Executive Director - Data Centre Solutions




Role Overview



CBRE Data Centre Solutions is one of the world's leading providers of integrated facilities management (FM), and project management services to data centres and critical environments.



Data Centre Solutions sits at the heart of GWS's growth ambition. It manages CBRE's most strategically significant client relationships: large, complex, multi-site outsourcing contracts that demand executive-level leadership, deep commercial acumen, and the ability to operate credibly at board level with clients, partners, and internal stakeholders alike.



The Executive Director is the senior operational and commercial leader for a defined portfolio of enterprise accounts. The role carries full profit and loss (P&L) accountability for that portfolio and is responsible for driving sustainable, profitable growth while maintaining the service quality, client relationships, and people capability that underpin CBRE's reputation in the market.



This is a role for a leader who can operate at pace in a high-growth, matrix environment: someone who builds client trust through competence and consistency, develops high-performing teams through coaching and accountability, and brings a genuine commercial instinct to every decision they make.




Key Responsibilities

• The Executive Director holds accountability across five areas of sustained leadership. These are not sequential priorities; they run concurrently and reinforce one another. The most effective leaders in this role manage all five with equal discipline.


• Strategic Planning and Business Growth


• The Executive Director is responsible for the strategic direction of their portfolio / region and for ensuring that CBRE DCS commercial ambitions are translated into executable plans at divisional level.


• Develop and implement business and sales plans that respond to economic, technological, and market trends, aligned to the near and long-term GWS strategic plan.


• Lead business development activity within the portfolio, building client relationships and ensuring that the organisational capability to deliver growth is in place before commitments are made.


• Identify, track, and influence the key performance indicators (KPIs) and financial metrics that determine portfolio performance, taking early action on variances.


• Identify and target new business opportunities of suitable quality and volume to enhance the overall value and growth trajectory of the division.


• Work closely with the Regional Projects Director to build a reputable projects business across all countries, that focuses on principle contracting services within grey space and white space (data halls).


• Support the Managing Director in the preparation and delivery of country budgets and the four-year strategic planning process.


• Contribute to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) assessments, site selection, and infrastructure expansion decisions where relevant to the portfolio.


• Lead business reviews that are transparent, rigorous, and used as coaching opportunities for the leadership team.

Client Relationship Leadership

• The Executive Director is the most senior client-facing leader for the portfolio and is accountable for the quality and depth of every key relationship under their remit.


• Build and sustain high-level client relationships that are grounded in genuine understanding of client needs, business pressures, and strategic direction.


• Act as the executive liaison for key clients, ensuring alignment between operational delivery and the commitments made at contract and commercial level.


• Represent CBRE DCS in client meetings, quarterly strategic reviews, escalation situations, and relationship workshops with the professionalism and credibility the role demands.


• Ensure clients consistently perceive exceptional value from CBRE DCS through professional reporting standards, proactive communication, and service quality that exceeds contractual obligation.


• Support client renewals, upsell opportunities, and new contract wins by providing executive sponsorship and credibility at critical moments in the commercial cycle.


• Lead client onboarding and transition activity, coordinating with delivery and commercial teams to ensure mobilisations meet client expectations and CBRE's service standards.

Quality, Safety and Operational Standards

• The Executive Director sets the standard for quality and safety across the portfolio. This is a leadership responsibility, not a compliance function. The tone is set at the top.


• Lead, monitor, and continuously improve health, safety, and quality performance across all accounts within the portfolio.


• Create a culture of exceptional quality and innovation in which every team member understands the standard expected and is equipped to deliver it.


• Identify safety trends and direct interventions that protect people, protect the business, and drive continuous improvement in safety outcomes.


• Ensure mandatory processes are in place and compliant across the portfolio, including line management auditing, QHSE objective setting and tracking, dynamic risk assessment, health and safety scenario training, and statutory investigations.


• Ensure CBRE's brand promise is consistently evidenced on every site within the portfolio, from front-of-house standards to back-of-house operational rigour.


• Direct mobilisation and transition activity to ensure CBRE's ways of working and client expectations are met. Sign off all mobilisations at executive level before handover.

People Leadership and Organisational Capability

• A portfolio is only as strong as the people running it. The Executive Director is accountable for building the team, developing the capability, and sustaining the culture that makes high performance repeatable.


• Lead, coach, and develop the divisional management team to ensure the people and organisational capability required to deliver portfolio performance is in place and growing.


• Be highly visible and accessible to the team. Lead through gravitas and consistent role-modelling of CBRE's values and behaviours, not only through positional authority.


• Build a culture of employee feedback and engagement through formal appraisal processes, Personal Development Plans, and informal day-to-day leadership.


• Develop and coach direct reports with a genuine commitment to their long-term growth. Build a culture of continual personal development across all levels of the team.


• Build and maintain succession plans using management development programmes and targeted development activity, ensuring ready and capable successors exist for every critical role.


• Own talent management end to end: from identifying high-potential individuals and creating development opportunities, through to talent acquisition where gaps cannot be filled from within.


• Foster a culture of collaboration and recognition, ensuring employees are rewarded through local mechanisms, bonus scorecards, and awards programmes.

Commercial, Financial and Supply Chain Management

• The Executive Director carries full P&L accountability for the portfolio. Commercial discipline and supply chain rigour are non-negotiable expectations of the role.


• Take full accountability for revenue, operating profit, and working capital targets across the portfolio, acting promptly on variances to protect performance.


• Support the Managing Director in all aspects of bid and tender activity, including sales and operational resourcing, commercial reviews, document standards, and presentation quality.


• Maintain accurate pipeline reporting for all contract and project opportunities within the portfolio.


• Ensure the fair treatment of suppliers at all times, with professional supplier management and appropriate arbitration of disputes.


• Work closely with the procurement team to maximise use of preferred suppliers and ensure robust, performance-focused contracts are in place that deliver value without compromising service quality.


• Assist in the development and delivery of a sustainable and profitable project management capability within the division, where applicable.

Success Measures

• Success will be measured by the overall performance of the business. Specific measures include:


• Exceptional QHSE compliance and accident record


• A strategically aligned business model.


• Business development and growth across facilities management and projects


• Establishment of fully functional and self-sustaining country operations teams


• A fully recruited, and trained team of Country Managers - based on the strategic growth strategy


• Brand recognition throughout the market.

Person Specification




Experience

• A minimum of 10 years in FM, critical environment services, building services, or a closely related sector, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role carrying significant P&L or operational responsibility.


• Demonstrable track record of driving sustainable, profitable growth in a complex, multi-site service business.


• Proven experience building and sustaining senior client relationships in a B2B outsourcing or managed services environment.


• Experience of leading business development activity, including major bid and tender processes, at executive level.


• Background operating in a matrix organisation, influencing senior stakeholders across commercial, operational, and functional lines without relying solely on direct authority.


• Experience of managing and developing high-performing leadership teams, with a genuine record of building capability and succession.


• Previous experience of mobilising and transitioning complex FM contracts, with executive accountability for delivery standards.


• Familiarity with one or more of the following: critical environment and data centre FM, mechanical and electrical (M&E) services, project management, or building services.

Knowledge and Technical Competency

• Strong commercial and financial literacy, including the ability to read, interpret, and act on P&L, working capital, and pipeline data.


• Sound understanding of health, safety, and quality management obligations in a facilities management context, including statutory compliance requirements.


• Working knowledge of CBRE's core operating frameworks or equivalent best-practice FM methodologies.


• Awareness of market trends in facilities management, including technology adoption, sustainability expectations, and the evolving demands of data centre FM outsourcing clients.


• Sufficient technical literacy to engage credibly with M&E, building services, or critical infrastructure specialists within the team and with clients.


• Industry knowledge in critical environment and data centre environments is an advantage.

Leadership and Behavioural Competencies

• Leads with gravitas and authenticity. Is recognised by clients, peers, and the team as someone worth following, not only as the most senior person in the room.


• Builds trust at pace. Establishes credibility with new clients and team members quickly through competence, consistency, and follow-through.


• Communicates with clarity and confidence at every level, from site teams to boardroom clients, adapting style without losing authority.


• Makes sound commercial decisions with incomplete information, balancing client expectations, operational reality, and financial discipline.


• Operates with high resilience and emotional intelligence in a fast-paced, high-growth environment where pressure is the norm.


• Brings genuine entrepreneurial instinct to business development: identifies opportunities others miss, pursues them with persistence, and converts them at a high rate.


• Coaches and develops others as a genuine priority, not a residual activity. Builds leaders, not followers.


• Demonstrates CBRE's RISE values: Respect, Integrity, Service, and Excellence in every aspect of the role, particularly under pressure.

Education and Qualifications

• Degree-educated in a technical or business discipline, or equivalent professional experience.


• Membership of a relevant professional institute is desirable (for example IWFM, CIBSE, IET, or RICS).


• Further leadership or management qualification (MBA or equivalent) is an advantage.


• ITIL, ISO 27001, or equivalent operational standards knowledge is desirable for roles with a critical environment focus.

Travel

• Able to travel across continental Europe, based on the requirements of the portfolio and the role demand.


• Able to travel at short notice where client or operational situations require an executive response.


• Occasional travel to the UK for central meetings and training.