Commercial Operations Director

CyrusOne; Sterling (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

CyrusOne seeks a Director of Commercial Operations to establish and lead the Commercial Operations function within Asset Management and own the strategy, operating model, and priorities. This leader will drive the enterprise Deal Desk capabilities and oversee complex deals including new business, expansions, renewals, and strategic customer transactions.

The role demands executive-level communication, strong financial modeling, and the ability to align multiple senior stakeholders across Sales,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in finance or related field; MBA preferred.
• 10+ years in commercial operations, commercial finance, pricing, deal structuring, asset management, investments, or related fields.
• Experience owning functional strategy, operating results, and leadership alignment for a business-critical area.
• Experience structuring or negotiating large, complex agreements with hyperscale, cloud, enterprise, or sophisticated customers.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute the Commercial Operations strategy, operating model, priorities, capability roadmap, service standards, and performance measures.
• Establish and lead the enterprise Deal Desk, including deal intake, roles and decision rights, approval workflows, escalation paths, templates, reporting, and governance standards.
• Own functional operating results, including transaction cycle time, approval efficiency, commercial consistency, service quality, risk visibility, stakeholder experience, and business impact.
• Make functional planning, prioritization, resource, process investment, talent, and operating decisions to deliver Commercial Operations objectives.
• Align senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders around commercial priorities, pricing governance, transaction standards, risk thresholds, and execution expectations.
• Lead commercial review and orchestration of complex new business, expansion, renewal, and strategic customer transactions from initial assessment through approval.
• Present executive-ready approval packages summarizing deal economics, underwriting assumptions, material exceptions, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Own pricing governance and recommend commercial positions using market conditions, customer requirements, capacity, power density, deployment timing, cost, and risk-adjusted returns.
• Partner with Finance and Investments on underwriting assumptions, financial models, return analysis, risk summaries, and investment governance.
• Coordinate contract workflow, exception management, clause consistency, and escalation while preserving Legal ownership of legal advice and final approval.
• Ensure proposed customer commitments are reviewed for financial and operational feasibility, including capacity, delivery timing, billing, power, cooling, security, and customer-specific requirements.
• Build functional and leadership capability through scalable processes, tools, reporting, stakeholder education, and development of senior professionals or future team members.
• Evaluate functional performance, cost, service quality, and business outcomes and implement operating changes that improve speed, consistency, accountability, and commercial results.

Skills

Financial modeling

Deal Desk

Pricing governance

Asset management

Leadership alignment

Executive communication

Data center knowledge

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance/Accounting/Business Administration/Economics/Real Estate

MBA or advanced degree

Tools

Excel

Job description

CyrusOne is seeking a Director, Commercial Operations, to establish and lead the Commercial Operations function within Asset Management. This leader will own the function's strategy, operating model, priorities, resource plan, and results, including the enterprise Deal Desk capability supporting complex new business, expansions, renewals, and other strategic customer transactions.

Essential Responsibilities

• Own and execute the Commercial Operations functional strategy, operating model, priorities, capability roadmap, service standards, performance measures, and alignment to enterprise objectives.
• Establish and lead the enterprise Deal Desk capability, including deal intake, roles and decision rights, approval workflows, escalation paths, templates, reporting, and governance standards.
• Own functional operating results, including transaction cycle time, approval efficiency, commercial consistency, service quality, risk visibility, stakeholder experience, and business impact.
• Make functional planning, prioritization, resource, process investment, talent, and operating decisions required to deliver Commercial Operations objectives.
• Align senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders around commercial priorities, pricing governance, transaction standards, risk thresholds, and execution expectations.
• Lead commercial review and orchestration of complex new business, expansion, renewal, and strategic customer transactions from initial assessment through approval.
• Present executive-ready approval packages summarizing deal economics, underwriting assumptions, material exceptions, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Own pricing governance and recommend commercial positions using market conditions, customer requirements, capacity, power density, deployment timing, cost, and risk-adjusted returns.
• Partner with Finance and Investments on underwriting assumptions, financial models, return analysis, risk summaries, and investment governance.
• Coordinate contract workflow, exception management, clause consistency, and escalation while preserving Legal ownership of legal advice and final approval.
• Ensure proposed customer commitments are reviewed for financial and operational feasibility, including capacity, delivery timing, billing, power, cooling, security, and customer-specific requirements.
• Build functional and leadership capability through scalable processes, tools, reporting, stakeholder education, and development of senior professionals or future team members.
• Evaluate functional performance, cost, service quality, and business outcomes and implement operating changes that improve speed, consistency, accountability, and commercial results.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Real Estate, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in commercial operations, commercial finance, pricing, deal structuring, asset management, investments, Deal Desk, data centers, colocation, telecommunications, infrastructure, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience owning functional strategy, operating results, resource planning, and leadership alignment for a business-critical area.
• Experience structuring or negotiating large, complex agreements with hyperscale, cloud, enterprise, or similarly sophisticated customers.
• Strong knowledge of data center commercial models, including space, power, density, interconnection, leases, recurring charges, operating expenses, and infrastructure economics.
• Advanced financial modeling and Excel skills, including return analysis, scenario planning, and translation of complex analysis into clear recommendations.
• Strong commercial judgment and systems thinking, with the ability to balance strategy, cost, talent, customer relationships, execution, risk, and business outcomes.
• Proven ability to align senior leaders and influence decisions across Sales, Finance, Legal, Operations, Construction, Investments, Asset Management, and Customer Experience.
• Executive-level written, verbal, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills.

Preferred Experience

• Five or more years with a data center or colocation operator in Deal Desk, commercial operations, commercial finance, pricing, or asset management.
• Experience developing multi-market pricing strategies and business cases for new products, offerings, or market initiatives.
• Commercial real estate knowledge, including NNN leases, operating expense provisions, gross-up provisions, and related lease structures.
• Experience supporting Sales in strategic customer discussions and negotiations.

CyrusOne is an equal opportunity employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

CyrusOne provides reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and any other state or local laws. We will respond to requests for reasonable accommodations to assist you in applying for positions at CyrusOne, or to submit a resume.