Director, Data Center Facilities Operations

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a multi-layered organization of managers, supervisors, and technicians across multiple data centers to deliver 24/7/365 reliability with zero unplanned interruptions.
• Set site-wide strategy, multi-year roadmaps, CapEx/OpEx budgets, and resource forecasts for data center facilities infrastructure.
• Drive execution, safety culture, and reliability engineering across the organization.
• Partner with engineering, IT, operations, and executive leadership on large-scale projects supporting capacity expansion and efficiency improvements.
• Establish standardized work instructions, maintenance strategies, and operational processes across data centers.
• Assess resource needs, lifecycle costs, and capacity for multiple facilities; own capital planning and total cost of ownership.
• Oversee contractors and vendors supporting mechanical, structural, HVAC, electrical, power, cooling, fire/life safety, and water systems.
• Own preventive and predictive maintenance programs, including strategies for repairs, upgrades, replacements, uptime, efficiency, and PUE optimization.
• Define and communicate KPIs covering safety, uptime, quality, labor productivity, energy efficiency, and operating expenses.
• Provide strategic oversight of emergency response and on-call frameworks, including 24/7 support and rapid recovery capabilities.
• Lead talent development, succession planning, and organizational design for a high-performing facilities team.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, facilities management, architecture, construction management, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in facilities operations, data center infrastructure, or critical facilities management.
• At least 5 years of leadership experience managing multi-site or multi-facility operations.
• Experience leading teams responsible for high-availability environments such as data centers, mission-critical facilities, or industrial facilities.
• Willingness to travel as needed across the site and occasionally to other company locations.
• Ability and willingness to work extended hours, weekends, and non-standard schedules to support critical operations.
• Ability to operate in a high-stress, high-tempo environment while balancing multiple strategic priorities.

Nice-to-Haves

• Master’s degree in engineering, business, or a related field.
• Professional certifications such as CEM, PMP, CFM, or data center-specific credentials.
• Expertise in high-power electrical systems, UPS and generators, precision cooling/HVAC, fire suppression, BMS/DCIM systems, telecommunications infrastructure, fuel systems, and redundancy/resiliency design.
• Experience with Tier standards and concurrent maintainability.
• Track record managing large budgets, multi-year capital programs, and complex vendor ecosystems across multiple facilities.
• Excellent executive communication and technical-operational presentation skills.
• Strong leadership presence and experience building high-performing teams and driving cultural change.
• Experience contributing to facility design, capacity planning, and long-term infrastructure roadmaps.
• Experience managing large-scale projects and portfolios under aggressive timelines and changing priorities.