Vice President, Critical Operations

Vice President Of Critical Operations

Stack Infrastructure (Stack) provides digital infrastructure to scale the world's most innovative companies. We are an award-winning industry leader in building, owning, and operating highly efficient, cost-effective wholesale, colocation, and cloud data centers. Each of our national facilities meets or exceeds the highest industry standards in all operational categories of availability, security, connectivity, and physical resilience.

Stack offers the scale and geographic reach that rapidly growing hyperscale and enterprise companies need. The world runs on data. Data runs on Stack.

The Vice President of Critical Operations leads a portfolio of data centers across multiple locations. The Vice President leads and oversees the strategic direction, operational excellence, and continuous improvement of critical operations in accordance with company's policies and procedures. As a member of the Critical Operations leadership team, the Vice President is also accountable to provide thought leadership and policy guidance to drive continuous improvement in Stack's data centers.

Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President of Critical Operations, the Vice President is responsible for ensuring the seamless performance, reliability, and safety of mechanical, electrical, fire life safety, and base building systems that support Stack's mission-critical infrastructure. This leadership role demands critical thinking with deep expertise in data center operations, a proven track record of managing large-scale teams, and a commitment to fostering a culture of safety, innovation, and client satisfaction.

The Vice President of Critical Operations will drive operational strategies, optimize resource allocation, and champion Stack's commitment to delivering world-class digital infrastructure solutions. This position requires a blend of technical mastery, leadership acumen, and strategic foresight to support the company's rapid growth and client needs.

The Vice President of Critical Operations is a people leader, coach, and mentor. They are responsible for the performance and conduct of all critical operations employees in their region(s), to create an inclusive work environment where all employees feel welcome and are empowered to be great.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow our culture of always working safely at Stack data centers.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for electrical, mechanical, fire life safety, and other data center systems.
• Advise the Senior Vice President of Critical Operations of the status of site-level preventative and corrective maintenance programs.
• In alignment with Stack's Operational Playbook, coach and lead your team on the effective operation, monitoring, maintenance, and event response within your data centers.
• Serve as a thought leader to drive continuous improvement in critical operations.
• Implement identified site-level efficiency projects and maintain overall site design PUE.
• Ensure Stack's preventative and predictive maintenance program is executed in compliance with our playbook.
• Oversee strategic vendor partnerships of regional and/or portfolio-wide service contracts to improve performance and cost-efficiency.
• Lead the annual forecasting and budgeting activities for your sites.
• Review highly detailed technical procedures for maintenance events, emergency situations, standard site evolutions, etc.
• Partner with Stack's Construction and Commissioning teams to ensure that activities do not impact existing critical operations.
• Oversee the implementation of training programs to foster a culture of continuous learning and leadership excellence across all critical operations teams.
• Set an expectation of world-class customer service and act as an escalation point for client needs.
• Review event reports and root cause analysis to deep dive into abnormal occurrences within the data center.
• Provide expert technical review of procedures.
• Provide expert technical review of company standards and policies.
• Partner with internal and external teams to manage site audits.
• Direct the management of critical systems to avoid unplanned client-impacting outages.
• Navigate and utilize Stack's CMMS, EPMS, and BMS systems.
• On-call availability to provide oversight for incident response at the data center.
• Participate in the interview process for prospective candidates applying for a critical operations role.
• Lead other duties as required by Stack. Job duties, roles, and responsibilities are subject to change over time.

The Details

• Location: San Jose, CA or Hillsboro, OR. Candidate will be expected to work out of the office, on average, 4 days a week.
• Benefits: Healthcare, Dental Care, Vision Insurance, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, Paid Leave Programs
• Travel: Up to 30%
• Must be eligible to work in the United States
• Must pass a comprehensive background screening

Must Have Qualifications

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to handle a multitude of tasks and work well in stressful situations.
• Expert understanding of the electrical and mechanical systems used in a data center environment. These include, but are not limited to: UPS, Generators, Transformers, PDU's, RPP's, Chillers, CRAH, CRAC, STS, ATS, and Pre-action systems.
• Exceptional leadership and coaching skills
• Well versed and experienced in managing multiple multi-million-dollar budgets to safely maintain 100% availability while minimizing total cost of ownership.
• Expert knowledge of NFPA70e, NFPA72, NFPA25, NFPA101 and compliance issues as well as other building codes regarding fire or life safety.
• Expert knowledge and experience in data center trending and analysis, with the ability to quickly learn site monitoring systems.
• Experience in the design, construction, and commissioning of critical systems and buildings.
• Excellent client and vendor relationship skills.
• Experience with coordinating and overseeing contractors who perform maintenance in the data center.
• Proven knowledge of customer contracts and SLA levels in line with ASHRAE standards.
• 10-15+ years of data center facility operations and maintenance experience.
• 5 years leadership experience in data center operations.
• Budget / P&L experience.
• Hyperscale data center experience a plus.
• Experience supervising a technical data center operations staff.
• Strong presentation skills in leading meetings.
• Strong critical thinking, analytical, planning, and problem-solving skills.
• Highly organized with the ability to multitask, establish priorities, and manage competing priorities.

Compensation Range:

$316,712.00 - $350,872.00

This Might Be Right For You If:

• You are a strong communicator, you are persuasive and clear, blending analytics with experience in decision-making.
• You do not get flustered easily. You can juggle multiple priorities while balancing urgent requests with shifting timelines and deliverables.
• You are a team builder. You take the time to understand and develop the strengths of your resources while formulating long-term plans for the growth and success of the team.
• You are naturally curious and driven toward continual improvement. While you celebrate your successes, you take time to review and analyze campaigns for future learning.

Why Stack?

• We offer a competitive compensation package with strong benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401K program, flexible spending accounts – even a cell phone subsidy.
• We foster a culture of appreciation, including peer-to-peer recognition and rewards programs.
• Fun is part of our DNA, with events, game nights, happy hours, and barbecues.
• We're growing – this is a great time to join and make an impact!

Stack is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, national origin, mental or physical disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law.

Note to external agencies: We are not accepting any blind submissions or resumes/cvs from recruitment agencies. Any candidates sent to Stack Infrastructure, Inc. will not be accepted or considered as a submission without a signed agreement in place. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of Stack Infrastructure, Inc.