Regional Director of Operations - EMEA

About Volta

Volta is the category-defining, fully vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform – from capital to clusters to software, under a founder-led enterprise. Our mission is The Utility of Compute™: AI infrastructure as dependable and available as electricity, for every organization that needs it. Launched with a $10B strategic partnership with one of the leading frontier AI labs, a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, and a $5B AI Infrastructure Fund, Volta is building the infrastructure layer of the AI era from the ground up. We are 100+ people across London, Palo Alto, and New York, with rapid growth expectations to hundreds.

Regional Data Centre Operations Director, EMEA

Location: Europe

Department: Data Centre Site Operations, EMEA

Reports to: VP, Data Centre Operations

Direct reports: Data Centre Manager, Logistics Manager, Asset and Inventory Manager

About The Role

Reporting to the VP, Data Centre Operations, the Regional Data Centre Operations Director is responsible for the technical oversight of day-to-day data centre operations and service delivery across Volta's EMEA portfolio. The scope covers data centre management, data centre services delivery, third party vendor and subcontractor management, and customer engagement.

You will be accountable for every operational and service aspect of Volta's data centres across EMEA, leading the Data Centre Manager, Logistics Manager and Asset and Inventory Manager.

What You Will Be Doing

Leading the organisation

• Provide strategic direction to site management, facility and IT infrastructure, logistics, asset and inventory, and services teams

• Build the capability of each department (site operations, logistics, IT infrastructure, asset and inventory, services) and drive operational excellence across the portfolio

• Review and sign off all high-risk activities across the portfolio, such as DNO outages, high-risk project works, capacity upgrades, and customer fit-outs, deployments and product refreshes

• Ensure Volta's data centres are fully compliant with local and regional regulations at all times

• Enforce and continually improve Volta's operational standards, processes and procedures

• Act as the senior escalation point across EMEA, providing guidance, support and coaching

• Lead for operations in key customer, vendor and leadership meetings across EMEA

• Work with Volta's operational engineering team to improve data centre design and operations

• Drive energy efficiency programmes and initiatives across EMEA

• Ensure operational items on the risk register are managed, mitigated and reduced across the portfolio

• Represent Volta Operations in external forums where relevant, including environmental agencies and authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs)

• Demonstrate Volta's values: agility, accountability, continuous improvement, teamwork and trust

Operations pillars

You will be fully accountable for implementing the four pillars of the Operations department:

• Safety first, safety for all

• Security for people and assets

• Availability of Volta services, always

• Efficiency built natively into operations

In practice, this means you will:

• Support site teams to deliver zero downtime on all site activities through proper risk analysis and mitigation

• Understand the implications of customer contractual SLAs for Volta's operations and services

• Ensure operations teams and service providers are ready to deliver fully against SLAs

• Track the health of the EMEA operations organisation through relevant KPIs

• Ensure high-risk activities are well orchestrated and controlled in line with safety rules and Volta's operating principles

• Resolve escalations from site operations teams and vendors

• Embed productivity as an integral part of operational processes

• Manage critical vendors at senior level, including colocation providers, IT integrators and OEMs

Operational consistency

• Maintain a robust, consistent operational posture across EMEA

• Adapt quickly to changes in Volta directives and processes so every data centre meets existing and new standards

• Contribute to updating and shaping processes and policies

• Sponsor projects and initiatives within EMEA

• Support other departments in achieving Volta's goals and objectives

• Take on other reasonable requests from your line manager

What success looks like in 12 months

Within your first 12 months, you will have contributed to or delivered:

• A generative safety culture across EMEA

• 100% uptime for Volta customers

• A strong security posture across EMEA

• An operations team built across EMEA

• Clear progress towards operational excellence across EMEA

• EMEA-adapted operational processes for high-risk project works

• Mitigation of risk register items and a start on reducing technical debt across the portfolio

• Strong relationships with Volta's providers, OEMs and integrators

What You Bring

We are looking for a leader and builder who brings people together and can shape a successful, fulfilled team. You will be reliable, honest, committed and competent, with strong leadership and management skills.

You will have experience in the data centre industry, from either an IT infrastructure or facility M&E perspective. Experience with hyperscale customers is preferred, but we will also consider experience of other critical environments such as nuclear, aeronautics, petrochemical and pharmaceutical.

Qualifications

Essential:

• An electrical or mechanical qualification, ideally to degree level, or equivalent experience; or

• An IT qualification, ideally to degree level, or equivalent experience

Desirable:

• Membership of a relevant professional body, such as the IET, IMechE or CIBSE; or

• Relevant IT, data centre or AI infrastructure certifications, such as those from Microsoft, Cisco or NVIDIA

Experience

Essential:

• Extensive experience in data centre facilities, IT infrastructure or another critical environment

• Leading data centre operations, IT infrastructure and operations engineering teams

• Strong, demonstrable experience setting up and managing processes in a live critical operational environment

• Extensive real-time incident and fault management experience in a business-critical environment

• Managing third party suppliers to deliver against stringent SLAs

• Business continuity, risk management, incident management and change control

• Electrical, mechanical cooling, fire and life safety, and IT/OT systems, or the compute, storage and network infrastructure layer of the data centre

• Project management

Knowledge

Essential:

• Strong, demonstrable technical ability from either a facility M&E or IT infrastructure perspective

• Excellent understanding of health and safety, ISO standards, regulation and compliance in data centres

• Comprehensive knowledge of customer installations in data centres and the contractual set-up behind them

• Ability to lead or support post-incident reviews and incident reports

• Good working knowledge of Microsoft 365

Skills

Essential:

• A natural team player: conscientious, flexible and adaptable

• A leader for whom ownership and accountability are second nature

• Able to work with multiple internal and external stakeholder groups

• Passionate about delivering outstanding service to the highest standard

• Calm under pressure, giving your teams reassurance and confidence

• Tenacious and assertive when needed

• Close attention to detail, with high personal standards that inspire others

• Able to work efficiently as demands and requirements change

• Anticipates issues and stays ahead of them

• A strong sense of urgency in driving issues to resolution

• Excellent written and spoken communication

What We Offer

At Volta, we believe people do their best work when they feel supported, trusted and able to grow. We're building a company where you can make an impact, keep a healthy balance between work and life, and build a career you're proud of.
As a global team, we do our best to provide great benefits wherever you're based. While some benefits vary by country due to local regulations, we believe looking after our people is simply the right thing to do.

• Competitive salary based on the work you do here, not your previous salary

• Equity in Volta, giving you the opportunity to share in the company's long-term success

• Retirement/pension contributions

• Comprehensive health, wellbeing and insurance benefits

• Generous number of vacation days each year

Additional Information

Background Checks

All offers of employment at Volta are conditional on the satisfactory completion of pre-employment screening, which includes confirmation of your right to work, verification of your employment history and a criminal record check, where this is permitted by local law. Screening is carried out by Zinc, an accredited third-party provider, after an offer is made and all information is handled confidentially and in accordance with applicable data protection law.

Equal Opportunity

Volta is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and make employment decisions based on skills, qualifications, experience and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic.

Accessibility

Volta is committed to providing an accessible recruitment experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the application or interview process, please contact us at askpeople@volta.com. We will work with you to identify reasonable accommodations that enable you to participate fully in the hiring process.

Candidate Privacy Notice

By applying, you consent to the processing of your personal data for recruitment purposes in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, EU GDPR and relevant US state privacy regulations. Your data will be shared only with those involved in the hiring process and will not be used for unrelated purposes. For details, see our Recruitment & Candidate Privacy Notice.

Note to Recruitment Agencies

Volta does not accept unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles from recruitment agencies. Any unsolicited submissions, including those sent directly to hiring managers or employees, will be treated as the property of Volta. No agency fees will be payable unless a valid, signed recruitment agreement is in place, and the agency has been specifically engaged for the relevant vacancy.