Director of Operations

About the Position:

Cologix is looking for a highly motivated individual with strong leadership and interpersonal skills who will assist with managing and maintaining Cologix' 24X7 colocation and interconnection operations. The Director of Operations is responsible for daily operations and maintenance of the data centers, as well as the development and leadership of the operations staff. Performs or delegates tasks associated with the installation, acceptance, and maintenance of a variety of telecommunication equipment. Responsibilities for the operations manager and their operations team range from installation of cabinets, equipment, cross-connects, power circuits, performing customer remote hands requests, as well as sales support when needed. The operations supervisor is accountable for administering facilities management and upkeep, managing vendor maintenance of all critical infrastructure equipment. Project installation, testing and troubleshooting of telecommunication infrastructure components including, but not limited to, ladder rack, fiber guide, MDFs, IDFs, switches, routers, and related cabling is also required. This position will be responsible for managing the team of technical staff to install customer space, power and interconnection services, assisting with capacity planning, and 24X7 critical infrastructure and network monitoring in accordance with Cologix' Operations team overall mission and mandate as communicated by Cologix' Operations Management. This position requires partnership with the Sales General Manager in Canada and active participation in development of customer solutions as well as regularly supporting prospect meetings and facility tours. This individual will also be responsible for the following tasks: Implementing goals, objectives, policies, and priorities as communicated by Operations Management; analyzing data and developing solutions regarding administrative, organizational and operational problems; providing data in preparation of the budget in conjunction with Cologix' finance team and maintaining and monitoring appropriate budgetary controls.

What you do daily:

• Builds a high performance team by hiring and retaining the right talent as well as performance management of existing personnel.
• Designing solutions for customers as well as regularly supporting prospect meetings and facility tours.
• Delegates work appropriately among direct reports. Set appropriate and achievable goals for direct reports, holding reports accountable for goals set.
• Work closely with direct reports to develop their decision-making skills and empower direct reports to make decisions and take actions.
• Demonstrate Cologix values and cultural statement to drive excellence, productivity and customer service in all facets of employment, and instill such values in all direct reports.
• Maintain a positive and open demeanor, encouraging open discourse among reports while moving team forward through change and fostering teamwork and collaboration.
• Communicate business decisions including the context and reasons behind them to direct reports.
• Recognize the accomplishments of direct reports within the Operations team and the larger Cologix organization.
• Optimize opportunities and the efficiency of tasks set by appropriately assigning personnel.
• Evaluate overtime, shift-strategies, site coverage, and usage of contract employees.
• Interact externally with customers, vendors, and peers requiring influence, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• Provide facilities management for some of Ashburn's data centers.
• Accountable for all interconnection services including installation, restoration, and maintenance of Meet Me Rooms, fiber optic cabling, fiber optic patch panels, CAT 6A STP cabling, CAT6A patch panels, MDFS, IDFS, and customer fiber optic and copper cross connects.
• Oversees the operations of 24X7 data centers, customer order installations, and 24X7 infrastructure.
• Assists with capacity planning, continuous improvement metrics and management, and interact with advanced operations and technical equipment support engineers.
• Manage team of field technicians and data center professionals such as electricians and facility supervisors providing daily Datacenter operations and remote hands support for customers
• Manage installs against aggressive schedules.
• Ensure that best practices are adhered to in areas of power, cooling, labelling, data cabling including adhering to TIA and BICSI data center and data network standards
• Validates that requests are handled in a timely manner and documented in the ticketing system
• Maintains detailed and up to date site documentation such as floor/cabinet layout, electrical panel inventory, etc.
• Insures management and tracking of capacity such as cabinet/space allocations, UPS and cooling plants loads
• Plan new customer installs including cage designs, cabinet assignments, power provisioning etc.
• Participates in the change management process to approve facilities maintenance tasks/MOPS
• Oversees that all Company procedures and policies are enforced
• Participate in regular facilities SSAE 16 audits and other customer audits as required
• Manages to Cologix performance metrics and participate in Operational Reviews to achieve industry leading SLAs
• Coordinate with multiple vendors for data cabling, cage builds, cabinet purchases etc.
• Interact with different organizations, customers, vendors, contractors, and building management to provide a high level of customer satisfaction
• Participate in facilities post incident reviews as required
• Maintain high cleanliness standards throughout the data center
• Maintain budget adherence and ensure that budgeted funds are allocated appropriately and in accordance with the overall Operations team mission and mandate as communicated by the Company.
• Manage capital expenditures relating to Operations initiated projects.
• Evaluates, plans, and promotes operational efficiency in all Cologix facilities.
• Demonstrate a passion for continuous improvement utilizing LEAN/Six Sigma methodologies to improve customer experience, SLAs, colocation facility uptime and network availability.
• Focus on power cost reduction opportunities including commercial solutions as well as power utilization reduction management techniques, particularly cooling efficiency improvements throughout the Ashburn Cologix facilities.
• Serve as the liaison between the Ashburn Operations team and the other Cologix teams including Sales.
• Ensure that all customer support and other Operations services meet or exceed established standards for quality and time.
• Be responsible for the installation and maintenance of all mechanical, electrical, and fire systems at some Cologix Ashburn facilities.
• Other duties and special projects as assigned.

What makes you a good fit: (Qualifications)

• 5 to 10+ years of progressively expanding responsibilities and experience in colocation data center operations, telecommunications facilities operations, cabling and networking, and/or technology services management.
• A dynamic and confident leader who exhibits a "can do attitude" and thrives in a fast paced, rapidly changing and growing 24X7 colocation and interconnection services operations environment.
• Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to effectively lead a diverse group of operations staff, and successfully interact as a member of the Operations leadership team as well as with the leadership of Sales and Finance.
• Must excel at team management, including inside plant technical management, mechanical and electrical facilities management.
• This individual must exhibit a relentless drive to operate colocation and interconnection facilities at the highest levels of excellence and process efficiency and demonstrate an ability to effectively manage vendor and contract resources in the best interests of the Company.
• Must possess and demonstrate a passion for Cologix' market leadership.
• Combinations of education and experience will be considered.
• Microsoft Office software applications.
• Business applications for finance, trouble ticketing, customer order, purchase order management, budgeting, and expense management.
• Microsoft Project or other construction project management software.