Facilities Manager - Data Center

Facilities Manager – Data Center

The Role

The Facilities Manager leads a multidisciplinary team of engineers, technicians, contractors, and service providers responsible for maintaining highly available, mission-critical data center infrastructure.

This position oversees daily facilities operations, maintenance programs, capital projects, vendor performance, safety, compliance, and operational risk. The Facilities Manager drives operational excellence through continuous improvement, sustainability initiatives, strong technical governance, and proactive asset management.

Key Responsibilities

Critical Facilities Operations

• Lead the day-to-day operation of all critical data center infrastructure.
• Ensure the availability and reliability of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, security, and life-safety systems.
• Maintain compliance with Service Level Agreements, operational standards, and uptime objectives.
• Oversee 24/7 operational support, including incident response, escalation, and recovery.
• Ensure Standard Operating Procedures, Emergency Operating Procedures, and Methods of Procedure are accurate, current, and consistently followed.
• Review and approve high-risk maintenance activities and changes affecting critical infrastructure.
• Support capacity planning and ensure infrastructure can meet current and future operational requirements.

Leadership and Team Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop Critical Facilities Engineers and Technicians.
• Manage shift schedules, staffing levels, technical training, competency assessments, and performance evaluations.
• Establish clear responsibilities, performance expectations, and development plans.
• Foster a culture of safety, accountability, teamwork, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Coordinate contractor and vendor activities to ensure work is completed safely, on time, and to the required quality standards.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and retention of facilities personnel.

Maintenance and Asset Management

• Develop and oversee preventive, predictive, condition-based, and corrective maintenance programs.
• Manage maintenance planning, scheduling, work orders, and equipment records through the Computerized Maintenance Management System.
• Ensure maintenance activities are properly risk-assessed, documented, approved, and communicated.
• Monitor equipment condition and lifecycle performance and develop repair, upgrade, and replacement strategies.
• Ensure maintenance activities minimize operational risk, service disruption, and unplanned downtime.
• Review recurring equipment failures and implement long-term corrective actions.
• Maintain accurate asset registers, maintenance records, technical documentation, and spare-parts inventories.

Infrastructure Management

Oversee the operation and maintenance of critical systems, including:

• Medium-voltage and low-voltage electrical distribution systems
• Uninterruptible Power Supply systems and battery plants
• Standby diesel generators
• Automatic Transfer Switches
• Switchgear, transformers, protection systems, and electrical panels
• Chillers and chilled-water systems
• Computer Room Air Handling and Computer Room Air Conditioning units
• Air Handling Units
• Pumps and hydronic systems
• Heat exchangers
• Building Management Systems
• Data Center Infrastructure Management systems
• Fire detection and suppression systems
• Security and access-control systems
• Fuel storage and distribution systems
• Water-treatment and leak-detection systems

Health, Safety, Environmental and Regulatory Compliance

• Ensure compliance with the French Labour Code, applicable EU directives, French environmental regulations, local requirements, and company policies.
• Maintain a strong health, safety, and environmental culture across the facility.
• Manage Permit to Work, Lockout/Tagout, electrical isolation, hot-work, confined-space, and contractor-safety programs.
• Ensure employees and contractors hold the appropriate training, authorizations, and certifications for their assigned work.
• Lead incident, near-miss, and equipment-failure investigations.
• Conduct root-cause analysis and ensure corrective and preventive actions are completed.
• Prepare for and support regulatory inspections, customer assessments, insurance reviews, and internal and external audits.
• Ensure appropriate emergency-response plans, drills, and escalation procedures are maintained.

Capital Projects and Commissioning

• Support the planning and delivery of infrastructure upgrades, replacements, expansions, and capital projects.
• Review technical designs, specifications, risk assessments, and commissioning plans.
• Coordinate project work with operations teams to minimize risk to live services.
• Participate in factory acceptance testing, site acceptance testing, commissioning, and integrated systems testing.
• Ensure complete operational handover, including training, asset documentation, test results, warranties, and as-built drawings.
• Monitor project budgets, schedules, risks, and contractor performance.

Financial and Vendor Management

• Develop and manage the facilities operating and capital budgets.
• Forecast maintenance, staffing, utility, equipment-replacement, and service-contract costs.
• Review maintenance contracts, statements of work, and service-level agreements.
• Monitor vendor performance against established service levels and key performance indicators.
• Conduct regular vendor-performance reviews and implement improvement plans when required.
• Support the procurement of equipment, spare parts, technical services, and facility-related contracts.
• Identify opportunities to improve cost efficiency without compromising safety, reliability, or compliance.

Sustainability and Energy Management

• Identify and implement opportunities to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
• Monitor Power Usage Effectiveness, energy consumption, water consumption, and carbon-related performance.
• Support sustainability programs and environmental reporting requirements.
• Work with engineering and operations teams to optimize cooling, electrical loading, and equipment performance.
• Evaluate energy-saving initiatives while protecting system reliability and redundancy.

Operational Reporting

Track, analyze, and report key operational metrics, including:

• Infrastructure availability
• Preventive maintenance completion
• Corrective-maintenance backlog
• Mean Time to Repair
• Mean Time Between Failures
• Power Usage Effectiveness
• Energy and water consumption
• Capacity utilization
• Incident and alarm trends
• Vendor performance
• Safety performance
• Budget performance

Prepare accurate operational reports and recommendations for senior leadership and relevant stakeholders.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Building Services Engineering, Facilities Management, or a related technical discipline.
• A master’s degree is advantageous but not required.
• Equivalent technical education combined with substantial relevant experience may also be considered.

Experience

• Minimum of seven years of experience in critical facilities, mission-critical operations, industrial facilities, or a comparable technical environment.
• At least three years of experience leading technical teams, contractors, or service providers.
• Experience in hyperscale data centers, colocation facilities, hospitals, power generation, manufacturing, utilities, or other continuously operating facilities is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience managing critical maintenance activities and operational risk.
• Experience managing budgets, vendors, maintenance contracts, and capital projects.

Technical Knowledge

Strong working knowledge of:

• Critical electrical infrastructure
• Medium-voltage and low-voltage distribution
• UPS systems, batteries, standby generators, and transfer systems
• HVAC and mission-critical cooling systems
• Chilled-water and hydronic systems
• Building Management Systems
• Data Center Infrastructure Management systems
• Computerized Maintenance Management Systems
• Preventive and predictive maintenance practices
• Equipment lifecycle and reliability management
• Risk assessment and root-cause analysis
• Commissioning and integrated systems testing
• Permit-to-work and energy-isolation procedures
• Data center redundancy, resilience, and uptime principles

Preferred Qualifications and Certifications

• Degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering.
• Appropriate French electrical authorization under NF C 18-510, such as B0/H0V, B1V, B2V, BR, BC, H1V, H2V, or HC, depending on the responsibilities assigned.
• Sauveteur Secouriste du Travail certification, or equivalent workplace first-aid qualification.
• Training and experience in French hot-work authorization and control procedures, including the Permis de feu.
• France Chimie/UIC N1 or N2 safety training, or equivalent site-safety qualification, where required by the facility.
• Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Specialist, Accredited Operations Specialist, or a comparable critical-facilities certification.
• Project management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, or an equivalent is advantageous.
• Training in fire safety, environmental compliance, contractor safety, or occupational risk prevention is beneficial.
• Fluent English is required; professional French-language proficiency is highly desirable.

Leadership Competencies

• Strong safety leadership
• Strategic and operational planning
• Technical team development
• Sound decision-making under pressure
• Operational excellence
• Vendor and stakeholder management
• Budget and cost management
• Risk identification and mitigation
• Continuous improvement
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Ability to lead effectively in a 24/7 mission-critical environment