Director of Data Center Operations - Euroope

Position Summary

The Director, Data Center Operations (Europe) is responsible for the day-to-day operation, readiness, utilization, customer support, capacity planning, vendor coordination, and operational execution across the Company's European data center estate.

This position is accountable for ensuring safe, secure, sustainable, and highly available operations in support of the Company's AI infrastructure, bare metal cloud services, and customer deployments across multiple countries and regulatory jurisdictions. The role requires a hands-on leader who can operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth environment while balancing strategic planning with direct operational execution.

The Director operates within a matrix organization. While certain supporting functions—including the NOC, RMA, deployment technicians, logistics, and other specialized teams—may report through separate management structures, this role is responsible for coordinating and directing all operational activity within the European data centers to ensure safe, reliable, and efficient operations. Functional reporting lines for those teams remain with their respective department leaders.

The Quality & Compliance, Logistics, Facilities, and Asset Management functions report directly to this position and support the Company's quality programs, operational compliance initiatives, inventory control, asset lifecycle management, and the movement of materials between data centers—including cross-border logistics and customs requirements within the EU, EEA, and UK. This position owns the Company's European certification landscape, including ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 9001, ISO 50001, and SOC 2, alongside compliance with the GDPR and applicable national data protection laws.

Key Responsibilities

Data Center Operations

• Lead the daily operation of the Company's European data center facilities.
• Ensure maximum uptime, operational readiness, and service quality consistent with customer SLAs.
• Coordinate maintenance activities, customer works, installations, and operational changes in line with EN 50600 / Uptime Institute best practices.
• Plan and support capacity for power, space, cooling, and infrastructure utilization.
• Implement and continuously improve operational standards, procedures, and site safety rules (permit-to-work, RAMS, local HSE requirements).
• Coordinate customer installations, expansions, maintenance windows, migrations, and decommissioning.
• Manage third-party vendors, maintenance contractors, and landlord/colocation partners performing work within Company facilities.

Sustainability & Energy Management

• Own PUE/WUE monitoring, reporting, and continuous improvement across European sites.
• Ensure compliance with the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) data centre reporting obligations and national implementations (e.g., Germany's Energy Efficiency Act).
• Support participation in the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency.
• Drive energy-efficiency and decarbonization initiatives, including free cooling, high-density cooling optimization, waste-heat reuse readiness, and renewable-energy procurement coordination.

Operational Leadership

• Coordinate activities between Operations, Engineering, NOC, Deployment, Logistics, Security, Facilities, Procurement, and Customer Success.
• Priorities data center operational work across multiple sites and countries.
• Ensure resources are aligned with customer commitments and contractual SLAs.
• Remove operational bottlenecks and drive execution discipline.
• Lead daily operational stand-ups, incident reviews, and escalation management.
• Willingness—not just ability—to be hands-on in support of challenges and escalations.
• Liaise with works councils or employee representative bodies where applicable.

Capacity Planning & Strategic Planning

• Coordinate capacity planning for rack space, power, cooling, and network infrastructure, with particular attention to constrained-power European markets (FLAP-D and emerging hubs).
• Forecast future operational requirements and support new site selection, readiness, permitting, and ramp-up.
• Recommend operational improvements and contribute to the European operational roadmap and infrastructure plans.

Change Management

• Coordinate operational maintenance activities and planned maintenance windows.
• Verify readiness before production changes; own MOPs, SOPs, and EOPs.
• Reduce operational risk through standardized, auditable change management practices.

Budget Support

• Partner with executive leadership on European operational budgets and forecasting.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs, including energy procurement.
• Monitor operational expenditure, vendor performance, and contractual compliance.

Compliance & Quality

• Provide leadership and oversight for European operational compliance programs.
• Manage the Quality & Compliance Manager.
• Own and maintain compliance with:
• ISO 27001 (Information Security)
• ISO 27701 (Privacy / GDPR-aligned)
• ISO 9001 (Quality Management)
• ISO 50001 (Energy Management)
• SOC 2 (for US-based and global customer requirements)
• GDPR and national data protection legislation
• NIS2-aligned security obligations applicable to cloud and data center providers
• ·        Customer security, audit, and sovereignty requirements (e.g., EU data residency)

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• 8–10 years of progressive experience in a matrixed or larger operations or mission-critical operations
• 3–7 years of leadership or management experience, ideally across multi-country operations.
• Demonstrated experience operating multi-megawatt, high-density data center environments.
• Practical knowledge of European regulatory frameworks: GDPR, EU EED, local HSE and environmental permitting.
• Strong organizational, operational, and project management skills.
• Excellent communication and customer service abilities; fluent written and spoken English.
• Proven success in a high-growth or rapidly evolving environment.
• Demonstrated ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on operational execution.
• Eligibility to work in the relevant EU member state(s) or UK as applicable.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting AI, HPC, GPU, or cloud infrastructure, including NVIDIA or AMD GPU environments.
• Experience with direct-to-chip or immersion liquid-cooled, high-density infrastructure.
• Lead Auditor or implementation experience across ISO 27001/27701/9001 and SOC 2 programs.
• Experience in carrier-neutral colocation or managed services environments.
• Experience engaging works councils and operating under collective frameworks.
• ITIL or equivalent service management grounding.
• Additional European languages (e.g., Dutch, German, French) are an advantage.

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation includes a competitive base salary and benefits in line with local market practice, including statutory pension contributions and holiday entitlement. The base salary range for this position will be disclosed in accordance with applicable national pay-transparency requirements.

A discretionary performance bonus may be awarded by executive management based on individual performance, overall company performance, and company profitability. Any bonus is determined at the Company's discretion, subject to applicable local employment law, and is not guaranteed.

Work Environment

• Regular travel to Company data centers and customer locations across Europe.
• Ability to work in active data center environments (noise, temperature variation, lifting equipment).
• Participation in an escalation rota and availability to support major operational events outside normal business hours, consistent with local working-time regulations.

Diversity & Inclusion

Cirrascale Cloud Services is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital or family status, race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, in accordance with applicable EU and national equality legislation.

Why Join Cirrascale?

Join a growing team that's pushing the boundaries of AI infrastructure. At Cirrascale, you’ll contribute to projects powering next-generation AI applications while working with top-tier hardware in a collaborative and innovative environment. From custom deployments to hands-on customer support, every role here plays a part in enabling breakthroughs in AI.

Apply Now: careers@cirrascale.com