Manager Engineering Operations in Woking

The Manager Engineering Operations (MEO) oversees all aspects of the site’s critical physical infrastructure and ensures that all activities carried out on the site are done with high quality and without negative impact on internal/external customers. The MEO provides the technical expertise to plan, coordinate, and manage the Data Centre’s equipment, systems, and infrastructure to ensure operational excellence, with safety and reduction of risk being of paramount importance. The MEO actively guides the Lead Engineer, Site engineers and suppliers on-site, helps and supports where needed, and checks the quality of work. The MEO actively contributes to a standard way of operating the sites by complying with the standard and using a controlled change process to continuously improve the standard. The MEO is involved in improvement projects and serves as a second-level support for more complex issues. The MEO works with various experts, including design and construction, and manufacturers, and is directly responsible for safety on the site.

Leadership and Management

• Act as the deputy to the Data Centre Manager, providing strategic support and operational leadership.
• Lead a team of Lead Engineers and Site Engineers, providing direction, mentorship, and support in achieving operational excellence.
• Line-manage resources on-site, ensuring effective utilisation of staff and subcontractors, reviewing available resource capacity versus workload and raising operational challenges.
• Provide specialist support and training to engineers/sites for specific issues/projects, leveraging expertise in relevant areas.
• Participate in site tours for customers as requested by Sales, Solution Engineering, and Customer Success teams.
• Accountable for ensuring all staff and subcontractors receive a full site induction before starting work on-site and ensuring that procedural, technical, and safety requirements are being followed.

Operations Planning and Oversight

• Plan, implement, coordinate, and oversee all mechanical/electrical operations, maintenance, and energy management programmes on-site, ensuring risk is minimised and all works are compliant with safe systems of work.
• Responsible for the kick-off and management of jobs on the site, ensuring all activities conform to company policy, standards, and operating instructions.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable local codes, government agencies, ISO standards (9001, 14001, 27001, 50001) and DLR directives related to building operations.
• Act as the Senior Approved Person for the site, overseeing complex maintenance jobs and ensuring risk is minimised.
• Responsible for the hand-over between Implementation services and Service Operations and for checking, approving and accepting all completed installation works from the Implementation services Function.
• Ensure a balanced approach to reactive and preventive maintenance activities, monitoring both current and deferred maintenance backlogs.
• Adjust priorities and resources as necessary, ensuring thorough documentation of deferred maintenance tasks.

Project Management and Incident Resolution

• Participate in infrastructure projects on the site and is responsible, alongside the DC&E, for change approvals and incident management.
• Serve as the escalation point for all incidents that may disrupt services or breach SLAs, or reduce quality of services, leading efforts to eliminate or reduce their impact.
• Execute the local maintenance plan, identifying areas for improvement and adjusting priorities/resources as needed.

Data Management and Reporting

• Keep track of maintenance and customer activities, providing regular updates to the Data Centre Manager and Technical Ops planning.
• Utilise the CMMS control system to its maximum capabilities, ensuring accurate and timely data entry.
• Coordinate the development and maintenance of as-built drawings with support from the Technical Draftsman Team.

Vendor Management and Compliance

• Coordinate maintenance efforts and build relationships with critical vendors, tracking performance through KPIs and regular meetings.
• Ensure adherence to the QHSSE Responsibilities Matrix, maintaining a culture of safety, quality, health, security and environmental compliance.

Qualifications

• Proven experience working in mission-critical mechanical and electrical environments within a large company, IT/Telecoms industry preferred.
• Experience in data centres or a similar environment is essential.
• Understand the engineering design and operational aspect of each building system.
• Knowledge of key infrastructure components of DCs such as UPSs, generators and cooling systems.
• Ability to read and preferably work with electrical and mechanical diagrams.
• Commitment & drive; internally driven and willing to go the extra mile.
• Open for change: adapts to change, is open to new ideas, takes on new responsibilities, handles pressure and adjusts plans to meet changing needs.
• Pro-active; has a can-do mentality, can delegate when appropriate.
• Communication skills: listens attentively, speaks clearly and concisely, creates accurate and punctual reports, gives clear instructions and shares information and ideas with others.
• Good decision-making skills, based on analysis of risk situations.
• Have extensive experience and detailed knowledge of the operation of plant and services for which they are responsible and a good, detailed understanding of the full campus infrastructure.