Senior Director, Advanced Technologies, Global

Vantage Data Centers•Denver, CO

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

About Vantage Data Centers Vantage Data Centers 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. Product Department The Product team at Vantage defines and stewards our global product platform: the customer outcomes we aim to deliver, the reference designs and standards that make delivery repeatable, and the closed-loop learning that turns each deployment into an upgrade for the next. We do this in partnership with Engineering, Delivery, Operations, Sustainability, Sales, Site Selection, and Business Development, aligning priorities and trade-offs while preserving clear functional ownership for design execution, construction delivery, and site operations. Product’s role is to create clarity, consistency, and leverage at Vantage scale. Role purpose The Senior Director, Advanced Technologies, Global leads Vantage’s multi-year technology pipeline: identifying, assessing, piloting, and validating emerging technologies that are a natural fit for our data center platform roadmap as we extend that roadmap into the future. This role sits alongside the Senior Director, Product Management and operates in close partnership. Product Management owns “what we build and why” for the platform and product portfolio. Advanced Technologies ensures we have a disciplined, decision-ready pipeline of technologies that can credibly drive that roadmap over time, with risks retired and scale paths understood before technologies become platform standards or intentional variants. This is not “blue sky R&D.” It is disciplined technology discovery and validation for scaled, mission-critical infrastructure: systems-level feasibility, commercial and operational readiness, and evidence-based decision inputs. What success looks like A repeatable, transparent approach for identifying and prioritizing emerging technologies aligned to platform strategy, customer direction, and long-range constraints. A living technology portfolio with clear horizons (near/mid/long), ownership, and resourcing that prevents scattershot experimentation. High-potential technologies progress through structured feasibility, pilot, and validation stages with explicit technical, commercial, and operational exit criteria. Product Management receives decision-ready inputs: trade-offs, evidence, cost curves, integration implications, residual risks, and recommended paths (standard, variant, or no-go). Strategic partnerships with OEMs, utilities, technology vendors, and startups are intentionally structured to create early access and credible scale paths. Technology risk is retired before standardization and global rollout, reducing downstream delivery, commissioning, and operational surprises.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in data center infrastructure, energy systems, industrial systems, or adjacent complex physical infrastructure domains.
Demonstrated experience evaluating, piloting, and scaling new technologies in capital-intensive, mission-critical environments.
Strong systems engineering mindset: connects component-level innovation to platform-level outcomes and lifecycle performance.
Credibility with sophisticated external partners (startups through top-tier global vendors) and internal SMEs; able to drive alignment and decisions with executives.
Strong written communication: can produce clear decision memos, trade-off narratives, and pilot readouts that enable fast, high-quality decisions.
Skills and competencies Judgment under ambiguity: identifies the few bets that matter; avoids scattershot experimentation.
Evidence-driven validation: designs evaluations that retire risk and create decision-ready outputs.
Systems integration thinking: understands cross-domain coupling (power, cooling, controls, commissioning, operability).
Partner and ecosystem leadership: builds trust, negotiates access and leverage, and protects optionality.
Commercial fluency: understands cost curves, total cost of ownership drivers, and realities of scaling manufacturing and deployment.
Influence without authority: creates alignment through clarity, credibility, and mechanisms.

Nice To Haves

Experience in hyperscale data center design, delivery, commissioning, or operations, including partner/vendor ecosystems.
Exposure to advanced power and thermal strategies (grid interconnect, storage, alternative generation, liquid cooling and emerging thermal architectures).
Experience with modularization, prefabrication, and DfMA in large-scale infrastructure program s.
Experience designing pilots in live operational environments with robust safety and rollback discipline.

Responsibilities

Advanced technology strategy and portfolio definition Define and maintain Vantage’s advanced technology evaluation strategy aligned to long-range product and platform objectives . Establish a technology horizon framework (near-, mid-, long-term) and a clear taxonomy to guide focus and investment. Continuously scan and assess trends across power generation and delivery, energy storage, cooling and thermal architectures, controls and telemetry, materials, construction methods, and compute-driven infrastructure requirements. Translate macro shifts into crisp opportunity and risk narratives for Product Strategy and executive leadership, including recommended focus areas and “no-go” zones.
Systems-level feasibility and technical due diligence Own structured feasibility assessments for emerging technologies: performance, reliability, integration complexity, lifecycle implications, and operability. Define standard evaluation criteria spanning technical readiness, scalability, supply chain maturity, safety, regulatory considerations, and commissioning/operations impacts. Ensure diligence is systems-level (not point-solution): evaluate impacts across design, procurement, manufacturing, construction, commissioning, operations, and end-of-life. Convene and lead cross-functional Subject Matter Experts across mechanical, electrical, controls/automation, CSA, instrumentation and observability, automation and orchestration, and design-for-manufacturing-and-assembly ( DfMA ) to ensure rigor and credibility.
Pilots and proof-of-value programs Identify , structure, and oversee pilots and proofs-of-value that are hypothesis-driven, time-bound, and decision-oriented. Define success metrics, learning objectives , and clear go/no-go/iterate gates for each pilot, with explicit evidence requirements. Ensure pilots generate transferable learnings and credible scale paths, not one-off demonstrations. Partner with regional teams to deploy pilots without disrupting live delivery or operations, including containment and rollback plans.
Commercial and operational readiness Establish and own the process for validating commercial readiness: cost curves, vendor viability, supply scalability, long-lead constraints, and risk allocation. Partner with Procurement and Supply Chain to assess qualification pathways, manufacturing readiness, capacity alignment, and substitution risks. Validate operational readiness: maintainability, workforce skills, spares strategy, monitoring and controls integration, failure modes, and operational acceptance criteria. Clearly articulate residual risks and mitigation strategies before any technology transitions into formal roadmap work. Partner with Commercial and Legal on contracting structures (pilot agreements, risk-sharing, IP and commercialization frameworks) that enable progress while protecting Vantage’s scale and optionality.
Strategic partnerships and ecosystem engagement Identify and cultivate strategic technology partnerships with OEMs, utilities, startups (including stealth), research institutions, and ecosystem partners. Structure partnerships to provide early access , co-development opportunities, and preferential positioning, with clear governance, objectives , and exit criteria. Serve as a senior Vantage representative in external technology forums and strategic discussions relevant to future platform direction.
Integration with Product Management and platform roadmaps Serve as the “front-end” feeder into Product Management : ensure validated technologies enter the platform roadmap with decision-ready artefacts, not open questions. Partner closely with the Senior Director, Product Management to align technology readiness with roadmap timing, platform standards, and intentional variant decisions. Support executive decision-making with concise, fact-based narratives on trade-offs, risks, and strategic implications. Ensure clean handoffs from pilot/validation into product ownership, standards development, and deployment processes.