VP, Data Center Operations

About the role

The Vice President, Data Center Operations will lead the performance, discipline, and daily execution of a national portfolio of 40+ mission critical multi-tenant and wholesale data centers and a team of 300+ people. This role carries broad accountability for regional operations, critical environment performance, physical security, environmental health and safety, and the leadership of teams responsible for operating highly reliable data center infrastructure in support of customer workloads.

Responsibilities

• Lead all day-to-day operations across the company’s data center portfolio, with accountability for execution, reliability, workforce performance, and site level discipline.
• Provide leadership to regional operations leaders and site teams, establishing clear expectations, strong operating rhythms, and visible accountability for performance.
• Drive consistency across facilities while preserving appropriate agility to respond to local operational realities, customer needs, and evolving business priorities.
• Build a performance culture rooted in safety, ownership, responsiveness, preparation, and continuous improvement.
• Drive rigorous maintenance, data quality, and operational adoption of DCIM, BMS, building automation, and controls platforms to strengthen visibility, standardize execution, and improve portfolio performance.
• Own the operational performance and lifecycle review of mission critical facility infrastructure, including electrical, mechanical, plumbing, cooling, life safety, critical power, generation, UPS, switchgear, and supporting systems required to sustain uptime and customer confidence.
• Ensure strong maintenance discipline, technical readiness, facility inspections, incident preparedness, and operational rigor across all sites.
• Lead with credibility in highly technical, MEP intensive environments where precision, sound judgment, and operational discipline are essential.
• Provide executive oversight for Environmental Health and Safety programs across the operations organization.
• Lead physical security operations and reinforce disciplined execution of site access, life safety, and risk management protocols.
• Promote a culture in which safety and risk awareness are foundational to every operating decision and every level of the organization.
• Translate enterprise standards, training, reporting, operational intelligence, and controls related insights into high-quality execution across the field organization.
• Create strong follow through mechanisms, so operational policies and expectations are not only communicated, but fully implemented and sustained.
• Partner closely with teams responsible for construction, commissioning, operational enablement, controls, analytics, and process improvement to ensure clean handoffs, strong readiness, and effective execution across the portfolio.
• Provide field informed feedback that strengthens how future capacity is delivered, how standards are matured, and how enterprise systems better support operations at scale.
• Act as a trusted enterprise leader who can balance collaboration with clarity of ownership and execution accountability.
• Build, coach, and develop a high performing operations leadership team capable of leading at scale.
• Strengthen bench depth, succession planning, and leadership capability across regions and sites.
• Arrtach and retain strong talent by creating a demanding, mission driven, and highly respected operations culture.

Requirements

• Ten or more years of progressive leadership experience in mission critical operations, industrial operations, or similarly complex environments where uptime, safety, and technical discipline are paramount.
• Significant experience leading multi-site operations teams with accountability for performance across multiple geographies.
• Deep expertise in data center or similarly critical mechanical, electrical, and plumbing intensive environments.
• Demonstrated success improving operational consistency, workforce performance, reliability, and execution quality at scale.
• Experience leading through incidents, elevated operational risk, and periods of organizational growth or transformation.
• Strong command of safety, compliance, physical security, and risk management principles in operational settings.
• Excellent executive communication skills, strong judgment, and the ability to influence across functions and levels.

Qualifications

• Direct experience within colocation, enterprise, wholesale, multi-tenant data center, or other mission critical infrastructure environments.
• Experience partnering with controls, building automation, DCIM, or operational intelligence teams in support of portfolio performance.
• Experience supporting new market expansion, major facility commissioning, or large-scale infrastructure growth.
• A track record of building strong regional leadership teams and advancing operational leadership capability over time.