Purpose
The Director of Operations Italy ensures the uninterrupted delivery of data center services, guaranteeing compliance with client SLAs, internal policies, and external regulations. This role oversees the development and execution of operational strategies—including organizational structure, processes, and systems—while leading and developing the operations workforce. Additionally, the Director drives standardization, operational efficiency, and innovation across the organization.
Job Magnitude
Latitude: The Operations Director is a member of the Country Management Team. He/she collaborates with other functions (Sales, DE&C, Finance. HR) horizontally and vertically.
The role liaises with key customers, suppliers, auditors, public stakeholders and
other 3rd parties as it is required to fulfil the roles’ purpose.
The role governs the following operational functions:
Implementation Services, Service Planning, Site Operations, Property
Operations, Customer Success, Security, Operations PMO, Capacity &
Energy
Level of Impact: The role is critical to customer satisfaction and market reputation and has
significant impact on the financial results for the local company. It has
responsibility for the economic management of all DLR Data Center locations in
the country and its associated operational Capex and Opex.
The Director Operations develops country plans and strategies, implements
organizational change, leads, develops, and retains talent, role-modelling the
corporate values. Delivering high employee satisfaction and engagement.
The Director develops clearly defined objectives and strategies, lead and/or
contribute to assigned global, cross-functional interdisciplinary, high priority
initiatives, process optimization and ensure delivery.
Budget: Overall Budget accountability for all assigned Operational OPEX and CAPEX
budgets.
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Responsibilities and Duties
Functional:
· Overall responsible for leading the operations management teams of all DLR Data Center locations
in the country to achieve the agreed goals in relation to budget, SLA performance, employee
engagement and compliance.
· Acts as a point of escalation, supporting Operations Teams during complex incidents to drive
communication with customers and suppliers through to resolution.
· Ensure Operational policies are being implemented and adhered to.
Managerial:
· Manage country operations workforce, driving changes required to deliver DLRs services in the
country.
· Work with global and regional leadership, process owners and functional stakeholders to understand
and provide input to business developments and initiatives (organization, process, systems)
· Having ownership that Global Standards will be implemented and accountable for maintaining
standards across reliability, maintenance, asset management, change management and site
acceptance
· Take decisions as they relate to the execution of DLRs operations services in the country.
· Take responsibility for corporate accountabilities as assigned by the country MD (e.g. Health &
Safety, Public Reporting)
Customer:
· Acts as highest in-country escalation point for operational matters.
· Liaises with strategic customers to foster the management relationship and support business
development via excellent service provisioning.
· Participate in monthly / quarterly business reviews with customers (as required)
People:
· Acts as role model for corporate values and implements these with the operations workforce.
· Sets goals consistent with global operations targets with the local workforce.
· Develops leadership skills and supports succession planning and appointment.
· Achieves effective cooperation between the teams within the Operations department.
Financial:
· Owns the Operations budget end-to-end, provides frequent forecasts and its improvements.
· Reviews and signs of the annual operations budget (HC, Opex, Capex)
· Drives cost savings through optimizations and improvements in operations, as well as through
procurement.
Compliance:
· Assists with auditing and reporting efforts to support DLRs commitment to quality and other related
certifications.
· Ensures all technically required checks are completed and certifications achieved.
· Reports all legally required technical operations information to public authorities.
· Supports / Leads (as applicable) energy efficiency and sustainability programs required by
legislation.
Other:
· Manages all Quality Management, Environment and Health & Safety procedures within Operations
and ensures the regulations are always adhered to.
· Executes other special projects/assignments as directed by the countries Managing Director
Additional Duties and Responsibilities
· Participates in the local Management Team
· Supports Sales in important / complex sales cycles
· Actively engages during Build Stage of new Data Centers
Qualifications & Competencies
Hard Skills:
· Master’s degree education
· 15+ years of being in a similar role in multinational global organisations.
· Experienced in implementing change and driving continuous improvement.
· Demonstrated ability to lead and manage cross-functional teams in a global environment.
· Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
· Strong financial and budgeting skills
· Ability to travel globally.
· Technical knowledge in Data Center operations and procedures
· Knowledge / experience of Power, Cooling & Facilities Engineering inside a Data Center
· Knowledge / experience of physical - IT security
· Experience with capacity planning, preferably at a Data Center level.
· Project Management Skills
· Business and Financial Acumen (CAPEX, OPEX)
Soft Skills:
· Customer and Business focused: Understands the importance of internal stakeholders and therefore
works to build strong relationships and to maintain clear channels of communication.
· Customer centricity and natural drive to work with other areas of the business to provide the customer
with the best possible outcome.
· Excellent management and leadership skills (experienced managing across multiple hierarchical
layers)
· Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
· Ability to prioritize appropriately in a fast-paced environment.
· Excellent problem solver
· Ability to take decisions under ambiguity balancing chance and risk.
· Has a can-do mentality and focuses on prevention and continuous improvement.
· Strategic thinker with a strong tactical and analytical skills to deploy strategies.
· A straightforward team player who can quickly establish him/herself as a valued member of the
Management Team; collaborates well across all areas of the organization.
· Openness to change incl. ability to design and facilitate organizational change.
· Stress-resilient, high energy, self-motivated and passionate for service excellence.
· Collaborating and influencing: Working in a matrix environment, able to engage people in a dialogue to
gain commitment and bring them "on board", linking their perspective to the intent.
· Business fluent in local language and English
Company Values
Customer Focus:
·Listen – We listen to our different customers’ needs.
·Adapt – We adapt to new situations.
·Simplify – We continuously simplify and improve our ways of working.
Teamwork
·Open – We are open and transparent.
·Collaborative – We collaborate across boundaries and share our knowledge.
·Inclusive – we are inclusive of different opinions.
Results Driven
·Own it – we take responsibility for our actions.
·Deliver – we deliver on our promises to one another and our customers.
·Future-focused – we balance short term results with investment in the future.
A bit 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. This is an exciting time to join our business so apply now and make your mark on our future.