Project and Program Director (Chief of Staff) (EMEA Operations)

Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company, operating 200+ data centres across the globe and providing interconnections to all the key clouds and networks. Businesses need one place to simplify and bring together fragmented, complex infrastructure that spans private and public cloud environments. Our global platform allows customers to place infrastructure wherever they need it and connect it to everything they need to succeed.

We are a fast-growing global company with 75+ consecutive quarters of growth. Through our innovative portfolio of high-performance products and services, we have created the largest, most active global ecosystem of nearly 10,000 companies, including 1,800+ networks and 2,900+ cloud and IT service providers in over 26 countries spanning five continents.  

Joining our operations team means that you will be at the forefront of all we do, maintaining critical facilities infrastructure as part of a close-knit team delivering best in class service to our data centre customers. We embrace diversity in thought and contribution and are committed to providing an equitable work environment. that is foundational to our core values as a company and is vital to our success

Job Summary: 

This position serves as a trusted advisor to the SVP EMEA Ops and as a partner to the leadership team, to deliver on short-term objectives and the EMEA Ops strategy. While the role has clearly defined areas of responsibility, it is also fluid and the Chief of Staff requires the ability to dive into any area of IBX Operations, understand the needs, and facilitate decisions based on leadership direction and priorities.

The Chief of Staff is required to understand SVP priorities and ensure the leadership team delivers according to these priorities. The Chief of Staff must have the ability to build the trust necessary to manage sensitive and delicate matters and speak up, step up and offer alternative viewpoints with credibility. An effective candidate will have strong ability to analyse complex information, maintain clarity and hold leaders accountable to agreed deliverables, build deep partnerships, analyse nuanced issues, simplify complexity, strategically communicate, and lead through influence and collaboration. 

Responsibilities:

Leadership Alignment & Effectiveness

• Lead EMEA Operations Leadership Team (EOLT) operating mechanisms, including supporting agenda, actions, and follow-ups; ensure clear action items and accountability after all meetings; follow-up with action owners accordingly,

• Act as a confidant and trusted adviser; bringing whole enterprise perspectives without specific organizational agendas, being the “eyes and ears” when the SVP isn’t present and summarising where appropriate,

• Focus on maximizing productivity and effectiveness of SVP time, providing foresight and deliverables for upcoming activities, and identifying areas where the leader should direct their focus to drive the most value,

• Drive planning and content for off-site meetings, in partnership EMEA Head of Ops Communications,

• Identify and implement, best practices to make time, information, and decision-making more effective for the team,

• Maintain ability to see what pressures the organization is facing and raising to the EOLT where appropriate to address,

• Lead a wide range of issues, small and large, through to full-circle resolution,

• Act in an empowered way to identify areas of misalignment across the EOLT and meet with execs to formulate a plan to seek resolution, knowing when to push back constructively,

• Represent EMEA IBX Ops at the Global Operations Regional Project/Program Leadership forum led by the Global Ops CoS.

Strategy, Interlock & Performance

• Support SVP in creating compelling presentations, supported by data, on performance, strategy and change programs, used in executive leadership meetings inside and outside of EMEA Ops,

• Support delivery and tracking of strategic enablers assigned to EMEA Ops leadership colleagues and delivery of Global Operations OKRs,

• Foster greater use of data and insights to improve EMEA IBX Ops performance and customer delivery,

• Lead fostering a one-team high performance improvement culture that challenges the status-quo in the region and driving faster decision making,

• Serve as liaison for Global Ops initiatives spanning multiple regions. Identify appropriate regional members to participate when needed and accountable to ensure completion.

• Support improvement of interlock with Global Ops Enablement, Global Engineering, GCCX and other teams,

• Lead preparation and delivery of performance and metric reporting to Global Ops,

• Evaluate and shape critical issues and/or opportunities to improve performance and optimisation determined and prioritized by the EOLT, through simplification, automation and reduction in duplication.

To be successful in this role we are looking for someone with the following attributes and prior experience:

• The ability to navigate complexity and filter what is important to create compelling communications and recommendations,

• The ability to maintain clarity on deliverables and ensure timely delivery from EMEA Ops leaders and team members to support SVP objectives and business reviews,

• Ability to navigate through ambiguity and be resourceful,

• The ability to anticipate problems, drive balanced perspectives, motivate and empower others to help ensure successful outcomes,

• Displays openness to new ideas and perspectives, with the ability to be creative and comfortable taking risks,

• Operate with a high level of integrity and discretion including matters of people, legal proceedings, acquisitions, and financial forecasts,

• Ideally have a good understanding of the marketplace, competitors, customers and technology to opine on what is required to sustain operational excellence and results,

• Experience managing multiple complex programs and leading change initiatives in a highly dynamic and fluid environment, to achieve operational excellence,

• Strategic thinker and ability to set a vision as well as process information to formulate effective strategies and initiatives that have a positive impact and achieve the end state,

• Proven ability to ask the difficult questions by creating a safe environment to ensure that projects and investments have true impact,

• Strong intuition to understand SVP leadership objectives, priorities and leadership culture of operational excellence and maturity as we seek to grow EMEA Ops organisation,

• Collaborative mindset with the ability to build strong cross-functional relationships to influence and align others. Demonstrated meeting facilitation capabilities and ability to guide teams to effective decision-making.