Senior Data Center Operations Manager

QTS Realty Trust; Eemshaven; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

5,250 EUR training bursary

Company car scheme - eligibility

Pension scheme with Allianz

Occupational disability allowance

Voluntary health insurance

Voluntary pet insurance

Bonus and equity eligible

Job summary

QTS Realty Trust in the Netherlands is seeking a Senior Data Center Operations Manager to lead facility technical strategy, continuous improvement, and support for electrical, mechanical, and life safety systems at our Groningen/Eemshaven campus.

You will own strategic projects, supervise maintenance teams, ensure 24/7 operations, and drive energy efficiency initiatives while collaborating with Engineering and Sales to meet customer needs.

Qualifications

• Five or more years workplace or professional equivalent experience.
• Five or more years people leadership experience.
• Bachelor's degree in business, Engineering, Architecture, Military Schooling, or professional equivalent experience.
• Experience with mechanical and electrical data center infrastructure.
• Knowledge of safety standards and regulatory compliance.

Responsibilities

• Maintain facility policies and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Develop and manage maintenance matrixed operations to achieve 100% uptime.
• Develop emergency response planning and incident reporting.
• Lead capital and operating budgets; manage cost controls.
• Oversee cleanliness, site maintenance, and vendor coordination.
• Coordinate with Development, Sales, Implementation, and Solutions Engineers to support customer environments.
• Perform tours and audits for customers to demonstrate operations.

Skills

DC operations leadership

Electrical & mechanical DC knowledge

Vendor management

Team coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree in business, Engineering, Architecture, Military Schooling, or professional equivalent experience

Master's degree in business, Engineering, Architecture, Military Schooling, or professional equivalent experience

Tools

DCIM platforms

Energy management systems

Job description

The Senior Data Center Operations Manager is responsible for the Data Center facility technical strategy, continuous improvement, and development support. This role will support the electrical, mechanical, FLS (Fire, Life, Safety), and DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure management) platforms, and building and housekeeping items from a site operations standpoint. This role will collaborate with the Engineering Manager on technical operations and daily facility needs. This role will own the strategic projects and continuous improvement site items. This leader should have experience with mechanical and electrical data center infrastructure, codes, regulations, required and applied safety standards and practices, as well as data center remote hands and customer support. This role will oversee the teams who perform preventative and corrective maintenance on critical mechanical and electrical equipment. This role will suggest, plan, and implement measures that increase the energy efficiency of the facility. This role requires on-site work hours to support a 24X7X365 data center environment and is not eligible for remote and/or hybrid work.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Other duties may be assigned:

• Maintain, establish, and implement facility policies, procedures and organizational structure within the boundaries established by senior management team and corporate policy while ensuring no contradiction in federal, state, and local operating regulations or laws.
• Develop and maintain efficient maintenance matrixed operations utilizing maintenance governance, standards utilizing in-house staffing and vendor support to provide 100% up-time of all mechanical, electrical, life safety, monitoring, and control systems.
• This includes, but is not limited to, developing, and coordinating maintenance agreements, maintenance procedures, testing procedures, inspections, reporting, and accounting practices.
• Development of emergency response planning, response management and reporting of incident and emergency situations for all mechanical, electrical, associated controls and plumbing systems.
• Develop, direct, and monitor short-term and long-range business plans consistent with overall profit and growth objectives of the company that establishes operations standards for cost control, waste reduction, quality, safety, and an environmentally friendly community partner.
• Manage and oversee the execution of building and site cleanliness and preservation operations.
• Development and management of an effective operating and capital budget.
• Oversee operations budget to ensure compliance with organizational expenditure requirements.
• Partner with Development, Sales, Implementation, and Solutions Engineers to deploy and maintain customer environments.
• Conduct Sales and Customer tours and audits.
• Ensure the pro‑active delivery of corporate services support, power services, COT (Critical Operations Technicians) headcount projections, planning, budgeting, capital projects, maintenance, and business continuity/disaster recovery.
• Help negotiate improvement project contracts as needed on leased and owned real estate.
• Confer with professional operations staff subject matter experts (SME’s) to find resolution to operational problems, develop and authorize operational procedures and approve all major estimates.
• Utilize comparative evaluations between mechanical, electrical, and controls systems performance and key performance indicators to monitor the effectiveness of operational programs through benchmarking and the utilization of best practices.
• Ensure facilities’ mechanical, electrical, controls, monitoring, and fire‑life safety systems compliance with all governmental regulatory operating guidelines.
• Obtain and keep current all necessary licenses, permits and certifications as required.
• Supervise, train, develop and coach employees.
• Works with direct reports to establish performance goals, monitors progress, and advises on ways to enhance their professional development and success.
• Facilitate Data Center space and cable plant design, implementation, and maintenance.
• Ensure teams performing equipment installs, managing tickets, communicating, completing tasks pertaining to computer hardware and/or software, and all incidents are resolved in a timely manner.

Basic Qualifications

• Five or more years workplace or professional equivalent experience.
• Five or more years people leadership experience.
• Bachelor's degree in business, Engineering, Architecture, Military Schooling, or professional equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Ten or more years data center environment or professional equivalent experience.
• Five or more years people leadership experience in a data center environment.
• Master's degree in business, Engineering, Architecture, Military Schooling, or professional equivalent experience

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Exceptional customer service Ability to analyze the operation of various systems, determine the cause of any problems or malfunctions and take corrective action as required.
• Ability to manage complex situations during off management hours - single point of contact.
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal skills Ability to effectively lead a team environment.
• The ability to acquire and apply job‑related knowledge within set guidelines and expectations.

Total Rewards

• 25 days annual leave
• 5,250 EUR training bursary
• Company car scheme - eligibility required
• Pension scheme with Allianz
• Occupational disability allowance
• Voluntary health insurance
• Voluntary pet insurance
• This position in bonus and equity eligible

The duties and responsibilities described here are not exhaustive and additional assignments, duties, or responsibilities may be required of this position. Assignments, duties, and responsibilities may be changed at any time, with or without notice, by QTS in its sole discretion.

We provide individuals with disabilities reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment in accordance with applicable law.

Please contact us to request an accommodation on [e-mail]