Digitization & AI - Regional Leader

The Digitization & AI – EMEA Regional Leader is a senior expert individual contributor reporting directly to the EMEA Sr Operational Excellence Director. This role leads Pillar 2 – Digitization within Vertiv’s EMEA Operational Excellence organization, covering 10 manufacturing plants across the region. The role is responsible for architecting and accelerating Vertiv’s digital manufacturing transformation by identifying, piloting, and scaling innovative digital and AI-driven solutions — enabling data-driven decision-making, operational visibility, and a connected, intelligent shop floor across all 10 EMEA plants. The successful candidate bridges deep technical expertise in Industry 4.0 and AI with strong program management and change leadership capabilities to deliver measurable operational outcomes.

Location:

Based at any of Vertiv's EMEA plants or offices.

The role will involve approximately 50% travel across EMEA manufacturing locations. Proximity to an international airport would therefore be beneficial.

Reports To: EMEA Sr Operational Excellence Director

Direct Reports: None – Senior Individual Contributor with regional scope

Key Responsabilities: 

Digital Transformation Strategy & Roadmap

• Own and continuously evolve the EMEA digital transformation roadmap across all 9 manufacturing plants, aligned with Vertiv’s global Operational Excellence and Industry 4.0 strategy.
• Conduct structured digital maturity assessments at each plant, define short- and medium-term digitization priorities, and translate high-level business objectives into concrete initiatives with clear owners, timelines, and ROI projections.
• Engage plant managers, operations directors, and senior leadership to build buy-in and ensure strategic alignment on digital priorities, monitoring roadmap execution and identifying risks and course corrections.
• Develop multi-year site-level digital roadmaps integrating data infrastructure, platform standardization, AI use cases, and capability-building milestones.

Digital Solution Piloting & Scaling

• Identify, evaluate, and recommend digital solutions across the manufacturing value chain, including MES, IoT sensor platforms, digital twins, AI/ML analytics, real-time dashboards, and paperless shop floor tools.
• Design and manage structured pilot programs: define scope, success criteria, KPIs, timelines, and resource requirements; run pilot reviews; document lessons learned and scale proven solutions to full EMEA deployment.
• Build and maintain a digital solutions catalogue — a living repository of evaluated, piloted, and deployed technologies — enabling informed and accelerated decision-making across sites.

IT & Operations Alignment

• Act as the primary liaison between IT functions (infrastructure, cybersecurity, architecture) and plant Operations teams, ensuring digital initiatives are technically sound, secure, and operationally feasible.
• Drive the integration of OT (Operational Technology) and IT systems for end-to-end digital connectivity across the shop floor and enterprise systems (ERP, SCADA, PLM, LIMS).
• Define and enforce data architecture standards, data governance policies, and system integration protocols to ensure consistent and reliable data flows; manage escalations and resolve technical or organizational barriers to digital project progress.

Industry 4.0 & Artificial Intelligence Initiatives

• Champion Industry 4.0 adoption across EMEA plants by identifying and implementing use cases including connected machines (IIoT), predictive maintenance, computer vision quality inspection, digital twins, and AI-assisted process optimization.
• Lead the assessment, selection, and implementation of AI/ML models in partnership with data science teams and technology vendors, ensuring solutions are explainable, validated, and trusted by operators.
• Stay current with emerging Industry 4.0 and AI/ML technologies, evaluating their applicability to Vertiv’s EMEA manufacturing context and presenting business cases to senior leadership.

Data, Dashboards & Performance Monitoring

• Design and deploy robust data collection frameworks at each plant, defining critical data points, collection methods, data quality standards, and integration pathways.
• Develop real-time operational performance dashboards (OEE, throughput, quality, downtime, scrap, energy) using BI/analytics platforms, enabling site leadership to manage by fact and shift from reactive to proactive performance management.
• Collaborate with plant process engineers and quality teams to identify high-value analytics use cases that drive measurable operational improvement; ensure data accuracy and completeness through validation routines and data stewardship roles.

Change Management & User Adoption

• Develop and execute comprehensive change management plans for all major digital deployments, addressing user readiness, communication, training (train-the-trainer, e-learning, on-the-job), and post-go-live support.
• Establish a digital champions network within each plant; define and track user adoption KPIs (system utilization rates, data entry compliance, digital vs. paper transactions) to measure change management effectiveness.
• Partner with the LSS Black Belt and Lean / CI EMEA Leaders to ensure coherent, integrated transformation across all 10 EMEA plants.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical), Computer Science, Information Systems, or Manufacturing Technology.
• Minimum 7–10 years of professional experience in manufacturing, operations, or industrial engineering, with at least 5 years focused on digitization, Industry 4.0, or operational technology.
• Demonstrated track record of successfully leading digital transformation programs across multiple manufacturing sites, from strategy definition through full-scale deployment.
• Hands-on experience implementing or managing MES, SCADA, IoT, ERP shop floor modules, or digital analytics platforms in an industrial or manufacturing environment.
• Deep familiarity with Industry 4.0 technologies: IIoT, digital twins, OPC-UA, edge computing, cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP).
• Strong understanding of AI/ML concepts and their application in manufacturing: predictive maintenance, quality inspection, process optimization, and anomaly detection.
• Proficiency with data analytics and BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, or similar) and ability to design operational dashboards and KPI frameworks.
• Fluency in English; additional European languages a strong plus.

Preferred:

• Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Systems, Data Science, or Information Technology.
• Industry 4.0 / Smart Manufacturing certification (CESMII, MESA International, or equivalent); PMP or PRINCE2; Prosci ADKAR Change Management certification.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt; cloud platform certifications (Azure IoT, AWS IoT, or Google Cloud).
• Background in data engineering or data science; experience in industrial manufacturing, electronics, energy, or critical infrastructure sectors.

Application Requirements: Please submit your CV in English.

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