Data Center Operations Implementation Manager

Nscale; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Nscale seeks a Data Center Operations Implementation Manager to lead the Day 0 to Day 2 transition of its data centres across the assigned region. You will connect Construction, Network Engineering, Compute/Infrastructure Deployment and local Operations to ensure live go-lives on schedule.

You’ll manage risks, satisfaction of customer needs, and post-handover readiness, including SOPs, ITSM, and monitoring alignment. Travel to sites is required.

Qualifications

• 3–8 years of experience in data centre operations, program/project management, or infrastructure deployment at scale.
• Proven track record coordinating the transition of new sites into live operations across construction, network, compute, and operations functions.
• Experience operating in a matrixed environment, influencing outcomes without direct authority over every stakeholder team.
• Demonstrated success managing multiple concurrent site transitions in a high-growth, fast-paced environment.
• Background in hyperscale, cloud, or HPC data centre environments (preferred).

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end Day 0 to Day 2 transition process for each data centre site within your region.
• Define and maintain a standardized transition framework and readiness checklist.
• Track and drive closure of cross-team action items, dependencies, and blockers.
• Identify and elevate risks to go-live timelines and drive resolution across stakeholder groups.
• Coordinate with Construction, Network Engineering, Compute/Infrastructure Deployment, Facility Engineering, SDM, and local site Operations.
• Create SOPs and operational processes for Day 2 readiness and post-handover operations.
• Ensure ITSM tooling, ticketing, and monitoring processes are validated prior to transition.
• Travel to sites during critical transition windows to support handover.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional influence

Travel willingness

Program/project management

Data centre operations knowledge

Tools

ITSM tooling

Ticketing systems

Monitoring platforms

Smartsheet

Asana

Jira

monday.com

Palantir Foundry

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking a Data Center Operations Implementation Manager to own the end-to-end Day 0 to Day 2 transition of Nscale's data centres - spanning construction, fit-out, and live, steady-state local operations - across an assigned region and set of sites. Rather than owning construction execution itself, you'll be the connective tissue between Construction, Network Engineering, Compute/Infrastructure Deployment, and local Operations teams - driving a structured, well-documented transition so every site goes live on schedule and ready to support production workloads. This is an individual-contributor role built on strong stakeholder management, cross-functional influence, and travel to sites during critical transition windows.

What You’ll Do

Day 0 to Day 2 Transition Leadership

• Own the end-to-end Day 0 to Day 2 transition process for each data centre site within your assigned region - spanning construction, fit-out, and steady-state operations.
• Define and maintain a standardized transition framework and readiness checklist applied consistently across your assigned sites.
• Track and drive closure of cross-team action items, dependencies, and blockers standing between construction handover and operational go-live.
• Identify and elevate risks to go-live timelines, and drive resolution across the relevant stakeholder groups.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Track progress and status across Construction, Network Engineering, Compute/Infrastructure Deployment, Facility Engineering, SDM, and local site Operations teams throughout the transition window.
• Partner with Construction teams to track handover status, outstanding items, and site readiness milestones.
• Track Network Engineering's buildout, testing, and cutover activities required for a site to go live.
• Track hardware intake, rack-and-stack, and deployment scheduling with Compute/Infrastructure Deployment teams to stay aligned with the transition timeline.
• Coordinate with Facility Engineering on site systems and infrastructure readiness ahead of transition.
• Engage with the Service Delivery Management (SDM) team to ensure alignment with customer needs, SLAs, security, and facility performance.
• Take part in regular cross-functional syncs and stakeholder reviews to stay current on transition status.
• Contribute to a shared sense of ownership and accountability across stakeholder teams, even without formal authority over them.

Local Day Two Operations Readiness

• Partner with local Operations leads to confirm staffing, training, tooling, and support processes are in place before a site transitions to Day 2 ownership.
• Create and validate standard operating procedures (SOPs) and operational processes required for local Operations teams to run the site post-handover.
• Create the operational site tool bill of materials (BOM) required for local Operations teams to maintain the site post-handover.
• Verify the spare parts bill of materials (BOM) is complete and in place ahead of Day 2 handover.
• Facilitate structured knowledge transfer and handover documentation from Construction, Network, and Compute teams to local Operations teams.
• Confirm monitoring, ticketing, and ITSM processes are validated and operating before a site is handed to local Operations.
• Act as an escalation point for local Operations teams during the early post-handover period to smooth the transition.

Reliability, Safety & Compliance

• Define and enforce Day 2 readiness criteria that a site must meet before transitioning to local Operations ownership.
• Facilitate root-cause analysis for transition delays or gaps surfaced during handover, and drive remediation across teams.
• Ensure health, safety, and environmental requirements are validated and documented as part of readiness sign-off.
• Support certification and audit readiness (ISO 27001, ISO 22237, SOC 2, Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 22301) ahead of go-live.

Vendor & Supplier Coordination

• Coordinate with construction contractors and colocation providers as needed to close out remaining items affecting the transition timeline.
• Track vendor commitments and SLAs relevant to the transition window, and elevate delays that put go-live at risk.
• Coordinate with the Supply Chain team to align hardware intake and staging with the transition schedule.

Monitoring, Reporting & Analytics

• Track KPIs and KRIs for the Day 0 to Day 2 transition process (time to transition, readiness checklist completion rate, post-handover incident rate, etc.).
• Build and maintain dashboards that track transition status across your assigned site pipeline for all stakeholder teams.
• Produce regular reports for senior leadership on transition status, risks, and blockers.
• Use data-driven insights to identify systemic bottlenecks in the Day 0 to Day 2 process and drive continuous improvement.

About You

Experience & Background

• 3-8 years of experience in data centre operations, program/project management, or infrastructure deployment at scale.
• Proven track record coordinating the transition of new sites into live operations across construction, network, compute, and operations functions.
• Experience operating in a matrixed environment, influencing outcomes without direct authority over every stakeholder team.
• Demonstrated success managing multiple concurrent site transitions in a high-growth, fast-paced environment.
• Background in hyperscale, cloud, or HPC data centre environments (preferred).

Technical Knowledge & Expertise

• Working knowledge of data centre power, cooling, networking, and compute infrastructure, sufficient to coordinate effectively across specialist teams.
• Familiarity with network deployment and cutover processes, and compute/hardware deployment lifecycles.
• Knowledge of Layer 1 network infrastructure, including fiber, copper, optics, and transceivers.
• Familiarity with ITSM tooling, ticketing systems, and monitoring platforms used by local Operations teams.

Influence & Communication

• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and align Construction, Network, Compute, and Operations teams without direct authority.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills, able to translate technical detail between teams with different priorities and vocabularies.
• Program management discipline, with the ability to track and drive multiple concurrent workstreams to closure.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, matrixed, fast-moving environments.
• Bias toward ownership, pragmatism, and delivering results with urgency.

Operational Excellence

• Rigorous tracking of readiness checklists, risk logs, and action items across many concurrent site transitions within your assigned region.
• Proven ability to build and refine standardized transition frameworks that scale with business growth.
• Strong attention to detail in transition documentation and handover packages.
• Willingness to travel to sites during critical transition windows.

Nice to Have

• Experience with program management tooling (e.g., Smartsheet, Asana, Jira, monday.com) for tracking multi-workstream transitions.
• Familiarity with network cutover or compute/hardware deployment processes specifically.
• Experience with ITSM platforms and ticketing workflows.
• Experience with Palantir Foundry or similar data platforms for operational analytics.

At Nscale, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace. We believe that a variety of perspectives enriches our work environment, and we encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there's anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.

For information on how Nscale handles candidate personal data, please see our Employee & Candidate Privacy Notice: Here.

Nscale does not accept unsolicited candidate submissions from recruitment agencies.