Strategic Operations Principal, NA

Job description

About Vantage Vantage powers, cools, protects and connects the technology of the world’s well-known hyperscalers, cloud providers and large enterprises. Developing and operating across North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific, Vantage has evolved data center design in innovative ways to deliver dramatic gains in reliability, efficiency and sustainability in flexible environments that can scale as quickly as the market demands. Operational Excellence Department The Operational Excellence team establishes the systems, practices, and culture that enable Vantage to operate at scale across North America with consistency, quality, and speed. We strengthen the scalability and effectiveness of NA Operations - including Mission Critical Operations, Sales Engineering, Customer Experience, and Design Integration - by partnering with business leaders and global functions to standardize how we work, drive process excellence, deliver strategic programs, enable data-driven decisions, and embed continuous improvement and transformation. Operational Excellence at Vantage is hands-on and impact-driven . We blend delivery discipline, systems thinking, and best-in-class operational practices to address root causes, improve efficiency, and accelerate outcomes. Our team members lead high-impact initiatives, shape cross-functional ways of working, and directly influence how Vantage delivers on its growth, operational, and customer commitments. Position Overview This role will be based in Denver, CO. Following our flexible work policy (3 days in-office, 2 days flexible). The Principal, Strategic Operations, NA serves as a strategic integrator and force multiplier to the Vice President of Operational Excellence and the OE leadership team. The role connects strategy to execution across OE’s priorities, capability and product roadmaps, operating model, leadership rhythm, resources, and cross-functional commitments. As a senior individual contributor, this individual orchestrates priorities across OE’s capabilities; anticipates and surfaces risks, dependencies, and trade-offs; translates complex information into clear recommendations; and drives leadership decisions and follow-through. The role also oversees the business operations of the function, including integrated financial, workforce, vendor, and capacity visibility. The ideal candidate combines strong judgment, analytical rigor, executive communication, and operational discipline. This individual must be comfortable influencing senior stakeholders, challenging unclear information, navigating ambiguity, and independently advancing work with limited direction. Essential Job Functions Capability, Product & Maturity Governance Partner with Operations leaders, designated capability and product owners, Global IT, enterprise platform and data teams, and regional and global Operations counterparts to establish and embed clear capability and product ownership, decision rights, interfaces, governance expectations, and escalation paths. Bring together Operations functions and accountable capability, process, data, product, technology, and adoption owners to define the operational maturity journey and orchestrate an integrated roadmap and governance cadence that aligns priorities, ownership, dependencies, outcomes, measures, performance, and adoption. Anticipate future Operations needs and identify, shape, and mobilize new or enhanced capabilities that advance operational maturity, scalability, and innovation, partnering with Operations and technology leaders to define value, ownership, dependencies, and roadmap implications. Lead the operationalization and enablement of cross-functional and cross-regional Operations management systems by establishing clear ownership, governance cadences, integrated maturity roadmaps, success measures, and executive visibility, and by convening accountable leaders to drive adoption, sustained performance, and continuous improvement. Identify gaps in ownership, roadmap alignment, or decision authority; facilitate resolution and ensure material decisions translate into the appropriate functional planning, portfolio, or execution processes. Maintain executive visibility and follow-through without assuming ownership of individual capabilities or products. Named capability and product owners retain accountability for strategy, roadmaps, requirements, performance, adoption, and decisions. Executive Partnership & OE Leadership Serve as a strategic and operational partner to the VP of Operational Excellence and OE leadership team, translating leadership priorities into coordinated execution across the function and broader Operations organization. Own and orchestrate the OE operating rhythm, including leadership meetings, quarterly updates, strategic planning sessions, onsite/offsite meetings, and cross-functional forums. Synthesize complex business, portfolio, financial, and operational information into decision-oriented executive materials, recommendations, and clear leadership narratives for key forums. Translate leadership priorities and decisions into clear actions, ownership, timelines, and outcomes; challenge gaps in priorities, assumptions, ownership, dependencies, or reporting; and surface exceptions requiring intervention. Represent and reinforce the priorities and perspective of the VP in defined forums; independently resolve routine issues within established decision rights and elevate material decisions with clear recommendations. Lead select cross-functional strategic initiatives, special projects, and time-sensitive priorities on behalf of the VP where ownership does not naturally reside within an existing OE pillar . Portfolio & Decision Support Partner with the Ops PMO Senior Director and portfolio owners to translate consolidated Plan of Record information into leadership insights and decision support across Operations. Analyze operational, portfolio, financial, vendor, and workforce information to identify trends, gaps, risks, and actionable insights. Translate analysis into recommendations for leadership action, prioritization, resource allocation, or escalation. Maintain integrated visibility into portfolio decisions, commitments, dependencies, and unresolved issues with broader OE implications; engage the appropriate OE and business leaders and escalate material exceptions. Financial, Resource & Partner Management Maintain integrated visibility into OE budgets, forecasts, capacity, professional-services commitments, vendor capacity, and remaining spend. Translate financial, workforce, and partner capacity information into forward-looking insights, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations to support leadership prioritization and resource decisions. Coordinate OE financial and partner-management activities, including forecasting and reporting, purchase orders and invoices, vendor and consultant sourcing and onboarding, contracts, third-party risk, deliverables, and approvals, in partnership with OE leaders and applicable enterprise functions. Identify financial, contractual, vendor, or approval risks and proactively coordinate resolution. Business Analysis & Continuous Improvement Lead early-stage discovery and structure strategic cross-functional Operations initiatives outside routine Plan of Record intake by clarifying outcomes, stakeholders, requirements, scope, constraints, dependencies, decisions, and resource needs. Facilitate cross-functional problem-solving to develop recommendations and implementation paths, then mobilize and transition execution once ownership and success measures are established. OE Standards, Tools & Enablement Lead the development, governance, and adoption of OE leadership and business-operations standards, playbooks, processes, templates, and reusable tools. Optimize internal OE workflows and drive adoption across the function through standardization, automation, and the practical use of approved AI and digital tools. Maintain organized, current, and accessible OE documentation, including SharePoint content, templates, reporting materials, procedures, and source-of-truth resources. Support onboarding, training, certifications, and development activities for OE employees and contractors. Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Coordination Build strong partnerships across Operations, Finance, Procurement, Legal, IT, HR, and other cross-functional teams, serving as a connector across OE pillars, North America Operations leadership, enterprise functions, and external partners. Drive accountability against cross-functional actions, decisions, approvals, and commitments; resolve barriers where possible and elevate material risks, conflicts, or trade-offs requiring executive intervention. Own the OE communications rhythm, including newsletters, leadership updates, and recurring stakeholder communications, to keep Operations informed of relevant priorities, evolving capabilities, available support, lessons learned, and resulting operational outcomes. Additional Duties Perform additional duties as assigned by management. Job Requirements Education Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration , Finance, Analytics, Operations, Communications, Project Management, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience required. Experience Ten or more years of progressive experience in strategy and operations, management consulting, enterprise transformation, business operations, portfolio leadership, or a comparable role. Experience designing and implementing operating models, capability or product ownership structures, governance cadences, and integrated roadmaps in complex, cross-functional environments. Experience translating operational maturity or transformation objectives into coordinated execution across business functions, process, data, technology, and adoption. Demonstrated experience leading work through influence across senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams without relying on direct reporting authority. Experience working directly with senior executives and leadership teams and translating leadership priorities into coordinated organizational action. Experience managing or supporting budgets, purchase orders, invoices, professional services, vendors, contracts, or procurement processes. Experience gathering business requirements, conducting analysis, and translating findings into recommendations. Experience developing executive-level presentations, reporting, communications, and decision materials. Experience working in a complex, fast-paced, and matrixed organization. Experience in data centers, critical infrastructure, technology, engineering, construction, or Operations preferred. Skills Advanced Microsoft PowerPoint skills with the ability to create polished, concise, visually compelling executive presentations. Advanced Microsoft Excel and data-analysis skills, including the ability to identify trends, discrepancies, risks, and actionable insights. Experience developing dashboards, scorecards, reports, and management visualizations. Strong financial acumen with experience supporting budgets, forecasts, purchase orders, invoices, commitments, accruals, and variance analysis. Strong business-analysis skills, including discovery, requirements gathering, scope development, and business-case preparation. Excellent executive writing, communication, editing, and storytelling skills. Exceptional organizational and project-management skills with strong attention to detail. Ability to independently manage complex and competing priorities, anticipate leadership and organizational needs, and drive ambiguous work forward with limited direction. Strong stakeholder-management and facilitation skills with the confidence to challenge unclear information and recommend improvements. Experience with Microsoft SharePoint, Teams, Word, Outlook, and Forms. Experience with ClickUp or another work, project, or portfolio-management platform preferred. Experience with Ironclad, Yardi, third-party risk-management systems, or comparable platforms preferred. Sound judgment and discretion when handling confidential, financial, commercial, and executive information. Continuous-improvement mindset with the ability to identify practical opportunities to improve efficiency, consistency, and effectiveness. Travel required is expected to be up to 10%, but may increase over time as business evolves . Physical Demands and Special Requirements The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to handle, or feel objects; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop or kneel; talk and hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Additional Details Salary Range : $180,000 - 190,000 Base + Bonus (this range is based on Colorado market data and may vary in other locations) This position is eligible for company benefits including but not limited to medical, dental, and vision coverage, life and AD&D, short and long-term disability coverage, paid time off, employee assistance, participation in a 401k program that includes company match, and many other additional voluntary benefits Compensation for the role will depend on a number of factors, including your qualifications, skills, competencies, and experience and may fall outside of the range shown. #LI-Hybrid #LI-AH We operate with No Ego and No Arrogance. We work to build each other up and support one another, appreciating each other’s strengths and respecting each other’s weaknesses. We find joy in our work and each other, actively seeking opportunities to inject fun into what we do. Our hard and efficient work is rewarded with an above market total compensation package. We offer a comprehensive suite of health and welfare, retirement, and paid leave benefits exceeding local expectations. Throughout the year, the advantage of being part of the Vantage team is evident with an array of benefits, recognition, training and development, and the knowledge that your contribution adds value to the company and our community. Don't meet all the requirements? Please still apply if you think you are the right person for the position. We are always keen to speak to people who connect with our mission and values. Vantage is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Vantage does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm agencies. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of Vantage. We’ll be accepting applications for at least one week from the date this role is posted. If you're interested, we encourage you to apply soon—we’re excited to find the right person and will keep the role open until we do!