Chief Engineer Operations H/F

📍 Paris / Île-de-France | Data Center Environment | Permanent Contract | Multisite Scope

Join my client at the heart of critical infrastructure.

In a context of strong growth and infrastructure development, my client is strengthening its Operations organization in France and creating a Chief Engineer position.

Within a new cross-functional technical expertise hub, you will become the technical referent for operations across several strategic sites in France, with a priority scope notably covering two sites.

Your mission: to bring your expertise, secure operations, and contribute to advancing the entire organization towards greater standardization, operational rigor, and technical excellence.

This position is for an experienced profile who wishes to go beyond pure technical expertise and play a central role in the structuring of operations for a rapidly growing Data Center player.

Your missions

Your role

The Chief Engineer acts as a multisite technical and operational referent.

You are simultaneously:

• a technical expert capable of challenging teams and service providers;

• an operational referent guaranteeing the security of operations;

• a cross-functional player capable of uniting teams with different profiles and experience levels.

You possess real technical authority: when safety or risk management conditions are not met, you are able to challenge an operation and, if necessary, issue a NO GO on an operating procedure or intervention.

You work in close collaboration with the site managers, who retain operational responsibility for their scope.

Your main missions

1 - Be the technical referent for critical infrastructures

You provide your expertise on all Data Center technical infrastructures and are able to understand their interactions and operational impacts.

Your scope notably covers:

• HT/BT electrical infrastructures;

• emergency power systems;

• UPS / uninterruptible power supplies;

• generator sets;

• HVAC infrastructures;

• cooling systems;

• fire protection and safety;

• control systems and associated infrastructures.

You act as a technical referent for site managers and Operations teams, and are capable of challenging various internal or external stakeholders on their choices and practices.

2 - Secure operations

One of your major responsibilities will be to ensure that operations carried out on critical infrastructures are prepared and executed under the best conditions of safety and risk management.

To this end, you:

• challenge operating procedures (MOP);

• verify the consistency and completeness of procedures;

• identify risks and their potential impacts;

• secure operations before their execution;

• challenge initial analyses and intervention proposals;

• can issue a NO GO when an operation does not provide the necessary guarantees;

• support site managers in technical decision-making;

• contribute to the implementation of double-check mechanisms.

You are, in a way, the technical safeguard of the organization, with the objective of securing operations without losing sight of service continuity imperatives.

3 - Structure and harmonize practices

One of the major challenges of the position is to contribute to the harmonization of practices between different sites.

Today, maturity levels and practices can vary from one site to another. Your role will be to help build a common foundation of operational methods and standards.

You will notably be required to:

• structure operational processes;

• define and harmonize technical standards;

• write and improve procedures and operating methods;

• implement operational workflows;

• monitor their proper application;

• identify discrepancies between sites;

• propose and monitor improvement plans;

• share best practices;

• conduct multisite lessons learned (REX);

• support teams in adopting new standards.

The ability to build and maintain processes will therefore be as important as your technical expertise.

4 - Provide your expertise during critical incidents

In the event of a complex technical incident, you will act as the technical referent for the Facility and Operations teams.

You will notably be required to:

• technically analyze the incident;

• identify causes and potential impacts;

• provide your expertise to site managers;

• challenge proposed analyses;

• support internal teams and service providers;

• contribute to the definition of corrective actions;

• participate in incident resolution;

• organize and share lessons learned across different sites.

Your ability to take a step back, quickly analyze a complex situation, and provide a technically robust response will be essential.

5 - Develop a culture of operational excellence

You don't just define standards: you support teams in their adoption.

You will thus be required to:

• train and support teams;

• explain technical and operational requirements;

• advance practices;

• unite around common goals;

• support change management;

• foster knowledge sharing between sites.

You have a strong capacity for influence and know how to move topics forward without necessarily having a direct hierarchical link.

6 - Be the technical point of contact for major clients

You will be able to:

• represent the company on technical matters;

• explain a complex situation or incident;

• present the actions implemented;

• respond to client technical queries;

• provide a structured and credible discourse on the challenges of infrastructure operation and safety.

An organization under construction

You will join a newly structured cross-functional technical expertise hub, bringing together various skills to support operations and projects.

The objective is to create a true community of experts capable of bringing its expertise to all sites and collectively advancing operational standards.

You will work daily with:

• site managers;

• Facility and Operations teams;

• project teams;

• technical experts;

• external service providers and partners;

• cross-functional departments;

• major clients.

The position is therefore particularly cross-functional and requires a strong ability to create links between the various stakeholders.

Your skills

Your profile

You have significant experience in a Data Center or highly structured critical infrastructure environment.

You have ideally worked in an environment where requirements for procedures, operational safety, maintenance, and service continuity are particularly high.

Experience in a comparable critical environment would be particularly appreciated.

Your technical expertise

You have excellent knowledge of critical infrastructures, including:

• HT/BT electricity;

• emergency power systems;

• UPS / generator sets;

• HVAC;

• cooling;

• fire protection;

• control systems;

• maintenance of critical infrastructures.

You are able to understand the entire infrastructure and the interactions between the different systems, not just your initial area of expertise.

You also know how to analyze a complex technical problem, identify risks, and challenge proposed solutions.

Your operational experience

You have previously worked in an environment where procedures and operational standards play an important role.

You are comfortable with:

• operating procedures (MOP);

• change management;

• risk analysis;

• preventive and corrective maintenance;

• critical incident management;

• operational audits and checks;

• lessons learned (REX);

• standardization of practices;

• management of technical service providers.

Above all, you have the desire to drive an organization forward, structure practices, and sustainably improve operations.

Your qualities

To succeed in this role, we are looking for someone:

• with strong technical expertise;

• structured and rigorous;

• capable of analysis and taking a step back;

• pedagogical and able to transmit their expertise;

• comfortable challenging their interlocutors;

• capable of making decisions and defending a technical position;

• with strong interpersonal intelligence;

• able to adapt to different profiles and maturity levels;

• unifying and comfortable in a cross-functional role;

• capable of supporting change management.

Your ability to adapt your communication to your interlocutor while maintaining a high level of technical requirement will be decisive.

Benefits

• Bonus: 2 months salary

• Travel: lump-sum vehicle allowance over 12 months of €1,500

• Profit sharing equivalent to 1-1.5 months salary

• On-call duty: Position subject to on-call duty (subject to probation period validation)

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