Data Center Operations Implementation Manager
Nscale · London
Role Overview
We are seeking a Data Center Operations Implementation Manager to own the end-to-end Day 0 to Day 2 transition of Nscale's data centres — spanning construction, fit-out, and live, steady-state local operations — across an assigned region and set of sites. Rather than owning construction execution itself, you'll be the connective tissue between Construction, Network Engineering, Compute/Infrastructure Deployment, and local Operations teams — driving a structured, well-documented transition so every site goes live on schedule and ready to support production workloads. This is an individual-contributor role built on strong stakeholder management, cross-functional influence, and travel to sites during critical transition windows.
What You'll Do
Day 0 to Day 2 Transition Leadership
- Own the end-to-end Day 0 to Day 2 transition process for each data centre site within your assigned region — spanning construction, fit-out, and steady-state operations.
- Define and maintain a standardized transition framework and readiness checklist applied consistently across your assigned sites.
- Track and drive closure of cross-team action items, dependencies, and blockers standing between construction handover and operational go-live.
- Identify and escalate risks to go-live timelines, and drive resolution across the relevant stakeholder groups.
Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Coordination
- Track progress and status across Construction, Network Engineering, Compute/Infrastructure Deployment, Facility Engineering, SDM, and local site Operations teams throughout the transition window.
- Partner with Construction teams to track handover status, outstanding items, and site readiness milestones.
- Track Network Engineering's buildout, testing, and cutover activities required for a site to go live.
- Track hardware intake, rack-and-stack, and deployment scheduling with Compute/Infrastructure Deployment teams to stay aligned with the transition timeline.
- Coordinate with Facility Engineering on site systems and infrastructure readiness ahead of transition.
- Engage with the Service Delivery Management (SDM) team to ensure alignment with customer needs, SLAs, security, and facility performance.
- Take part in regular cross-functional syncs and stakeholder reviews to stay current on transition status.
- Contribute to a shared sense of ownership and accountability across stakeholder teams, even without formal authority over them.
Local Day Two Operations Readiness
- Partner with local Operations leads to confirm staffing, training, tooling, and support processes are in place before a site transitions to Day 2 ownership.
- Create and validate standard operating procedures (SOPs) and operational processes required for local Operations teams to run the site post-handover.
- Create the operational site tool bill of materials (BOM) required for local Operations teams to maintain the site post-handover.
- Verify the spare parts bill of materials (BOM) is complete and in place ahead of Day 2 handover.
- Facilitate structured knowledge transfer and handover documentation from Construction, Network, and Compute teams to local Operations teams.
- Confirm monitoring, ticketing, and ITSM processes are validated and operating before a site is handed to local Operations.
- Act as an escalation point for local Operations teams during the early post-handover period to smooth the transition.
Reliability, Safety & Compliance
- Define and enforce Day 2 readiness criteria that a site must meet before transitioning to local Operations ownership.
- Facilitate root-cause analysis for transition delays or gaps surfaced during handover, and drive remediation across teams.
- Ensure health, safety, and environmental requirements are validated and documented as part of readiness sign-off.
- Support certification and audit readiness (ISO 27001, ISO 22237, SOC 2, Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 22301) ahead of go-live.
Vendor & Supplier Coordination
- Coordinate with construction contractors and colocation providers as needed to close out remaining items affecting the transition timeline.
- Track vendor commitments and SLAs relevant to the transition window, and escalate delays that put go-live at risk.
- Coordinate with the Supply Chain team to align hardware intake and staging with the transition schedule.
Monitoring, Reporting & Analytics
- Track KPIs and KRIs for the Day 0 to Day 2 transition process (time to transition, readiness checklist completion rate, post-handover incident rate, etc.).
- Build and maintain dashboards that track transition status across your assigned site pipeline for all stakeholder teams.
- Produce regular reports for senior leadership on transition status, risks, and blockers.
- Use data-driven insights to identify systemic bottlenecks in the Day 0 to Day 2 process and drive continuous improvement.
About You
Experience & Background
- 3-8 years of experience in data centre operations, program/project management, or infrastructure deployment at scale.
- Proven track record coordinating the transition of new sites into live operations across construction, network, compute, and operations functions.
- Experience operating in a matrixed environment, influencing outcomes without direct authority over every stakeholder team.
- Demonstrated success managing multiple concurrent site transitions in a high-growth, fast-paced environment.
- Background in hyperscale, cloud, or HPC data centre environments (preferred).
Technical Knowledge & Expertise
- Working knowledge of data centre power, cooling, networking, and compute infrastructure, sufficient to coordinate effectively across specialist teams.
- Familiarity with network deployment and cutover processes, and compute/hardware deployment lifecycles.
- Knowledge of Layer 1 network infrastructure, including fiber, copper, optics, and transceivers.
- Familiarity with ITSM tooling, ticketing systems, and monitoring platforms used by local Operations teams.
Influence & Communication
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and align Construction, Network, Compute, and Operations teams without direct authority.
- Excellent cross-functional communication skills, able to translate technical detail between teams with different priorities and vocabularies.
- Program management discipline, with the ability to track and drive multiple concurrent workstreams to closure.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguous, matrixed, fast-moving environments.
- Bias toward ownership, pragmatism, and delivering results with urgency.
Operational Excellence
- Rigorous tracking of readiness checklists, risk logs, and action items across many concurrent site transitions within your assigned region.
- Proven ability to build and refine standardized transition frameworks that scale with business growth.
- Strong attention to detail in transition documentation and handover packages.
- Willingness to travel to sites during critical transition windows.
Nice to Have
- Experience with program management tooling (e.g., Smartsheet, Asana, Jira, monday.com) for tracking multi-workstream transitions.
- Familiarity with network cutover or compute/hardware deployment processes specifically.
- Experience with ITSM platforms and ticketing workflows.
- Experience with Palantir Foundry or similar data platforms for operational analytics.
At Nscale, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace. We believe that a variety of perspectives enriches our work environment, and we encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.
The responsibilities outlined in this job description are not exhaustive and are intended to provide a general overview of the position. The employee may be required to perform additional duties, tasks, and responsibilities as assigned by management, consistent with the skills and qualifications required for the role.