Data Center Operations Lead

Job Title: Data Center Operations Lead
Duration- Fulltime Permanent
Location: Kansas City, MO (Onsite From Day 1)

Job Description:
Data Center Operations Lead

The Data Center Operations Lead / Architect is primarily responsible for leading 24/7 data center operations, ensuring high availability, reliability, security, and cost-effective delivery of infrastructure services. This role focuses heavily on operational excellence, incident management, and service delivery, while providing practical architectural inputs to improve performance, scalability, and stability.
Key Responsibilities
Operations Management (Primary Focus)
" Lead and manage day-to-day data center operations across servers, storage, networking, and facilities
" Ensure maximum uptime, system availability, and SLA compliance
" Oversee monitoring, alerting, and proactive issue resolution
" Manage operational activities such as backups, patching, batch jobs, and scheduled maintenance
" Ensure reliable, secure, and cost-effective delivery of infrastructure services
Incident, Problem & Change Management
" Act as the primary escalation point for critical incidents and outages
" Drive resolution of incidents in collaboration with cross-functional teams
" Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and implement preventive measures
" Ensure strict adherence to ITIL processes (Incident, Problem, Change, Service Request Management)
Service Delivery & Process Governance
" Lead ITIL-aligned service delivery processes, ensuring consistent execution
" Drive operational excellence, SLA adherence, and continuous improvement initiatives
" Ensure high-quality handling of incidents, problems, changes, and service requests

Team Leadership
" Lead, mentor, and manage a team of data center engineers and operations staff
" Manage shift schedules, on-call rotations, and 24/7 support coverage
" Drive performance management and team skill development
Infrastructure Operations & Maintenance
" Oversee installation, configuration, maintenance, and lifecycle management of infrastructure
" Manage hardware upgrades, patching, and DC activities (Moves/Adds/Changes)
" Ensure backup, disaster recovery (DR), and business continuity readiness
Architecture Support (Secondary Focus)
" Provide operational insights into infrastructure design and architecture decisions
" Support implementation of new technologies ensuring operational readiness and stability
" Recommend improvements for performance, capacity, and resilience
Capacity & Performance Management
" Monitor infrastructure utilization and performance metrics
" Plan and manage capacity and scalability requirements
" Optimize resource usage to improve efficiency and reduce cost
Vendor & Stakeholder Management
" Coordinate with vendors for support, maintenance, and issue resolution
" Collaborate with Cloud, Network, Security, and Application teams
" Ensure adherence to SLAs and service delivery commitments
Compliance & Security
" Ensure compliance with security standards, policies, and regulatory requirements
" Maintain operational documentation and SOPs
" Support audits, risk assessments, and compliance activities
Monitoring & Reporting
" Manage monitoring tools and implement alert thresholds
" Track and report key metrics such as uptime, MTTR, SLA compliance, and incident trends
" Provide dashboards and reports to leadership
Technical Skills
" Responsible for ensuring reliable, secure, and cost effective delivery of infrastructure services across the environment
" Strong hands-on expertise in servers, storage, networking, and virtualization
" Deep understanding of ITIL processes (Incident, Problem, Change, Service Requests)
" Experience with monitoring tools and ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow)
Experience
" Typically requires 10 15+ years of experience in data center operations, infrastructure support, or similar operations-focused leadership roles
" Proven experience managing 24/7 production environments
Process
" Leads ITIL-aligned service delivery processes, ensuring consistent and efficient execution
" Ensures governance across incident, problem, change, and service request management
" Focus on operational stability, process adherence, and continuous improvement
Preferred Skills
" Experience in banking or financial services domain
" Exposure to cloud platforms (Azure, AWS) and hybrid environments
" Familiarity with automation tools (Ansible, Terraform)
" Strong troubleshooting and analytical capabilities
Key Competencies
" Strong operations leadership and incident management skills
" Ability to work in high-pressure, critical production environments
" Excellent problem-solving and decision-making abilities
" Effective communication and stakeholder management
Work Environment
" 24/7 support model with on-call responsibilities
" Coordination across multiple data center locations and teams