Data Center Operations Excellence Lead

Job description

Lead global Operational Excellence, Build Acceleration, process improvement, and automation initiatives across Data Center Operations. This role uses operational data, Lean methodologies, technical expertise, automation, and cross-functional leadership to accelerate safe, predictable delivery of new-region builds and expansions; improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, and service resilience; eliminate waste and recurring issues; and scale consistent, world-class operational readiness for GPU deployments, liquid cooling, and other emerging technologies.

Description

• Lead complex escalations and global problem-management cases; coordinate service teams, eliminate root causes, and provide executive-level status.
• Lead process engineering and continuous-improvement initiatives that simplify workflows, standardize execution, remove bottlenecks, and achieve global operational KPIs.
• Monitor operational metrics to identify performance gaps, waste, recurring failure demand, and opportunities for measurable improvement.
• Deliver Lean, automation, and strategic improvements that reduce cost, waste, risk, recurring incidents, and downtime.
• Improve operational readiness, process design, standards, and support models for new-region builds, expansions, GPU deployments, liquid cooling, and emerging technologies.
• Implement scalable global automation that improves process accuracy, speed, standardization, capacity, and operational resilience.
• Triage complex issues with Support and Engineering teams, ensuring timely resolution and converting lessons learned into lasting process, documentation, and automation improvements.
• Communicate operational performance, process risks, tradeoffs, and improvement benefits to senior leadership.
• Partner with global internal and external stakeholders to resolve issues, remove blockers, accelerate delivery, and improve Data Center Operations outcomes.

Responsibilities

Ideal Candidate

• Highly service-oriented, dependable, self-motivated, and able to lead through influence in a global, 24x7 operational environment.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering measurable process improvements, with clear baselines, implemented changes, validated results, and sustained controls.
• Strong understanding of Lean and Operational Excellence methodologies, including standard work, visual management, value-stream mapping, Kaizen, 5 Whys, fishbone analysis, and corrective-action management.
• Skilled in root-cause analysis and problem management, with the ability to distinguish immediate recovery actions from long-term preventive improvements.
• Experienced in using operational data and performance metrics to prioritize work, identify systemic issues, and drive leadership decisions.
• Able to communicate complex technical and operational issues clearly to frontline teams, peers, senior leaders, and executives.
• Experienced leading cross-functional operational projects from problem definition through implementation, benefits realization, and sustainment.
• Strong organizational, prioritization, critical-thinking, and technical project-management skills.
• Able to work effectively both independently and within geographically distributed, cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrates leadership through mentoring, coaching, knowledge sharing, and raising operational standards.
• Interested in and able to operationalize emerging technologies, including GPU infrastructure and liquid cooling.

Basic Qualifications

• Proven experience in Data Center Operations, Technical Support, Infrastructure Engineering, or a comparable enterprise operations environment.
• Strong background in IT Service Management disciplines, including Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, and Continual Improvement Management.
• Practical experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, or comparable continuous-improvement methodologies in an operational environment.
• Solid knowledge of Data Center infrastructure, including power, cooling, structured cabling, connectivity, servers, storage, and networking. 1. Strong knowledge of OCI and cloud-computing concepts.
• Experience supporting large enterprise customers or large-scale critical infrastructure environments.
• Demonstrated ability to investigate complex systems and processes, identify underlying issues, and deliver sustainable solutions.
• Experience with ITIL/ITSM practices and tools.
• Experience supporting new-region builds, expansions, or large-scale infrastructure deployments is preferred.
• Exposure to GPU platforms, liquid-cooling technologies, and/or high-density data center environments is preferred.
• Basic APEX, dashboarding, reporting, workflow-automation, or data-analysis experience is preferred.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, equivalent certification, or demonstrated practical Lean experience is preferred.

Qualifications

Career Level - IC4