The Senior Director of Project Controls (EMEA) is a senior leadership role accountable for establishing and governing the project controls strategy and team across all data centre delivery and development projects within the EMEA region. The role provides oversight of planning, scheduling, risk management, process improvement, change control and quality assurance to ensure predictable, efficient, and compliant delivery of data centre capacity across multiple countries and regulatory environments.
This leader collaborates closely with regional and functional teams to drive operational excellence, standardisation, and continuous improvement across the full project lifecycle—from site acquisition through design, construction, commissioning, and handover to operations.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and lead the project controls strategy for EMEA in alignment with the organisation’s delivery roadmap.
- Establish governance frameworks, methodologies, and best practices tailored to the complexity of EMEA regulatory, market, and construction environments.
- Partner with the Senior Vice President of Delivery, Delivery VP’s and functional leaders across the business to support strategic decision making and programme predictability.
- Promote the use of digital tools, automation, and data analytics to increase transparency and execution performance across the region.
- Oversight of regional planning and scheduling standards for all EMEA data centre programmes
- Ensure scheduling integrity and critical path analysis are consistent and reliable across all projects.
- Implement progress measurement frameworks with regional benchmarking to monitor productivity, performance, and milestone adherence.
- Drive data driven cost optimisation initiatives and regional cost benchmarking.
- Lead regional continuous improvement initiatives, including execution against the Business Maturity Plan to streamline delivery workflows, provide better more consistent reporting methodologies, and standardise operating procedures across the business
- Support digital transformation efforts within project controls, including adoption of integrated platforms and real time analytics.
- Champion a culture of accountability, performance, and continuous enhancement across all delivery functions.
- Develop and govern regional quality standards for planning, design, construction, commissioning, and handover.
- Oversee QA/QC programmes, ensuring consistency in approach across countries and compliance with local regulatory requirements.
- Ensure quality audits are completed, performance trends tracked and ensure corrective/preventative actions are embedded into project delivery.
- Lead risk governance across the EMEA project portfolio, including schedule, execution, and regulatory risks.
- Oversee creation of standardised risk registers, analysis, mitigation strategies, and reporting dashboards.
- Provide executive level insights to the Senior Vice President of Delivery, highlighting emerging risks, portfolio health, and opportunities for optimisation.
- Ensure accuracy, consistency, and reliability of all reporting across the business.
- Build, mentor, and lead a high performing and geographically diverse EMEA project controls organisation.
- Develop team capability through training, coaching, and career pathways.
- Foster strong collaboration across functions creating a consistent approach to project controls.
- Champion diversity, equity, inclusion, and a positive team culture throughout the EMEA organisation.
Qualifications & Experience
- Demonstrable experience in project controls, planning, or programme management, including senior leadership roles in complex construction environments.
- Experience in data centres, semiconductor, hyperscale, large industrial, or mission critical projects preferred.
- Deep understanding of EMEA construction markets, regulatory environments, and cultural nuances.
- Expertise with project controls systems and reporting platforms.
- Strong competency in governance, process improvement, digital transformation, and risk based decision making.
- Exceptional stakeholder management skills, including communication at executive and regional leadership levels.