Director, Global Field Operations

Advertima Vision AG; Zürich; On-site; CHF 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A global technology company in Zurich is seeking an experienced Global Field Operations Manager to oversee the reliability and operational performance of their IoT hardware fleet. Your role involves maintaining uptime across devices deployed in retail locations and leading incident response efforts in coordination with local integrators. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in operations management for IoT or distributed physical systems, ensuring that data quality and operational standards are met consistently.

Qualifications

• Proven operational management skills in IoT or distributed systems.
• Experience in managing hardware fleets in retail or digital environments.
• Familiar with firmware lifecycle management.

Responsibilities

• Oversee operational stability of the global hardware fleet.
• Ensure uptime and reliability of all devices.
• Coordinate troubleshooting and incident management globally.

Skills

Operations management of IoT device fleets or distributed IT infrastructure

Experience with field service or installation partner networks

Technical problem-solving

Cross-functional coordination

Data quality understanding

Tools

Remote device management platforms

Network monitoring tools

Field service coordination tools

Job description

Job Overview

We are looking for a Global Field Operations Manager to own the operational stability of Advertima’s global hardware fleet.

Our platform runs on a distributed network of edge devices deployed across thousands of retail locations and touchpoints worldwide. These systems power real‑time audience measurement and activation and must be online, calibrated, and producing reliable data at all times.

Your responsibility is simple to describe but hard to execute. Everything must work. You own uptime and operational readiness of the entire fleet, from installation to daily performance at scale. Fleet health directly determines commercial performance, customer trust, and data integrity.

Coordinate closely with engineering, customer success, and procurement, and build the processes and systems required to scale reliably. Operate in imperfect environments, deal with incomplete information, and meet high expectations from global customers. Success means the fleet runs reliably, and issues are resolved before they are visible.

The Role

Day‑to‑day, the role sits at the intersection of three groups:

• Engineering – who build and maintain the software and firmware running on the fleet
• Local integrators – the global network of installation and field service partners who physically touch the devices
• CUS Managers – who own the customer relationship and communicate with retailers when issues arise

This role owns the operational engine that prevents negative customer conversations and provides the technical depth when escalations require it.

This role coordinates with procurement on replacement logistics and fleet availability.

Core Responsibilities

Fleet Monitoring & Uptime

• Maintain real‑time monitoring covering device health, connectivity, and data output quality across the entire global fleet
• Detect and triage outages, communication gaps, and anomalies across all regions
• Own the fleet uptime KPI
• Report uptime performance internally and to customers
• Continuously refine monitoring tools and observability infrastructure; define improved device health metrics with engineering; drive development of fleet‑level dashboards and alerting systems at store, region, and network level

Data Quality Monitoring

• Monitor not just whether devices are online, but whether they are producing reliable, accurate data
• Act as the first line of detection for data quality issues: wrong sensor angles, miscalibrations, corrupted audience counts
• Escalate analytically complex data quality issues to the Senior Data Scientist for deeper investigation
• Distinguish clearly between hardware‑driven data failures and software or model‑level issues

Incident Coordination

• Coordinate troubleshooting with local integrators globally when devices fail or underperform
• Manage device replacements, repairs, and returns — including logistics, shipping, and customs where required
• Escalate systemic or recurring failures to engineering with structured root cause documentation
• Support CUS Managers with technical context during customer‑facing escalations when required

Firmware & Software Update Management

• Own the firmware update process globally: from scheduling and communication through to completion tracking and audit
• Coordinate with engineering on readiness and with Customer Success and Account Management on per‑customer sign‑off before any update reaches a live environment
• Ensure no update is deployed to a customer's fleet without appropriate approvals, particularly during active campaign periods
• Maintain a clear audit trail of firmware versions deployed across all sites and regions

Site Acceptance & Fleet Onboarding

• Design and own a formal site acceptance process — the structured handover from the Delivery Director once physical installation is complete
• Define the technical criteria a site must meet before entering the live fleet: sensor calibration, connectivity validation, data output verification, and zone configuration
• Own the sign‑off that brings a new site live, ensuring what enters the fleet is production‑ready from day one

Integrator Network Management

• Serve as the primary operational interface for the global network of local installation and field service integrators
• Define and enforce operational standards, response time expectations, and quality requirements across the network
• Coordinate integrator activity for incident response, replacements, and new site readiness

What You Bring

Background

• Operations management of IoT device fleets or distributed physical IT infrastructure
• Experience working with field service or installation partner networks at scale
• Hardware fleet management in retail, digital out‑of‑home, or connected device environments
• Exposure to firmware lifecycle management and structured release processes
• Experience defining and owning operational KPIs in a customer‑facing technology environment

Tooling Familiarity

Advertima doesn't require all of these, but familiarity with comparable tools is a strong advantage.

• Remote device management / MDM platforms (e.g. Balena, Mender, AWS IoT Greengrass, or similar)
• Network monitoring and observability tools (e.g. Grafana, Datadog, Zabbix, or similar)
• Field service coordination and ticketing (e.g. Jira, ServiceNow, or similar)

How You Work

• Operationally relentless: you derive genuine satisfaction from a system running perfectly, and genuine urgency when it doesn't
• Process builder: comfortable designing structure where none exists, disciplined enough to enforce it consistently
• Technically grounded: able to diagnose hardware and connectivity issues without routing everything through engineering
• Cross‑functional coordinator: effective at managing dependencies across engineering, commercial, and field teams without direct authority over any of them
• Data‑oriented: understands that this role's output is not just uptime, but the quality of the data the fleet produces
• Globally minded: comfortable operating across time zones, cultures, and regulatory environments without losing operational discipline

For inquiries, contact [e-mail].