Data Center Operations Manager

Remote (Occasional Travel to Jacksonville, FL)
Long-Term Contract | Potential Contract-to-Hire Opportunity

Enjoy working remotely? Our client, a Fortune 500 company in the Fuel/Oil/Gas industry headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, is seeking a Data Center Operations Manager to lead the strategy, optimization, and operational excellence of mission-critical data center environments. This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for ensuring the reliability, security, efficiency, and scalability of critical infrastructure supporting enterprise operations.

This position is remote with occasional travel to Jacksonville, FL and offers the opportunity to transition into a permanent role based on performance and business needs.

Position Overview

The Data Center Operations Manager will serve as a strategic leader overseeing data center facilities operations, infrastructure planning, energy management, compliance, security, and cost optimization. This role requires a strong understanding of both technical infrastructure and business strategy, with a focus on maintaining exceptional uptime, operational resilience, and continuous improvement.

The ideal candidate will have experience managing large-scale data center environments, developing facilities strategies, optimizing energy consumption, managing operational costs, and ensuring compliance with industry standards and security requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute long-term data center facilities strategies aligned with business growth, technology requirements, and operational goals.
• Oversee critical infrastructure operations, ensuring maximum availability, reliability, and uptime of mission-critical environments.
• Lead energy management initiatives, including power optimization, sustainability efforts, capacity planning, and infrastructure efficiency improvements.
• Manage data center operational budgets, cost forecasting, and financial optimization initiatives.
• Partner with engineering, IT, security, finance, and business stakeholders to align infrastructure investments with organizational priorities.
• Establish and maintain operational standards, processes, and procedures for data center environments.
• Ensure compliance with internal policies, regulatory requirements, industry standards, and security protocols.
• Oversee physical security strategies, access controls, risk mitigation, and facility protection measures.
• Support disaster recovery, business continuity, and resiliency planning.
• Evaluate vendor performance, contracts, and service-level agreements.
• Identify opportunities for automation, process improvement, and operational efficiency.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Information Technology, Facilities Management, or related field.
• 8+ years of leadership experience operating large-scale data center facilities or mission-critical environments.
• Proven experience managing data center operations, critical infrastructure, or enterprise facilities environments.
• Strong background in:
  • Data Center Facilities Strategy
  • Energy Management
  • Cost Management / Financial Optimization
  • Compliance & Risk Management
  • Physical Security Operations
  • Infrastructure Resiliency
• Experience working with mission-critical environments where uptime and availability are business-critical.
• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to translate technical infrastructure needs into business and financial strategies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting Fortune 500 enterprise environments.
• Background in fuel, energy, utilities, manufacturing, or other critical infrastructure industries.
• Experience with data center expansions, migrations, capacity planning, or modernization initiatives.
• Familiarity with industry standards such as Uptime Institute, BICSI, ISO, SOC, or similar compliance frameworks.
• Experience managing third-party data center providers and facilities vendors.

Opportunity Highlights

• Remote work environment with occasional travel to Jacksonville, FL.
• Long-term contract opportunity with potential for permanent placement.
• Opportunity to support a Fortune 500 organization managing highly critical infrastructure.
• Strategic leadership role impacting enterprise reliability, security, and operational efficiency.