Director, HR Business Partner - Client Services, Engineering and Operations

Director, HR Business Partner - Client Services, Engineering and Operations

We're growing the People & Culture team at STACK Infrastructure and looking for an experienced HR Business Partner to support our Client Services, Engineering and Operations Function across EMEA, based in Italy. This is a strategic role for someone who is passionate about business partnering, organisational effectiveness, leadership capability and creating an employee environment that enables operational teams to perform at their best. You will work closely with senior Operations leaders and local teams across our European markets; fluent Italian and English are essential.

The Opportunity

We are hiring a Director level HR Business Partner to provide strategic and practical people leadership to our Client Service, Engineering and Operations Function. Client Services, Engineering and Operations is responsible for the safe, reliable and efficient performance of our data centres. The function operates in a highly technical, customer focused and regulated environment where organisational capability, leadership quality, workforce resilience and employee engagement directly affect business performance.

The Director, HR Business Partner will work alongside senior Client Services, Engineering and Operations leaders, the EMEA VP HR Business Partnering and local HR teams to translate business priorities into practical people plans. The role will focus on organisational growth, operational transformation, workforce planning, leadership development, employee relations, talent management and organisational effectiveness.

This is not a role for someone who wants to operate at a distance from the business. You will need to spend meaningful time with leaders and employees, understand how our sites across multiple markets operate, and be comfortable moving between long term organisational priorities and immediate operational challenges. You will act as a trusted adviser to senior leaders while retaining the independence and judgement required to challenge constructively, manage people-related risk and ensure decisions are fair, consistent and aligned with STACK's values.

The Person Who Will Thrive Here

This role will suit someone who is commercially minded, engaging and collaborative, enjoys pace and takes personal ownership for delivering outcomes. You will need to be comfortable operating in a business where not everything is fully defined, where priorities can change quickly and where the ability to combine sound judgement with practical execution is essential.

You will be successful if you combine deep HR Business Partnering expertise with an understanding of operational workforces, organisational design, leadership development, employee relations and workforce planning. You will be able to build trusted relationships without becoming overly dependent on consensus. You will listen carefully, challenge respectfully and help leaders make balanced decisions that support both business performance and employee engagement. This is an opportunity to shape the people agenda for a critical business function in one of the fastest-growing infrastructure sectors in Europe.

Location

The role must be based in Milan, Italy and will require regular travel to STACK offices and data centre in multiple EMEA locations.

Our culture is collaborative and relationship led. This role will suit someone who values being visible, spending time with operational teams and building credibility through a strong understanding of the business.

Fluent Italian and English are essential. The successful candidate must be able to communicate confidently and credibly with employees and senior stakeholders in both languages.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the senior People & Culture partner to the Chief Operating Officer and Client Service, Engineering and Operations Leadership Team, providing commercially focused, pragmatic advice on organisational and people matters.
• Build a detailed understanding of the Client Service, Engineering and Operations Function, including its operating model, organisational structure, workforce profile, technical capabilities, customer commitments, operational risks and future growth requirements.
• Translate operational priorities into practical people plans, partnering with local HR Operations and Finance teams to lead strategic workforce planning — covering workforce capacity, organisational structures, headcount forecasts, critical skills, recruitment priorities, succession risks, labour-cost assumptions and internal talent opportunities.
• Advise on organisational design, spans of control, reporting lines, role clarity and accountability, ensuring structures are scalable, efficient and appropriate for the maturity of each market.
• Build leadership capability through coaching, feedback, development planning and targeted interventions focused on decision-making, accountability, communication, performance and engagement.
• Identify high-potential employees and lead succession planning for critical operational roles — creating meaningful development, mobility and progression opportunities, and regularly reviewing successor readiness and organisational resilience.
• Support performance and talent-management processes, helping leaders set clear expectations, differentiate performance fairly, recognise contribution and address underperformance promptly.
• Work closely with local HR Operations and Legal teams to ensure senior employee matters are managed fairly, consistently and in accordance with local employment law and company policy, and to identify emerging people risks, workforce concerns and employee‑relations trends — using employee feedback, engagement data, workforce metrics and operational insight to recommend targeted action.
• Strengthen employee engagement, communication, recognition and retention across operational teams, ensuring site-based and shift-based employees can access development opportunities, HR support and wider company initiatives.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to define hiring priorities, improve workforce forecasting and ensure recruitment reflects the skills and capabilities required by the business.
• Partner with Reward on job architecture, role evaluation, compensation, retention arrangements and relevant workforce‑market considerations.
• Partner with Learning & Engagement to identify technical, leadership and behavioural capability gaps and implement solutions aligned with operational priorities.
• Partner with HR Operations and People Data & Analytics to maintain accurate employee data, organisational structures and workforce reporting.

The Experience We Are Looking For

• Significant experience as a senior HR Business Partner, People Partner or HR leader supporting an Operations, Engineering, Infrastructure or similarly technical function.
• A proven record of partnering at executive or leadership-team level.
• Experience working in complex, multi-site and multi-country organisations, with a strong understanding of site-based employees, technical specialists, engineering teams, shift populations and operational leadership structures.
• Strong organisational‑design experience, including operating models, spans of control, role clarity, accountability and organisational effectiveness.
• Experience leading workforce and succession planning, including capability analysis, headcount forecasting, critical-role assessment, recruitment prioritisation, talent reviews and leadership‑development processes.
• Experience coaching senior leaders and improving leadership effectiveness, communication, accountability, engagement and team performance.
• Experience partnering effectively with specialist teams, including Talent Acquisition, Reward, Learning and Development, HR Operations, People Analytics and Legal.
• A strong understanding of Italian employment practices and employee‑relations requirements. Experience across additional European jurisdictions would be advantageous.
• Fluent spoken and written Italian and English.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly to STACK offices and data centre locations across EMEA.

What Will Make You Stand Out

• You are genuinely curious about how the business operates and take time to understand the work, workforce and commercial context before recommending a solution.
• You focus on business need, customer outcomes and employee impact rather than defaulting to an HR process.
• You bring independent judgement and the confidence to challenge constructively — whether that’s questioning organisational complexity, unclear accountability or a decision that isn't backed by a clear business need — while building trusted relationships and maintaining confidentiality and sound professional judgement.
• You bring calm authority and are confident and decisive in complex situations while leading with fairness, respect and humility.
• You are visible and approachable, with the credibility to engage employees and leaders at every level in data centres and operational environments.
• You can move comfortably between strategic workforce priorities and immediate employee matters.
• You take ownership, create structure and help the business move forward without waiting for perfect conditions.
• You are commercially credible and can balance employee considerations with operational requirements, affordability, risk and investor expectations.
• You are collaborative and low ego, working effectively across People & Culture, Finance, Legal, functional leadership and local teams.
• You use data and evidence to inform decisions, identify risks and measure the impact of people interventions.
• You thrive in a fast‑paced, high‑growth and investor‑backed environment where the organisation and expectations continue to evolve.

What we Offer

• Salary Range (Gross Annual Salary - RAL): € 85,000 - € 115,000 + 25% performance bonus.
• Contract type: Italian CCNL Commerce (Commercio - Terziario, Distribuzione e Servizi).
• Meal vouchers and corporate welfare program.
• Health insurance and access to the complementary pension fund, in accordance with the collective agreement.
• Work on critical digital infrastructure, supporting the development and operation of some of Europe's most advanced data centre environments.
• Build your future with STACK, gaining exposure to large‑scale projects and clear opportunities for professional growth across a fast-growing European platform.

The compensation range shown reflects the expected salary range for this position. Final compensation will be determined fairly and transparently within this range, based on the candidate's professional experience, skills and qualifications.

About STACK Infrastructure

STACK Infrastructure develops and operates data centres for some of the world's largest hyperscale customers. With cloud continuing to grow and AI accelerating demand, the data centre sector is expanding rapidly, and STACK is well positioned for continued growth across Europe.

Our data centres provide the critical infrastructure that enables customers to operate securely, reliably and at scale. Our Operations teams are central to delivering that commitment and ensuring our facilities perform safely, efficiently and consistently.

This is a high-growth, investor-backed business, and we need HR leaders who can build trusted partnerships, create organisational clarity and deliver consistently without losing sight of the employee experience.