Senior Director - Data Center Operations (Northern Virginia)

Location: Northern Virginia / Ashburn, VA

About the opportunity

We are supporting a growing digital infrastructure platform with the continued expansion of its data center operations capability across Northern Virginia.

The business develops and operates large-scale mission-critical infrastructure supporting hyperscale, cloud and enterprise customers, with significant ongoing investment across the region.

As part of this growth, we are interested in speaking with senior data center operations leaders who have experience managing large-scale campuses, critical infrastructure and technical operations teams.

This role would suit an experienced Director, Senior Director or campus operations leader who combines strong technical knowledge with the ability to lead teams, manage customers and take ownership of a highly available mission-critical environment.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior leadership across data center operations, critical facilities and mission-critical infrastructure.
• Lead campus-level operational teams responsible for a 24/7 data center environment.
• Ensure safe and reliable operation of electrical, mechanical and cooling infrastructure.
• Maintain strict uptime, availability and SLA performance across critical facilities.
• Lead and develop Data Center Managers, Critical Facilities Managers, engineers and technical operations teams.
• Oversee preventative and corrective maintenance programs across critical infrastructure.
• Review and approve Methods of Procedure, change controls, maintenance activity and emergency work.
• Support commissioning, expansion, capacity upgrades and new data hall deployments.
• Work closely with construction, engineering, commissioning and development teams during campus growth.
• Own or contribute to operational and capital expenditure budgets.
• Drive operational efficiency, process improvement and standardisation across facilities.
• Ensure compliance with company safety procedures, regulatory requirements and industry best practice.
• Monitor operational performance through KPIs covering availability, maintenance, incidents, capacity and service delivery.
• Support customer installations and ensure work within the facility meets operational and engineering standards.
• Develop procedures, documentation and operating standards for mission-critical environments.
• Travel occasionally to other US data center locations for leadership meetings, project support and operational reviews.

Preferred background

• 10+ years of experience within data center mission-critical facilities
• Significant leadership experience within a data center operator, hyperscaler, colocation provider or similarly critical environment.
• Experience leading campus-level or multi-site data center operations.
• Strong understanding of mission-critical electrical infrastructure including UPS, generators, switchgear, transformers, ATS/STS and PDUs.
• Strong understanding of cooling and mechanical infrastructure including chillers, CRAH/CRAC systems, pumps and associated controls.
• Experience managing maintenance programmes and critical facility procedures.
• Experience supporting commissioning and large-scale data center expansion projects.
• Strong understanding of change management, MOPs, SOPs and EOPs.
• Proven experience managing and developing technical managers and engineering teams.
• Experience managing operational and capital budgets.
• Comfortable working directly with hyperscale, cloud or enterprise customers.
• Strong understanding of safety requirements within mission-critical environments.
• Engineering, electrical, mechanical or technical degree preferred but not essential where equivalent experience can be demonstrated.
• Ability to work primarily onsite within Northern Virginia, with occasional travel as required.