Serverfarm
SVP Operations
2w ago
C-levelleadershipstrategic planningsafety complianceoperational excellencefinancial managementcustomer relationsteam developmentautomation
Serverfarm is a leading developer and operator of data centers across North America and EMEA, undergoing significant expansion driven by AI adoption and cloud migration. The SVP Operations role involves executive leadership and strategic oversight of global operations, safety, customer service, financial planning, and technology adoption to support the company's growth targets.
About the company
- Serverfarm is a leading developer and operator of data centers with over 750+ locations and key customer relationships in 45 countries.
- The company operates across North America, Western Europe, and Israel, serving leading technology and hyperscale companies.
- In 2023 Manulife Investment Management acquired a controlling interest in Serverfarm, enabling accelerated expansion of its global data center portfolio.
- The company is positioned for explosive growth fueled by AI adoption and cloud migration.
- Serverfarm targets 4x growth over the next four years, offering opportunities to develop skills and grow careers globally.
Responsibilities
- Deputize for the COO, providing leadership across global operations, strategic priorities, and major business initiatives; serve as second-in-command ensuring continuity of decision-making and execution.
- Represent Operations with Executive Leadership, the Board, investors, and key customers; translate corporate strategy into operational plans and long-term growth roadmaps, partnering with Product, Development, Construction, Finance, Legal, Security, and Commercial teams.
- Establish and govern global operational standards, SOPs, maintenance frameworks, and KPI framework (uptime, SLA, MTTR, energy, safety, staffing, customer experience).
- Ensure robust compliance frameworks are maintained across all operating regions, including regulatory obligations, customer commitments, certifications, and internal controls.
- Oversee business continuity, disaster recovery, and crisis management processes; lead RCA and executive response for major incidents.
- Drive continuous improvement, standardization, and efficiency across regions; embed best practices and operational discipline.
- Provide executive oversight of the Global Network Operations Centre (GNOC), ensuring 24x7 monitoring, incident response, escalation management and service continuity across the portfolio.
- Lead the global safety program, ensuring strong safety culture, regulatory compliance, risk management, and consistent standards.
- Provide executive oversight of critical environment management and lifecycle management of in-life critical assets.
- Partner with Development, Construction, and Engineering to embed operational requirements in new designs and retrofits; standardize commissioning, integrated systems testing, and operational handover.
- Establish executive relationships with key hyperscale, enterprise, and strategic customers; own oversight of escalations and ensure timely resolution and clear communication.
- Lead operational service delivery to consistently achieve SLAs and contractual commitments; drive transparency through reporting, service reviews, and improvement planning.
- Support commercial and sales teams during major customer pursuits, due diligence, and operational solution development.
- Lead operational OpEx and CapEx planning and delivery, accountable for forecasting, cost control and financial performance.
- Partner with Finance on cost modelling for new sites, expansions, customer opportunities, and strategic investment plans.
- Oversee long-term capacity planning including power, space, cooling, staffing, and infrastructure; lead operational due diligence and integration for acquisitions and expansion.
- Develop hiring and workforce strategies for new campus openings, expansions, and long-term operational capability; establish new regional structures to facilitate growth.
- Own operational energy strategy, including procurement, resilience planning, renewables, efficiency, and utility relationships.
- Ensure compliance with regulatory, environmental, H&S, and industry certification requirements (ISO, SOC, customer-specific programs).
- Develop resilience strategies addressing grid constraints, utility risks, climate-related impacts, and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
- Drive adoption of automation, infrastructure technology, and digital tools to improve monitoring, maintenance, reporting, and operational efficiency.
- Manage strategic supplier and vendor relationships to ensure service quality, resilience, innovation, and value for money.
- Lead, coach, and develop operational leaders and teams; build succession planning frameworks.
- Foster a high-performance culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement; provide regular reporting on operational performance, talent, safety, risk, and strategic progress.
Requirements
- Proven senior leadership experience in colocation, hyperscale, mission-critical facilities, or similarly complex multi-site environments.
- Strong track record of leading large-scale operations with accountability for uptime, safety, customer service, and financial performance.
- Demonstrated success delivering operational growth, new site launches, or capacity expansion programs across multiple locations.
- Strong commercial capability with experience managing significant operational CapEx budgets.
- Knowledge of energy strategy, utilities management, sustainability programs, or infrastructure efficiency initiatives.
- Experience driving operational excellence through automation, technology enablement, and continuous improvement methodologies.
- Strong strategic planning capability, including long-term capacity planning and scaling operations to meet business growth.
- Customer-focused mindset with experience managing escalations, service delivery, and executive stakeholder relationships.
- Proven ability to lead and develop high-performing teams across geographies and functions.
- Honesty and integrity, with excellent communication, influencing, and executive stakeholder management skills.
- Strong analytical and decision-making capability, using data and KPIs to drive performance and prioritization.
- Role involves international travel (approximately 30%).
Conditions
- Serverfarm is committed to providing an equal opportunity workplace and offers paid time off, paid holidays, 401k and full coverage medical, dental and vision.
- Compensation philosophy rewards employees for achieving company values and strategic initiatives.
- Listed salary range is an estimate based on the market; final compensation depends on individual skills, experience, and location.