SUMMARY:The Senior Director, Central Operations is the enterprise leader responsible for the strategy, governance, performance, and continued development of Aligned Data Centers' Central Operations organization. The role provides direct oversight of the Operational Reliability Group, Operations Training & Workforce Readiness Group, and Operational Excellence Group, integrating technical reliability, incident management, workforce readiness, maintenance governance, compliance, innovation, operational systems, and reporting into one scalable operating model.
This position establishes the standards, programs, resources, and governance required to improve reliability, reduce operational risk, develop qualified personnel, and drive consistent execution across all operating markets. The Senior Director partners with Site Operations, Engineering, Platform Delivery, Customer Success, Technology, Security, Finance, Procurement, Legal, People & Culture, and executive leadership to translate business priorities into repeatable enterprise programs and measurable results.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:Central Operations Strategy & Enterprise Leadership
- Lead the enterprise Central Operations organization and establish an integrated operating model across Operational Reliability, Operations Training & Workforce Readiness, and Operational Excellence.
- Develop and execute multi-year strategies, organizational roadmaps, staffing plans, operating budgets, compensation recommendations, and capability-building plans aligned with portfolio growth and business priorities.
- Translate executive direction, operational risk, incident trends, customer commitments, and business needs into prioritized programs, accountable owners, timelines, funding requests, and measurable outcomes.
- Serve as the principal integrator between site operations and corporate functions, ensuring enterprise priorities are understood, coordinated, and executed consistently across markets.
- Provide executive-ready updates, business cases, board presentation content, decision materials, operational narratives, and recommendations regarding reliability, readiness, risk, staffing, performance, and investment needs.
- Establish clear ownership boundaries, governance forums, performance expectations, and succession plans that reduce key-person dependency and improve organizational continuity.
Operational Reliability Group Oversight
- Provide executive oversight of the Operational Reliability Group, including Operations SMEs and technical disciplines covering Mechanical, Electrical, BMS/Controls, Water Chemistry, and other critical infrastructure specialties.
- Ensure portfolio-wide technical support is available for critical incidents, complex equipment failures, troubleshooting, system optimization, break-fix recovery, and operational risk mitigation.
- Govern incident response expectations, technical escalation, bridge participation, structured root cause analysis, corrective actions, lessons learned, and remediation tracking through closure.
- Oversee the AMMO asset reliability and readiness audit program, PREP pre-operational readiness program, CMMS quality assurance, technical assessments, site readiness reviews, and corrective action follow-through.
- Ensure technical SMEs validate equipment condition, system settings, controls sequences, points, graphics, firmware and revision status, water chemistry, asset records, as-built documentation, and identified deficiencies.
- Guide the development and approval of technical standards, emergency operating procedures, methods of procedure, change requests, technical bulletins, maintenance requirements, and reliability improvement initiatives.
- Ensure market and regional SME coverage supports timely incident response, planned time off, customer-facing technical support, local system expertise, and consistent knowledge transfer to site teams.
- Direct vendor and OEM technical relationships and support national technical strategies for critical equipment, water treatment, controls, maintenance services, and reliability programs.
Operations Training & Workforce Readiness Group Oversight
- Provide executive oversight of enterprise Operations training, technician onboarding, workforce readiness, technical curriculum, qualification programs, instructor governance, training compliance, and Learning Management System administration.
- Own the strategic direction and enterprise rollout of the Operator Development Program, including standardized onboarding and structured classroom, practical, and assessment-based training for new Operations Technicians.
- Ensure training establishes a consistent baseline across Facility Operations, Mechanical, Electrical, BMS/Controls, Water Chemistry, safety, customer operations, vendor oversight, incident response, maintenance, and business systems.
- Ensure market-level Training Managers are deployed early enough to build site-specific qualification programs, facilitate Operator Development Program cohorts, and prepare technicians to support facility turnover and shift coverage.
- Govern annual training plans, continued training, drills, lessons learned, leadership development, director development, technical qualification boards, role-based learning pathways, and remedial training requirements.
- Oversee Workday Learning governance, course ownership, version control, completion reporting, qualification evidence, audit readiness, instructor workflows, and training performance analytics.
- Develop workforce pipeline strategies with technical schools, trade schools, colleges, military transition programs, vendors, and other external partners to improve access to qualified talent.
- Ensure training priorities incorporate incident trends, audit findings, operational deficiencies, changing technology, new equipment platforms, and organizational performance gaps.
Operational Excellence Group Oversight
- Provide executive oversight of Operational Excellence functions including innovation, strategic projects, maintenance program governance, compliance, operational standards, ServiceNow/CMMS governance, analytics, reporting, and operational coordination.
- Lead enterprise maintenance strategy and governance, including asset hierarchy, preventive and corrective maintenance standards, maintenance matrices, standardized scopes of work, standard maintenance procedures, spare parts strategy, vendor performance, audits, and program quality.
- Oversee ServiceNow enhancement governance, CMMS administration priorities, workflow improvement, data quality, project intake, testing, deployment, adoption, and backlog management for Operations-related capabilities.
- Own the development and continuous improvement of executive and operational reporting, including monthly operations reports, board materials, Power BI dashboards, PagerDuty analytics, incident metrics, maintenance performance, training reporting, compliance visibility, and portfolio risk trends.
- Lead innovation and special projects that improve reliability, efficiency, automation, data quality, scalability, safety, sustainability, and customer outcomes. Evaluate emerging technologies and convert viable concepts into pilots, business cases, and enterprise deployments.
- Govern operational standards, policies, procedures, runbook content, document control, program compliance, audit readiness, and enterprise standardization across markets.
- Coordinate cross-functional improvement programs involving Operations, Technology, Engineering, Platform Delivery, Finance, Procurement, Customer Success, Security, Legal, and People & Culture.
- Ensure critical operational programs have documented ownership, repeatable processes, performance measures, continuity coverage, and succession plans.
Incident Management, Risk & Operational Readiness
- Ensure incident classification, escalation, communications, bridge leadership, documentation, ServiceNow records, problem management, corrective actions, and executive reporting are performed consistently and in accordance with established standards.
- Analyze incident, alarm, maintenance, audit, training, water chemistry, qualification, and equipment performance data to identify systemic issues and prioritize risk reduction.
- Lead or sponsor root cause analyses, after-action reviews, lessons learned, technical remediation plans, and enterprise-wide changes resulting from significant events.
- Ensure new facilities, phases, and major system changes are operationally ready before turnover through coordinated technical validation, documentation review, training, staffing, CMMS readiness, and deficiency tracking.
- Partner with site and regional Operations leaders to resolve recurring problems, strengthen local capability, and maintain consistent execution without displacing site accountability.
Data, Technology, Reporting & Continuous Improvement
- Establish trusted operational data, metrics, KPIs, scorecards, reporting cadences, and executive dashboards that show performance, risk, trends, ownership, and corrective action status.
- Lead integration and automation opportunities across ServiceNow, Power BI, PagerDuty, Workday Learning, BMS platforms, document repositories, and other operational systems.
- Ensures reporting moves beyond point-in-time summaries to meaningful trend analysis, early risk identification, accountability, and decision support.
- Prioritize, sponsor, and govern operational technology improvements, AI-enabled workflows, digital tools, centralized repositories, and data capture methods that reduce manual effort and improve execution quality.
- Measure program effectiveness and require continuous improvement when standards, processes, staffing models, systems, or outcomes do not meet expectations.
People Leadership, Financial Stewardship & Stakeholder Engagement
- Lead, coach, and develop senior leaders, directors, managers, program owners, technical SMEs, training professionals, analysts, and coordinators across the Central Operations organization.
- Establish clear goals, accountability, decision rights, communication expectations, development plans, and succession coverage for leaders and critical functions.
- Build an operating culture centered on safety, reliability, customer commitment, technical excellence, transparency, ownership, disciplined execution, and continuous learning.
- Develop and manage departmental budgets, headcount plans, contracts, purchase requests, vendor spend, project funding, cost-benefit analyses, and financial forecasts.
- Represent Central Operations in executive reviews, customer discussions, audits, incident reviews, strategic planning, vendor negotiations, and cross-functional governance forums.
- Communicate complex operational and technical matters clearly to executives, customers, frontline teams, and non-technical stakeholders.
- Perform other duties and lead additional programs as assigned based on business need, portfolio growth, operational risk, or executive direction.
REQUIREMENTS:- Bachelor's degree in engineering, Operations, Facilities Management, Business, or a related discipline preferred. Equivalent combinations of education, military service, technical training, and directly relevant experience will be considered.
- Minimum 12 years of progressive experience in data center operations, mission critical facilities, reliability, engineering operations, maintenance, training, operational excellence, or a related field, including significant multi-site leadership responsibility.
- Demonstrated experience leading multiple enterprise functions, departments, or capability areas through managers and senior technical professionals.
- Advanced knowledge of critical electrical and mechanical infrastructure, BMS/controls, water systems, maintenance strategy, incident management, operational readiness, and data center operating practices.
- Proven ability to build enterprise programs, governance models, standards, policies, audit frameworks, technical training, performance reporting, staffing plans, and scalable organizational structures.
- Demonstrated experience with CMMS platforms, preferably ServiceNow, and with operational reporting, dashboarding, workflow governance, and data-driven decision support.
- Experience developing business cases, departmental budgets, vendor strategies, contracts, investment recommendations, and executive or board-level presentations.
- Ability to lead during high-pressure incidents, evaluate incomplete or conflicting information, make risk-based decisions, and communicates clear direction.
- Ability to read and interpret technical drawings, sequence of operations, commissioning documentation, specifications, operating procedures, maintenance requirements, contracts, and complex project documents
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present to executives, customers, auditors, vendors, and large technical audiences.
- Proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications and enterprise collaboration, reporting, workflow, AI programs, and learning platforms.
- Ability to travel approximately 25% to 50% based on portfolio needs, site incidents, program deployments, training, audits, and leadership meetings.
COMPETENCIES:- Adaptability - Adapts to changes in the work environment; Manages competing demands; Changes approach or method to best fit the situation; Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.
- Analytical - Synthesizes complex or diverse information; Collects and researches data; Uses intuition and experience to complement data; Designs workflows and procedures.
- Business Acumen - Understands business implications of decisions; Displays orientation to profitability; Demonstrates knowledge of market and competition; Aligns work with strategic goals.
- Change Management - Develops workable implementation plans; Communicates changes effectively; Builds commitment and overcomes resistance; Prepares and supports those affected by change; Monitors transition and evaluates results
- Cost Consciousness - Works within approved budget; Develops and implements cost saving measures; Contribute
