Director Of Operations - Critical Infrastructure - chicago

Director Of Operations, Critical Infrastructure

As Director of Operations, Critical Infrastructure, based on site in Chicago, Illinois, you will lead the safe, reliable, and efficient operation of mission-critical electrical, mechanical, and building infrastructure systems supporting OCI data center campuses. This role is accountable for day-to-day operational execution, risk management, maintenance performance, and leadership effectiveness across assigned sites or regions, ensuring compute load is protected and high availability is maintained at all times.

This role directly leads site-level operational leadership for critical infrastructure, including the Site Operations Support Manager – Data Center Facilities, Office & Facilities Coordinator – Facilities Operations, Facilities Operations Manager – Mechanical / Plant Manager, and Facilities Operations Manager – Electrical / Plant Manager, along with their supporting technical teams. The Director is responsible for ensuring these teams operate as one coordinated facilities organization with strong execution discipline, clear escalation paths, and consistent standards across maintenance, incident response, operational readiness, and support functions.

This is a hands-on operational leadership role with direct accountability for operational outcomes. You will partner closely with Engineering, Construction, Training, Vendor Management, Reliability, and Chief Engineering functions to operationalize standards, strengthen maintenance and emergency response programs, and ensure operability and maintainability are built into both current operations and future growth.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage site or regional operations teams responsible for critical infrastructure, including electrical distribution, on-site power generation, UPS, switchgear, cooling systems, controls interfaces, and life safety systems.
• Provide leadership across the full site facilities operations structure, including plant operations, maintenance execution, administrative site support, and operational coordination functions.
• Own operational readiness, maintenance execution, and incident response performance for assigned campuses or regions.
• Enforce consistent execution and continuous improvement of MOPs, SOPs, and EOPs governing maintenance, load transfers, switching, ramp events, restoration, and abnormal operating conditions.
• Ensure strong coordination between electrical, mechanical, and site-support functions so operational work is executed safely, efficiently, and in alignment with uptime expectations.
• Serve as the operational escalation point for major incidents, ensuring timely response, clear communication, root cause rigor, and disciplined corrective action follow-through.
• Establish and track operational KPIs related to availability, reliability, safety, maintenance effectiveness, backlog health, incident trends, and readiness.
• Partner with training and technical leadership teams to implement and sustain repair, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, and emergency response capability across site teams.
• Lead vendor oversight and support performance management for OEMs, maintenance providers, service contractors, and operating agreements tied to campus infrastructure.
• Drive a strong safety and compliance culture aligned with company standards and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Support staffing, hiring, retention, and development of high-performing operations leaders and technical staff across the organization.
• Ensure site-support and administrative functions enable effective scheduling, documentation, workflow coordination, and audit-ready operations in support of the critical environment.
• Partner with Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, and Reliability teams to ensure operability, maintainability, and operational supportability are built into new capacity, retrofits, and expansions.
• Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders to ensure maintenance, capital work, remediation, and operational activities are properly sequenced and executed with minimal operational risk.
• Drive continuous improvement across maintenance practices, incident response, work control, readiness processes, and team operating rhythms.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 10+ years of experience in mission-critical operations, power generation, utilities, industrial operations, or related uptime-critical environments, including leadership responsibility.
• Strong understanding of critical MEP systems and data center operations, including the interaction between electrical, mechanical, controls, and support functions in live environments.
• Demonstrated experience managing operational risk and executing in MOP-driven environments.
• Proven ability to lead managers, technical teams, and vendor-supported operations in 24/7 critical environments.
• Strong experience with maintenance governance, incident response, and operational readiness at site or regional scale.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Facilities, Operations, or related field preferred; equivalent experience also valued.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong operational leadership in mission-critical environments.
• Ability to lead through managers while reinforcing accountability, consistency, and execution discipline.
• Strong judgment during incidents and abnormal operating conditions.
• Strong communication and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Ability to balance safety, speed, reliability, and long-term maintainability in a live operational environment.
• Strong planning, escalation, and organizational leadership capability.
• Ability to align plant operations, maintenance delivery, and site-support functions into a cohesive operating model.

Preferred Skills / Certifications

• PE license or equivalent certification is a plus.
• Experience with regulatory compliance frameworks such as OSHA, EPA, and related operational requirements.
• Familiarity with CMMS, SCADA, BMS, EPMS, and power monitoring platforms.
• Experience in hyperscale data centers, utility-scale power systems, or similarly complex high-availability environments is strongly preferred.
• Experience partnering with Engineering, Construction, Reliability, and Training functions in support of large-scale infrastructure operations is preferred.

Physical Demands / Work Environment This is a mission-critical onsite leadership role supporting 24/7 operations where continuous uptime is essential. Regular attendance, schedule flexibility, and availability during major operational events are required. To perform these duties, you must be able to move through office, campus, and active operational environments; walk sites; climb stairs; and safely engage in field visibility and incident support activities, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Why Oracle Cloud Infrastructure?

Global impact at scale: Contribute directly to how mission-critical OCI data centers operate across regions and continents, influencing infrastructure reliability, security, sustainability, and long-term capacity growth.

Technically rigorous environment: Work alongside experienced engineers, automation specialists, and compliance teams in a rapidly scaling hyperscale cloud infrastructure, where disciplined execution and technical depth matter.

Culture built on operational excellence: Join an organization that values safety, process rigor, clear accountability, and continuous improvement as foundational to protecting uptime and customer trust.

Long-term career development: Benefit from internal mobility, role-based technical training, and development opportunities designed for professionals building long-term careers in cloud infrastructure and facilities operations.

Qualifications

Disclaimer:Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client-facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements. Range and benefit information provided in this posting are specific to the stated locations only US: Hiring Range in USD from: $139,400 to $291,800 per annum. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle's differing products, industries and lines of business.Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.Oracle US offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes the following:1. Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion2. Short term disability and long term disability3. Life insurance and AD&D4. Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)5. Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts6. Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits7. 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match8. Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position. Accrued Vacation is provided to all other employees eligible for vacation benefits. For employees working at least 35 hours per week, the vacation accrual rate is 13 days annually for the first three years of employment and 18 days annually for subsequent years of employment. Vacation accrual is prorated for employees working between 20 and 34 hours per week. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week are not eligible for vacation.9. 11 paid holidays10. Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance will carry over each year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.11. Paid parental leave12. Adoption assistance13. Employee Stock Purchase Plan14. Financial planning and group legal15. Voluntary