Director, Data Center Operations

Who are we?

Equinix is the world's digital infrastructure company®, shortening the path to connectivity to enable the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet.

A place where bold ideas are welcomed, human connection is valued, and everyone has the opportunity to shape their future.

Joining our operations team means being at the center of everything - maintaining and evolving critical infrastructure that powers the digital world and delivers real impact for our customers, communities and society. You'll find belonging, purpose, and a team that welcomes you-because when you feel valued, you're empowered to do your best work.

Job Summary
Lead the operational partnership with Construction to deliver seamless turn-up of new Hyperscale and Retail data centers across the Hampton Roads market. This role ensures readiness, drives cross-functional alignment, and accelerates time-to-revenue through disciplined execution from build completion through Day 1 operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Construction, Design, and Development to translate build milestones into operational readiness plans
• Lead integrated turn-up strategy for Hyperscale and Retail data centers, ensuring safety, compliance, and SLA adherence
• Drive cross-functional coordination (Operations, Sales, Customer Care, Supply Chain, IT) to deliver Day 1 readiness
• Establish and track critical path milestones, risks, and dependencies; remove blockers to maintain schedule
• Own site acceptance, commissioning alignment, and formal handoff into steady-state operations
• Build scalable playbooks for consistent data center turn-ups across the region
• Ensure staffing, training, spares, and procedures are in place ahead of go-live
• Provide executive-level reporting on status, risks, and mitigation plans

• Recruits, retains, develops, coaches and leads staff responsible for the stability and efficiency of the data centers
• Responsible for the 24x7 operational oversite and direction to both Customer Operations and Critical Facilities teams
• Accountable for successful implementation of customer projects lead by the project manager, teams and/or local data center teams
• Effectively leads geographically dispersed and culturally diverse teams with professional/technical backgrounds
• People and Inclusion - Always striving to drive our business forward by positive and direct communication, collaboration, respect, acceptance and professionalism
• Understanding how to give and receive feedback and work productively with others to solve problems

• Lead Critical Facilities staff in customer power installations, load management, operation and maintenance of all MEP systems
• Report on opportunities for Energy, Preventive Maintenance, and/or other cost-saving measures
• Lead data center Customer Operations technical staff responsible for building customer cages, suites, installing and maintaining cross-connects structured cabling, customer hardware, and shipping and receiving
• Communicates and collaborates closely with vendors and other entities to provide customers with world-class Equinix platform services and support

• Ensure proper procedures and standards are being practiced and maintained for EH&S, Engineering and Critical operations
• Analyze equipment downtime ramification and develop contingency plans in the event of equipment failure
• Ensure auditing programs are in place and develop procedures that supports the account team in management and compliance oversight
• Ensure that all equipment is maintained in accordance with Engineering recommendations
• Review all plans for adding or upgrading new equipment, infrastructure, building improvements, and the like, work with applicable building management and operational staff, provide operational leadership and support and technical oversight

• Significant experience in data center operations, construction interface, or related technical program leadership, typically 8-12 years or more of experience
• Proven experience delivering large-scale infrastructure turn-ups or new site launches
• Strong stakeholder management across engineering, construction, and operations teams
• Deep understanding of data center systems, commissioning, and operational readiness
• Exceptional planning, risk management, and execution discipline
• Solid understanding of all aspects of building systems and operations, contractual maintenance, construction and related services, and local laws and building codes pertaining to building operations and safety.
• Great interpersonal and negotiation skills. Ability to analyze and tackle problems, capable of functioning well under stress and during emergencies.
• Shown ability to organize and lead multiple projects simultaneously
• Must have strong people leadership skills including supporting managers with direct reports within their line of business. This includes ensuring the highest levels of job satisfaction by setting goals, job expectations, responsibilities and targets.
• Demonstrated experience building or leading highly engaged teams with a consistent record to lead a change initiative.
• Critical Thinking, Reasoning and Persuasion- Using logic, data and reasoning to recognize details of situations, identify solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems
• Influence others to change their minds or behavior or to try new approaches
• Financial knowledge necessary for developing operational and capital budgets, providing budget variances details and reporting as required by management
• Experience fostering relationships with cross functional and regional partners, building and using those relationships to influence and align others
• External vendor management
• Strong knowledge of financial management including financial tracking, budgeting and forecasting
• Ability to develop and maintain a customer focused, partnering and consultative approach
• Proficient in anticipating site needs, thinking strategically, solutions focused and be both proactive and reactive as the situation and circumstances dictate
• Ability to read and understand construction specifications and blueprints
• Skilled in Building Management Systems maintenance and monitoring
• Understanding of Facility auditing and safety requirements