Operations Program Director

Digital Realty; Greater London; On-site; GBP 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Development opportunities

Inclusive culture

Cross-functional exposure

Job summary

Digital Realty is seeking an Operations Program Director to provide strategic leadership for global programmes within Global Operations, guiding governance, execution, and readiness to onboard new data center sites onto our platforms. You will align cross-functional teams and engage senior stakeholders to ensure scalable delivery across regions.

The role emphasizes governance, risk management, and continuous improvement of the PMO, with a focus on delivering high standards and operational

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, IT, engineering, or related field; PMP or equivalent certification preferred.
• Progressive programme/portfolio/PMO leadership experience, including global, large-scale initiatives in data centers/IT.
• Deep expertise in programme governance frameworks, methodologies, and standard setting.
• Ability to lead multi-million-dollar, multi-phase programmes with cross-functional dependencies and executive visibility.
• Excellent leadership, stakeholder management, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen, linking delivery to outcomes.
• Excellent executive communication and ability to influence decisions at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic direction for global Operations PMO programmes and onboarding new sites onto DLR’s processes and platforms.
• Oversee portfolio planning including scope, budget, timelines, resource strategy, risk, quality controls, and interdependencies across regions.
• Serve as senior escalation point and trusted advisor for programme matters with executives and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Anticipate and resolve strategic risks, issues and dependencies affecting delivery, readiness, and financials.
• Provide leadership to programme teams, fostering accountability and delivery discipline.
• Own executive governance and reporting for the portfolio including delivery performance and risks.
• Lead continuous improvement of the PMO function with scalable best practices across the portfolio.

Skills

PMO leadership

Stakeholder mgmt

Executive comms

Strategic thinking

Negotiation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business, IT, engineering, or related field

PMP or equivalent certification

Job description

Your role

Operations Program Director will provide strategic leadership for complex global programmes on behalf of the Global Operations department, with accountability for the governance, execution, and operational readiness activities required to onboard new sites (data centers) onto DLR’s suite of platforms and processes. This role sets the direction for programme delivery, drives cross-functional alignment, manages executive-level stakeholder engagement, and ensures consistent delivery standards across regions. The Director will partner closely with senior leaders, functional teams, and key stakeholders to advance Global Operations priorities, strengthen operational excellence, and enable scalable, repeatable delivery across the portfolio.

What You’ll Do

• Set the strategic direction for global Operations PMO programmes, including the end-to-end governance and delivery approach for onboarding new sites onto DLR’s processes and platforms, ensuring alignment with Global Operations priorities and executive expectations.
• Oversee portfolio and programme planning, including scope, budget, timelines, resource strategy, risk management, quality controls, and interdependency management across multiple regions and functions.
• Serve as a senior point of escalation and trusted advisor for programme-related matters, influencing executives, business sponsors, regional leaders, and cross-functional stakeholders to drive decisions and remove barriers.
• Anticipate and resolve strategic risks, issues, and dependencies that may impact delivery, operational readiness, financial performance, or business outcomes.
• Provide leadership, direction, and coaching to programme and project teams, fostering accountability, collaboration, high performance, and consistent delivery discipline.
• Own executive governance and reporting for the portfolio, including delivery performance, financial status, operational readiness, key risks, and decision points for senior leadership.
• Lead continuous improvement of the Operations PMO function by strengthening delivery frameworks, governance standards, lessons learned, and scalable best practices across the global portfolio.

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor’s degree in business, IT, engineering, or related field; PMP or equivalent certification preferred.
• Solid experience of progressive programme, portfolio, or PMO leadership experience, including experience leading large-scale, global initiatives in data centers, IT infrastructure, operations, or similarly complex environments.
• Deep expertise in programme, portfolio, and project management methodologies, governance frameworks, and tools, with the ability to establish standards and drive adoption across teams.
• Proven ability to lead multi-million-dollar, multi-phase programmes with significant cross-functional dependencies, executive visibility, and regional or global impact.
• Exceptional leadership, stakeholder management, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills, with the confidence to influence senior leaders and drive accountability.
• Strong strategic thinking, commercial awareness, and business acumen, with the ability to connect programme delivery to operational, financial, and customer outcomes.
• Excellent executive communication skills, including the ability to simplify complex information, present clear recommendations, and influence decisions at all levels of the organisation.

About Us

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents.

To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

What We Can Offer You

Our rapidly evolving business sector offers the opportunity to be part of a courageous and passionate team who work together to understand and meet the changing needs of our global customers.

Join us and you’ll be part of a supportive and inclusive environment where you can bring your whole self to work. As part of our team, you’ll get to work with people from different business areas, challenge the way we do things and put your ideas into action. We’ll also give you plenty of development opportunities so you can build a rewarding and successful career with us.

Training and Development

Join our Data Center Operations team and gain the support to succeed from day one. Our onboarding program prepares you to contribute meaningfully right away, with clear career pathways and continuous training to fuel your long-term growth. From onboarding to specialized development, we equip you with the skills and opportunities to make a lasting impact in operations.

Safely Powering Progress

Safety isn’t just a priority here at Digital; it’s critical to everything we do. Safeguarding lives, protecting assets, and securing data aren’t just ideals - they’re essential pillars of our commitment to excellence for our people, our partners and our customers. We have a culture of care where every member of Team Digital embraces a relentless pursuit of working safely across Digital Realty. Together we are Safely Powering Progress.

Our Compensation Philosophy

Digital Realty offers its employees a highly competitive compensation package, excellent benefits, and an environment that recognizes and rewards your contributions. Central to our compensation philosophy is rewarding our employees for achieving the values and objectives aligned to the company’s overall goals and values.