Senior Director, Operations Excellence

The Senior Director, Operations Excellence is responsible for driving operational strategy, organizational readiness, and business excellence across CyrusOne's global Data Center Operations organization. Serving as a strategic partner to Operations leadership, this role ensures enterprise priorities, operational initiatives, and cross-functional programs are aligned to enable the safe, reliable, efficient, and scalable operation of the company's global data center portfolio.
This leader serves as the connective layer between regional operations, corporate functions, vendor partners, customer priorities, and executive leadership, ensuring strategic objectives are translated into consistent operational execution. The role provides leadership across enterprise operations transformation, operational readiness, workforce planning, vendor governance, financial oversight, customer alignment, sustainability initiatives, and business operations, enabling regional leaders to remain focused on operational excellence, customer commitments, and team development.
Success in this role requires the ability to combine operational expertise with strategic thinking, executive communication, organizational assessment, and data-driven decision-making to continuously improve organizational performance across a global 24x7 mission-critical environment. The ideal candidate is an influential leader who thrives in highly collaborative environments and can effectively drive change across multiple organizations without direct authority.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Strategy & Business Excellence

• Serve as the strategic business partner supporting the global Data Center Operations organization, aligning regional operations with corporate priorities and enterprise objectives.
• Develop and execute operational strategies that improve safety, reliability, efficiency, scalability, customer experience, and operational consistency across the global portfolio.
• Establish governance processes that align operational priorities with business objectives, customer commitments, and long-term growth strategies.
• Identify organizational opportunities, operational risks, and process improvements through data analysis, operational assessments, and executive business reviews.
• Develop executive dashboards, KPIs, performance metrics, and business reporting to support informed decision-making and continuous improvement.

Operations Transformation & Organizational Readiness

• Lead and coordinate enterprise operations transformation initiatives, including operating model evolution, workforce transitions, operational readiness, and organizational change management.
• Translate strategic initiatives into executable implementation plans with defined milestones, ownership, success metrics, and governance.
• Coordinate the development of cross-functional programs to ensure organizational readiness for major operational initiatives, facility transitions, and enterprise change efforts.
• Support post-incident reviews, corrective action planning, lessons learned, and continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen operational performance.

Workforce Planning & Organizational Effectiveness

• Lead enterprise workforce planning efforts, ensuring staffing strategies align with operational demand, customer commitments, business growth, operational risk, and long-term scalability.
• Develop staffing models, organizational designs, headcount plans, role definitions, and workforce governance processes that support resilient and efficient operations.
• Partner with Regional Operations, Service Delivery, HR, Finance, and executive leadership on workforce planning, organizational design, facilities operations insourcing, transition planning, and future operating models.
• Support organizational restructuring, staffing approvals, and operational readiness activities associated with business growth and strategic initiatives.

Vendor Strategy & Financial Management

• Lead operational vendor strategy, governance, and performance management for outsourced services supporting Data Center Operations.
• Partner with Procurement, Legal, Finance, and Operations leadership on strategic sourcing initiatives, contract negotiations, commercial reviews, and vendor performance.
• Develop and review operational budgets, staffing forecasts, vendor financial models, operating cost analyses, and business cases supporting strategic investment decisions.
• Monitor program financial performance and ensure operational initiatives deliver expected business outcomes.

Operational Readiness & Program Execution

• Support operational readiness activities supporting new data center launches, commissioning, operational acceptance, go-live planning, and transition readiness.
• Coordinate enterprise initiatives impacting Data Center Operations, ensuring consistent execution, effective communication, and proactive management of risks, dependencies, and escalations.
• Coordinate readiness dashboards, implementation trackers, governance reviews, and operational status reporting for strategic initiatives.
• Ensure operational processes, governance frameworks, RACI models, operating procedures, and service management documentation remain current and aligned with business objectives.

Executive Governance & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Develop executive communications, presentations, strategic updates, and decision materials supporting executive leadership, operating reviews, and strategic planning sessions.
• Establish governance structures that improve organizational visibility, accountability, prioritization, and decision-making across the global operations organization.
• Lead preparation for executive forums, including monthly operating reviews, business reviews, strategic planning sessions, and leadership meetings.
• Communicate complex operational and technical information clearly and effectively to executive leadership, regional operations teams, customers, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Influence leaders across Operations, Engineering, Construction, Asset Management, Service Delivery, Customer Success, Finance, HR, Procurement, Legal, Security, Sustainability, and other corporate functions to achieve common business objectives.

Customer & Operational Alignment

• Lead and evolve the Technical Customer Operations Manager (TCOM) function across multiple regions, expanding organizational capabilities to support growing customer and operational requirements.
• Partner with regional operations and customer-facing organizations to ensure customer commitments, operational priorities, and service delivery expectations remain aligned.
• Foster collaboration across corporate and regional teams to remove organizational barriers, improve execution, and enhance the overall customer experience.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Operations Management, or a related discipline required. Equivalent experience will be considered.
• Master's degree (MBA, Engineering, Operations Management, Statistics, or related field) preferred.

Experience

• 7+ years of progressive leadership experience in mission-critical operations, data center operations, industrial operations, or similarly complex, high-availability mission critical environments.
• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional operational strategy, transformation, and enterprise-scale business initiatives.
• Experience supporting executive leadership through business planning, governance, operational reviews, and strategic communications.
• Experience in operational readiness, organizational change management, workforce planning, vendor governance, and continuous improvement.
• Experience managing large, complex programs involving multiple stakeholders across geographically dispersed organizations.
• Experience within hyperscale data center environments or comparable mission-critical industries strongly preferred.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong understanding of mission-critical infrastructure, data center operations, and operational excellence principles.
• Exceptional strategic thinking with the ability to translate enterprise priorities into executable operational plans.
• Executive-level communication and presentation skills, with the ability to simplify complex technical and operational concepts.
• Strong analytical capabilities with experience developing KPIs, dashboards, business reviews, financial models, and operational performance metrics.
• Demonstrated experience leading organizational transformation, workforce planning, and enterprise change initiatives.
• Proven ability to influence across organizations without direct authority while building strong cross-functional partnerships.
• Excellent organizational, planning, prioritization, and program management skills in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Strong problem-solving, decision-making, and risk management capabilities.
• High degree of ownership, accountability, integrity, and bias for execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting hyperscale data center operations or equivalent large-scale mission-critical environments.
• Experience in operations strategy, business operations, operational excellence, program management, or transformation leadership.
• Knowledge of operational excellence and other continuous improvement methodologies.
• Experience leading global operational organizations and enterprise initiatives across geographically dispersed teams.

CyrusOne is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

CyrusOne provides reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and any other state or local laws. We will respond to requests for reasonable accommodations to assist you in applying for positions at CyrusOne, or to submit a resume.