VP of Data Center Operations (US)

Industry: Hyperscale and AI Data Center and Cloud Computing

Location: Multi-site US role (20-40% travel to data center locations)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Reporting to: SVP of Operations

Direct Reports: Site Operations Directors; Head of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE)

About the Role:

We are seeking a senior operations leader to own the performance, reliability, scalability, and operational readiness of our US hyperscale and AI data center portfolio.

This role leads site operations, critical facilities, operational readiness, workforce planning, health and safety, maintenance, incident management, vendor performance, and continuous improvement across all US sites. The role partners closely with Construction, Commissioning, Engineering, Quality, and Cloud Operations to move new facilities from construction into stable production operations.

This leader must be equally effective in a live mission-critical environment and in a high-growth organization where facilities, teams, processes, and operating infrastructure are being built at the same time.

What You’ll Be Contributing:

Multi-Site Data Center Operations

• Provide executive leadership for operations across all US data center sites (e.g., Memphis, Phoenix, Columbus (OH), Philadelphia)
• Establish a consistent operating model across sites while accounting for site-specific infrastructure and customer requirements
• Hold site leadership accountable, including Site Operations Directors, Chief Engineers, critical facilities teams, and data center technicians
• Ensure 24×7 coverage and escalation capability, and intervene when operational, staffing, reliability, or safety risks emerge

Reliability & Critical Infrastructure

• Electrical distribution, switchgear, UPS, and generators
• Mechanical and cooling systems, including liquid cooling
• BMS/EPMS, controls, and fire/life-safety systems
• Establish preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance programs
• Enforce controls for maintenance, switching, change management, and work on or near critical infrastructure
• Partner with Quality, which owns reliability engineering, and ensure sites act on findings through maintenance program changes, procedure updates, and corrective actions

AI & High-Density Compute Operations

• Own operational requirements for AI, GPU, and HPC environments, including direct-to-chip liquid cooling, coolant quality, and leak detection and response
• Align facility capacity, power, cooling, and readiness with Cloud Operations and deployment schedules
• Serve as the operations executive for key customers at each site, owning SLA performance, escalations, and post-incident reviews

New Site Launch & Operational Readiness

• Lead operational readiness for new data centers and major capacity expansions, delivered through the site critical facilities engineering teams
• Ensure readiness plans cover:
  • Staffing and training
  • SOPs, MOPs, and EOPs
  • Maintenance programs and spare parts
  • Vendor support, access control, and escalation procedures
• Establish formal turnover and acceptance criteria before facilities enter production
• Ensure new-site engineering staff are hired and trained early enough that readiness work does not compete with live operations
• Build repeatable site-launch models to bring capacity online faster and more consistently

Operational Governance & Incident Management

• Maintain consistent standards across all sites for:
  • SOPs, MOPs, and EOPs
  • Preventive maintenance and change management
  • Incident management, escalation, and shift turnover
  • Training and qualification programs
• Provide executive oversight during major events and outages, and ensure root-cause analysis and corrective actions are completed

Health, Safety & Security

• Lead the HSE function and champion a strong safety culture across all sites
• Ensure compliance with electrical safety, lockout/tagout, energized work, contractor safety, and regulatory requirements
• Partner with Security on physical security and access control, and support customer, insurance, and regulatory audits

Workforce Planning & Leadership

• Build scalable staffing models based on site capacity, infrastructure, and growth plans
• Partner with HR and Talent Acquisition to forecast hiring and build pipelines for critical roles
• Coach and develop Site Operations Directors, the HSE leader, Chief Engineers, and other operational leaders
• Build succession plans and a culture of accountability, technical discipline, and continuous learning

Financial, Vendor & Capacity Management

• Develop and manage operating budgets, and partner with Finance on plans, forecasts, headcount, and capital
• Set service-level expectations for critical vendors and monitor performance, cost, and safety
• Translate business growth into requirements for power, cooling, space, staffing, and maintenance

Performance Management & Continuous Improvement

• Establish operational KPIs and executive reporting, including:
  • Availability, critical incidents, and MTTR
  • Preventive maintenance completion and repeat failures
  • Safety performance and training completion
  • Operating expenses, energy efficiency, and site-readiness milestones
• Use performance data to identify trends, fix root causes, and standardize improvements across sites

What Sets You Apart:

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in data center operations or critical facilities, including 7+ years of senior leadership
• Experience operating hyperscale, colocation, cloud, HPC, or AI/GPU data center environments
• Proven experience leading operations across multiple data centers or a large-scale data center campus
• Experience opening new data centers and transitioning them from construction and commissioning into production operations
• Experience supporting customer-facing data center environments with demanding uptime, capacity, and service requirements
• Hands-on experience operating liquid-cooled, high-density environments (direct-to-chip or similar cooling technologies)
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Facilities Management, Operations, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• Ability to travel 20-40% and provide executive escalation support outside normal hours

Technical & Functional Expertise

• Mission-critical electrical and mechanical infrastructure
• Preventive maintenance, change management, and incident management
• Root-cause analysis and operational risk management
• Experience managing operating budgets, vendors, service providers, and workforce plans

Leadership & Execution

• Track record of building and scaling operational teams and processes across multiple markets in a high-growth environment
• Background in lean, Six Sigma, or another structured continuous improvement method
• Ability to communicate complex operational risks and tradeoffs clearly to senior leadership and customers

Key Competencies

• Operational Leadership
• Technical Credibility
• Scaling Capability
• Bias for Execution
• Continuous Improvement
• Executive Communication