commissioning plans support operational reliability, maintainability, safety, security, and customer commitments.

·       Review and approve commissioning plans, method statements, test scripts, inspection and test plans, integrated systems testing procedures, and commissioning schedules.

·       Provide oversight of general contractors, commissioning agents, trade contractors, equipment vendors, and specialist consultants to ensure commissioning is executed safely, consistently, and to Ada standards.

·       Establish clear commissioning KPIs and reporting requirements, including test readiness, test completion, defect closure, retest status, critical issue aging, documentation completion, and handover readiness.

·       Lead regular commissioning reviews with project teams and escalate risks that may impact safety, quality, schedule, cost, operational readiness, or Ready for Service.

·       Ensure commissioning activities are coordinated with construction completion, energization, utility interfaces, equipment vendor support, controls integration, security systems, network readiness, and operations handover.

·       Drive early identification and resolution of commissioning risks (commissionability), including design gaps, incomplete installation, vendor readiness, equipment defects, controls integration issues, documentation gaps, and insufficient operational training by actively participating in design review meetings.

·       Support project schedule governance by defining required commissioning milestones, logic, dependencies, float consumption, and readiness gates between construction completion, substantial completion, commissioning completion, and Ready for Service.

·       Ensure commissioning evidence is properly documented, reviewed, approved, and retained in the required systems of record.

·       Support customer-facing commissioning discussions, technical reviews, witness testing, acceptance planning, and issue resolution as required.

·       Establish a lessons-learned loop from commissioning findings, recurring defects, late-stage design issues, vendor performance, and operational handover feedback to improve Ada standards, product requirements, specifications, and future project execution.

·       Serve as the regional subject matter expert for commissioning and provide executive-ready insight to Ada APAC leadership on commissioning status, risks, readiness, and required interventions.

·       Maintain commissioning agent KPI scorecards covering schedule performance, test readiness, test execution, defect closure, deliverable quality, resource adequacy, safety performance, stakeholder coordination, handover readiness, and lessons learned.

·       Manage commissioning agent performance throughout project execution, including quality of deliverables, resource adequacy, responsiveness, issue resolution, schedule compliance, and adherence to Ada standards.

·       Lead technical evaluation of commissioning service providers and provide recommendations for vendor selection and award decisions.

·       Develop commissioning agent sourcing strategies, evaluation criteria, commercial deliverables, staffing expectations, reporting requirements, and success criteria in coordination with procurement and project teams.

·       Own the end-to-end procurement and management of third-party Commissioning Agents across APAC projects, including vendor prequalification, RFI/RFP preparation, proposal evaluation, award recommendation, onboarding, scope management, and performance governance.

·       Define Cx vendor prequalification criteria, including mission-critical experience, technical capability, staffing depth, safety performance, APAC market coverage, customer-facing experience, and ability to support Ada standards by collaborating with Global Commissioning Lead.

·       Lead the Cx vendor selection process, including RFI issuance, shortlisting, RFP development, bid clarification, technical interviews, commercial alignment, evaluation scoring, and recommendation for award.

·       Prepare executive-ready Cx vendor recommendation packages summarizing vendor strengths, risks, commercial considerations, staffing approach, delivery capability, and recommended award rationale.

·       Commissioning plan and schedule quality: on-time submission and approval of commissioning plans, Level 1 to Level 5 schedules, test scripts, staffing plans, and readiness documentation.

·       Test readiness: percentage of planned commissioning activities that meet defined pre-test readiness requirements, including completed installation, approved test scripts, required permits, vendor support, safety controls, and documentation readiness.

·       Test execution reliability: completion of planned tests against the approved commissioning schedule, including missed tests, aborted tests, retests, and tests delayed due to commissioning agent readiness or coordination issues.

·       Defect and issue management: timely logging, classification, ownership assignment, aging, escalation, and closure of commissioning issues, with focus on critical and high-impact defects that affect safety, reliability, schedule, or Ready for Service.

·       Quality of technical deliverables: completeness, accuracy, and usability of test reports, integrated systems test records, issue logs, daily reports, commissioning dashboards, final reports, and turnover documentation.

·       Resource adequacy and responsiveness: ability to provide qualified commissioning resources, maintain required site coverage, respond to project needs, and support critical testing windows without creating schedule or quality risk.

·       Safety performance during commissioning: compliance with Ada safety requirements for energization, live testing, mechanical startup, integrated systems testing, method statements, permits, and incident/near-miss reporting.

·       Stakeholder and vendor coordination: effectiveness in coordinating general contractors, trade contractors, OEM vendors, utility interfaces, operations, safety, security, and customer witness testing requirements.

·       Handover readiness: completion and acceptance of commissioning evidence, as-built test records, open issue lists, owner training support, system turnover packages, and documentation required for operational readiness and Ready for Service.

·       Continuous improvement and lessons learned: identification of recurring defects, late-stage design gaps, equipment/vendor issues, process improvements, and actionable lessons learned to improve future projects and commissioning standards.

Key KPIs for Commissioning Agent Performance:

·       Develop KPIs to measure Commissioning Agent Performance

·       Conduct business reviews during commissioning to provide feedback to improve their performance.

Minimum Requirements:

·       10+ years of experience in commissioning, mission-critical delivery, data center engineering, MEP systems, construction management, or technical operations.

·       Deep experience with data center commissioning, including electrical, mechanical, controls, fire/life safety, security, BMS/EPMS, network-supporting infrastructure, and integrated systems testing.

·       Strong understanding of mission-critical infrastructure, including medium-voltage systems, switchgear, UPS, generators, fuel systems, cooling systems, CRAH/CRAC units, chilled water systems, controls integration, and redundancy strategies.

·       Experience leading commissioning programs across large-scale capital projects, preferably in data centers, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, industrial, or other mission-critical environments.

·       Proven ability to manage commissioning agents, general contractors, trade contractors, OEM vendors, consultants, and cross-functional internal stakeholders.

·       Strong knowledge of commissioning levels, test script development, integrated systems testing, issue management, defect tracking, technical documentation, and operational handover.

·       Ability to identify commissioning risk early and convert technical issues into clear business impact, executive escalation, and resolution plans.

·       Strong understanding of safety requirements related to energization, live systems testing, mechanical startup, integrated testing, and operational readiness.

·       Experience establishing commissioning KPIs, dashboards, readiness gates, governance cadence, and reporting standards.

·       Ability to work effectively across development, design, delivery, operations, commercial, procurement, legal, safety, security, and customer-facing teams.

·       Self-starter with the ability to operate in a fast-growing, ambiguous, multi-project, multi-region environment.

·       Strong communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.

·       Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Construction Management, or a related technical field; professional certification is preferred.

·       Fluent in English. Fluency in Japanese is preferred.

·       Experience leading commissioning agent procurement, including RFI/RFP development, technical evaluation, vendor selection, onboarding, and vendor management.

·       Proven ability to manage third-party commissioning agents through scope definition, KPI governance, performance reviews, issue escalation, and commercial coordination.

·       Strong vendor management experience, including service provider governance, resource planning, deliverable tracking, corrective action management, and lessons learned.

·       Experience managing Cx vendor selection processes, including prequalification, RFI/RFP preparation, bid evaluation, technical interviews, scoring, recommendation, and award support.

·       Ability to travel for Factory Witness Testing and all other testing as necessary.

·       This position is to work from Ada APAC Tokyo office, 5 days a week with flexibilities.

Reporting Relationships

Principal, Design Lead APAC

There is no set deadline to apply for this job opportunity. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the search is no longer active.