name: data-center-portfolio-planning-execution-lead
description: |
Guides enterprise data center portfolio planning and execution—multi-site capacity roadmaps,
investment prioritization (build, expand, refresh, exit, colo vs owned), portfolio RAID and
dependency management across DC programs, stage-gate governance, capex/opex alignment, regional
and resiliency strategy, and steering-committee reporting.
Use when prioritizing several DC initiatives, harmonizing site plans over 3–5 years, tracking a
portfolio of hall builds and refreshes, or aligning facilities/IT/finance on DC investments—not
for a single hall MEP design (data-center-design-execution-lead), host-level utilization
(data-center-compute-supply-efficiency), generic software programs (technical-program-manager),
or cloud IaC (infrastructure-engineer). For executing approved MW/rack delivery on schedule,
use senior-data-center-capacity-delivery-manager.
Data Center Portfolio Planning & Execution Lead
When to Use
- Build or refresh a multi-site data center capacity roadmap (3–5+ years)
- Prioritize competing DC investments under a fixed capex envelope
- Run portfolio governance: stage gates, RAID, dependencies between DC projects
- Align regional strategy (latency, sovereignty, DR, cloud burst)
- Consolidate business cases from site leads into one portfolio narrative
- Track execution across concurrent builds, expansions, refreshes, and exits
- Prepare steering or board-level DC portfolio status
- Decide build vs colo vs extend vs cloud at portfolio level
When NOT to Use
- Single facility design, MEP, commissioning →
data-center-design-execution-lead
- Server/GPU utilization, consolidation, refresh tactics →
data-center-compute-supply-efficiency
- Multi-team software program (no DC portfolio) →
technical-program-manager
- Corporate strategy, operating model, issue trees →
business-consultant
- Terraform, VPC, K8s foundation →
infrastructure-engineer
- K8s cluster operations →
cluster-deployment-engineer
- Launch messaging only →
communication-lead
- MW/rack delivery program and readiness gates →
senior-data-center-capacity-delivery-manager
Related skills
| Need | Skill |
|---|
| Infrastructure capex policy and capitalization | director-infrastructure-capex-accounting |
| One site design and build execution | data-center-design-execution-lead |
| Compute supply and efficiency | data-center-compute-supply-efficiency |
| Cross-functional software delivery program | technical-program-manager |
| Investment narrative and options | business-consultant |
| Hybrid cloud technical patterns | infrastructure-engineer |
| Compliance evidence for facilities | compliance-engineer |
| Executive updates | communication-lead |
| Capacity delivery execution | senior-data-center-capacity-delivery-manager |
Core Workflows
1. Portfolio charter and scope
Define:
- Sites in scope — owned, colo, edge, planned
- Horizon — planning years and refresh cycles
- Constraints — capex ceiling, power at utility, sustainability targets
- Decision rights — steering, stage gates, who owns site DRIs
See references/portfolio_charter.md.
2. Capacity and demand rollup
- Aggregate demand by region (kW, racks, GPUs) from engineering and product
- Map to supply per site (committed, available, planned)
- Expose gaps by quarter and region
- Flag single points of failure (one site, one carrier, one cooling plant)
See references/capacity_roadmap.md.
3. Investment prioritization
Score initiatives: strategic fit, risk reduction, NPV/TCO, dependency unlock, time criticality.
Output: ranked backlog, funded / deferred / kill, and tradeoff narrative.
See references/investment_prioritization.md.
4. Execution governance
- Stage gates — concept → approved → execute → operate
- Portfolio RAID — risks that span sites (power, lead time, vendor)
- Dependency map — e.g. network build before hall acceptance
- Integrate site-level status from
data-center-design-execution-lead DRIs
See references/execution_governance.md.
5. Hybrid and exit strategy
- Portfolio rules for cloud burst vs committed metal
- Site exit or consolidation when utilization and TCO favor move
- Contract and migration dependencies
See references/hybrid_exit_strategy.md.
6. Steering reporting
Monthly/quarterly: portfolio health (RAG), spend vs plan, milestone slip, top risks, decisions needed.
See references/steering_reporting.md.
Output standards
- One-page portfolio summary + detailed initiative register
- Roadmap by region (kW/racks/GPUs) with assumptions stated
- Prioritization scorecard with explicit tradeoffs
- Decision log for steering (what was decided, what was deferred)
- No duplicate site engineering detail — link to site workstreams
When to load references
- Charter and roles →
references/portfolio_charter.md
- Multi-site roadmap →
references/capacity_roadmap.md
- Scoring and funding →
references/investment_prioritization.md
- Gates, RAID, dependencies →
references/execution_governance.md
- Cloud, colo, exit →
references/hybrid_exit_strategy.md
- Steering pack →
references/steering_reporting.md