Director, Physical Security Governance, NA

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.

Role Summary

The Director, Physical Security Governance will be responsible for designing, building, and leading Vantage Data Centers’ North American physical security governance program from inception through full operational maturity. This role establishes the framework that ensures security is delivered consistently, compliantly, and at scale across all North American sites, while enabling the business to grow with confidence.

This leader will own the policies, quality assurance, compliance oversight, performance measurement, and continuous-improvement mechanisms that transform physical security from site-based execution into a governed, measurable, enterprise-grade program.

This position serves as the central authority for how physical security is defined, governed, measured, and improved across Vantage Data Centers’ North American portfolio.

Core Responsibilities

Security Governance & Program Leadership

• Design and implement the North American Physical Security Governance Program, including governance models, operating frameworks, and control structures aligned with enterprise security objectives.

• Establish clear accountability, ownership, and decision rights across Physical Security Design, Delivery, Operations, Technology, and the Security Management Center (SMC).

• Serve as the executive-level authority for physical security governance across North America, ensuring all sites operate under a unified framework.

Policy, Standards & Procedures

• Develop, maintain, and govern all North American physical security policies, standards, and procedures, including but not limited to:

  • Access control

  • Video surveillance

  • Guard force operations

  • Incident and threat management

  • Visitor management

  • Construction site security

  • Data center physical security controls

• Ensure policies align with corporate risk, legal, compliance, privacy, and customer contractual obligations.

• Translate security standards into operationally executable procedures across all North American sites.

Quality Assurance, Audits & Continuous Improvement

• Build and lead a Quality Assurance and Compliance function for physical security, including audit programs, control testing, site inspections, and validation of operating effectiveness.

• Define and manage corrective action and remediation programs resulting from audits, incidents, and performance gaps.

• Own the governance of all physical security after-action reviews, ensuring root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and preventive controls are documented, tracked, and closed.

Performance Management, KPIs & Metrics

• Define and own the physical security performance framework, including key performance indicators (KPIs), key risk indicators (KRIs), and quality metrics.

• Establish measurable standards for:

  • Policy compliance

  • Control effectiveness

  • Incident response quality

  • Training and certification completion

  • Site security performance

• Ensure leadership and site teams have clear, data-driven visibility into security performance, risks, and trends.

Training, Certification & Enablement

• Design, develop, and govern the enterprise security training and awareness framework for North America, covering all employees, contractors, and site personnel, including:

  • Physical security awareness and policy training

  • Workplace violence prevention and response

  • Threat awareness, reporting, and escalation

  • Visitor management and access control expectations

  • New-hire and new-site onboarding security training

  • Annual and recurring security awareness and compliance training

• Own the creation, maintenance, and governance of all security training content, including standards, curricula, learning materials, and certification requirements.

• Ensure training programs remain aligned with evolving threats, regulatory requirements, customer security expectations, and internal risk priorities.

• Partner with Human Resources, Legal, Compliance, Operations, the Security Management Center (SMC), and Technology teams to embed security training into onboarding, lifecycle training, and daily business operations.

Outreach, Engagement & Program Adoption

• Build and mature the Outreach and Engagement function to drive adoption of physical security governance across:

  • Data center site leadership

  • Construction and delivery teams

  • Operations and IT

  • Corporate stakeholders

  • External partners, including law enforcement and relevant government agencies

• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with local, state, and federal law enforcement and government entities to support incident response, investigations, emergency preparedness, and threat mitigation.

• Lead change management, communications, and stakeholder engagement to ensure security standards, expectations, and governance models are consistently understood and applied across the North American portfolio.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in physical security, risk management, compliance, or governance within data centers, critical infrastructure, or high-reliability environments.

• Proven experience building and scaling enterprise governance, compliance, or quality assurance programs.

• Deep understanding of physical security controls, guard force operations, access control systems, and surveillance technologies.

• Experience operating in audited, regulated, or customer-validated environments.

• Demonstrated ability to define metrics, KPIs, and control frameworks and hold organizations accountable to them.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting hyperscale or colocation data centers.

• Background in audit, compliance, or quality management systems.

• Experience partnering with legal, risk, compliance, construction, IT, and operations teams.

• Familiarity with security platforms, incident management tools, and compliance tracking systems.

We operate with No Ego and No Arrogance. We work to build each other up and support one another, appreciating each other’s strengths and respecting each other’s weaknesses. We find joy in our work and each other, actively seeking opportunities to inject fun into what we do. Our hard and efficient work is rewarded with an above market total compensation package. We offer a comprehensive suite of health and welfare, retirement, and paid leave benefits exceeding local expectations.

Throughout the year, the advantage of being part of the Vantage team is evident with an array of benefits, recognition, training and development, and the knowledge that your contribution adds value to the company and our community.

Don't meet all the requirements? Please still apply if you think you are the right person for the position. We are always keen to speak to people who connect with our mission and values.

Vantage Data Centers is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Vantage Data Centers does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm agencies. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of Vantage Data Centers.

We’ll be accepting applications for at least one week from the date this role is posted. If you're interested, we encourage you to apply soon—we’re excited to find the right person and will keep the role open until we do!