Data Center IT Operations Program Manager

Verda; Helsinki; Hybrid; EUR 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Verda is building a scalable European AI cloud. We seek an Operations Lead to own the day-to-day IT operations across data centers, defining procedures, standards, and repeatable processes for healthy, available compute.

You’ll document SOPs, runbooks, and site-wide hand-offs while aligning across Hardware, Networking, and Cloud teams. You will establish incident/change management, asset tracking, and KPI reporting, turning data into continuous improvements.

Qualifications

• Experience defining and running operational processes in data center, cloud, or large IT environment.
• Formal ITSM knowledge (ITIL or equivalent) and ability to apply it pragmatically.
• Proven ability to write SOPs, runbooks, and standards used by technicians.
• Knowledge of the IT hardware lifecycle from receiving to decommissioning.
• Strong cross-functional coordination and clean hand-offs across teams.
• Data-driven approach to define KPIs, SLAs and turn data into improvements.
• Clear technical writing and documentation discipline.
• Bias toward speed, ownership, and decisive action with incomplete information.

Responsibilities

• Define and document operating procedures for full IT hardware lifecycle (receiving, rack-and-stack, imaging, provisioning, break-fix, RMA, decommissioning).
• Stand up operational disciplines: incident, change, problem management; escalation and on-call paths; maintenance windows; postmortems.
• Own asset and inventory management with a single source of truth across sites.
• Define and monitor metrics (SLAs, KPIs) and drive improvements from real data.
• Collaborate across Operations, Hardware, Networking, Architecture, Expansion, Cloud and Support teams.
• Align standards and hand-offs so a procedure for one site applies everywhere.
• Author the operations playbook for new sites and stand up cross-site incident and change management.

Skills

ITIL / ITSM knowledge

SOPs and runbooks writing

Data-driven process improvement

Cross-functional coordination

Technical writing

Job description

At Verda, we're building a fully featured European AI cloud, covering everything needed to train, experiment with, and deploy AI models at scale.
We are a full-stack AI infrastructure company, meaning we design, operate, and optimize the compute powering modern AI workloads across training and inference. Our infrastructure runs on 100% renewable energy, helping build a more sustainable AI ecosystem.
Join Verda while it’s still being built - not once it’s finished.

About The Role

You will own the operating model for Verda's data centers: how IT operations run day to day across every site. Your focus is the procedures, standards, and processes that keep our compute healthy, available, and serviceable, and the discipline that lets us repeat them site after site.

What You’ll Do

• Define and document the operating procedures technicians work from: the full IT hardware lifecycle (receiving, rack-and-stack, imaging and provisioning, break-fix, RMA, and decommissioning), captured as SOPs and runbooks that people actually follow, not shelfware
• Stand up the operational disciplines that keep a fleet under control: incident, change, and problem management; escalation and on-call paths; maintenance windows; and postmortems that turn every event into an improvement
• Own asset and inventory management: a source of truth for what's installed where, spares and consumables, and chain of custody from the receiving dock to decommission
• Define the metrics that tell us whether operations are working (SLAs, KPIs, and the reporting cadence around them) and drive process improvement from real data, closing the loop on root causes rather than symptoms
• Work across teams to make this stick: Operations technicians, Hardware, Networking, Architecture, Expansion, and the Cloud and Support functions
• Align standards, clarify hand-offs, and make sure a procedure defined for one site is the procedure everywhere
• Representative projects: author the operations playbook for a new site, the full set of SOPs and runbooks technicians work from on day one; stand up incident and change management across sites so every event is triaged, tracked, and reviewed to a single standard; build the asset and inventory process from receiving dock to decommission, with a source of truth every team trusts; define the operations KPI set and reporting cadence that turns raw tickets into concrete process improvements
  

What We’re Looking For

• Experience defining and running operational processes in a data center, cloud, or large-scale IT environment
• Command of IT service management fundamentals: incident, change, problem, and asset/configuration management (ITIL or equivalent), without being dogmatic about frameworks
• Track record writing SOPs, runbooks, and standards that technicians genuinely use, and improving them from operational data
• Working knowledge of the IT hardware lifecycle: receiving, rack-and-stack, provisioning, break-fix, RMA, and decommissioning
• Strong cross-functional coordination, aligning hardware, networking, operations, and support teams on shared standards and clean hand-offs
• Data-driven approach to process improvement: defining KPIs and SLAs, finding root cause, and closing the loop
• Clear technical writing and documentation discipline
• Bias toward speed and ownership, comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and driving them to a repeatable result
  

Practicalities

• Work mode: Hybrid, office (Helsinki, Finland or London, UK) or remote
• Travel: Regular travel to sites to observe operations and roll out standards
• Employment type: Full-time and permanent

What's Next

We're building fast and this role needs the right person behind it. There's no artificial deadline, but when we find who we're looking for, we move.