Data Center Operations Manager

The Data Center Operations Manager / Site Lead serves as the senior onsite leader responsible for the safe, secure, and efficient operation of a large-scale AI and accelerated computing data center. This role provides leadership across Data Center Operations, Critical Facilities, Physical Security, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS), Asset Management, and customer-facing operational governance activities.

The Site Lead is accountable for overall site performance, operational readiness, service delivery execution, customer satisfaction, personnel leadership, and continuous improvement. Acting as the primary point of contact for customer stakeholders, facility partners, OEMs, and internal support organizations, the Site Lead ensures compliance with established service levels, operational procedures, security requirements, and regulatory obligations.

This role requires a hands-on operational leader capable of managing highly technical teams supporting hyperscale compute infrastructure, liquid-cooled AI platforms, critical facility environments, and rapidly expanding data center campuses.

How You Will Make an Impact:

Site Leadership & Operational Excellence

• Lead all day-to-day site operations across Data Center Operations, Security, and EHS functions.
• Establish and maintain a culture of safety, accountability, operational discipline, and customer focus.
• Direct daily operational priorities while balancing customer requests, project activities, maintenance requirements, and incident response efforts.
• Ensure operational readiness and adherence to established SOPs, MOPs, EOPs, and customer-directed procedures.
• Drive operational consistency across multiple shifts and ensure proper shift handoff processes are maintained.
• Monitor and improve key operational metrics, service levels, and performance indicators.

Customer Engagement & Governance

• Serve as the primary onsite representative and escalation point for customer stakeholders.
• Build trusted relationships with customer leadership, engineering teams, facilities teams, and operational partners.
• Conduct recurring operational reviews and present KPI, SLA, incident, capacity, and improvement reporting.
• Participate in customer audits, business reviews, governance meetings, and operational planning sessions.
• Ensure customer-directed priorities are effectively communicated and executed by onsite teams.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead and develop Data Center Technicians, Network Technicians, Facilities personnel, Security personnel, and supporting operational staff.
• Conduct performance management, coaching, mentoring, and career development activities.
• Ensure staffing levels support operational requirements and growth projections.
• Participate in workforce planning, recruiting, onboarding, and training initiatives.
• Establish qualification programs that ensure personnel maintain proficiency on supported equipment and operational procedures.
• Maintain positive work culture in alignment with Milestone Values.

Incident & Escalation Management

• Lead site response efforts for operational incidents, outages, service disruptions, and emergency events.
• Coordinate cross-functional response activities involving customer personnel, OEMs, contractors, and internal teams.
• Ensure timely escalation and communication of critical events.
• Drive root cause analysis, corrective actions, and lessons-learned reviews following incidents.
• Maintain readiness for 24x7 operational support and escalation coverage.

Deployment, Expansion & Mobilization

• Support new site launches, campus expansions, and operational readiness activities.
• Coordinate commissioning support, operational acceptance testing, and turnover activities.
• Partner with project teams to ensure successful deployment of new infrastructure, racks, network equipment, and facility systems.
• Validate staffing, training, inventory, and operational readiness prior to production turnover.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives that reduce deployment timelines and improve operational quality.

Facilities & Infrastructure Coordination

• Collaborate closely with Critical Facilities teams to maintain operational reliability of power, cooling, liquid cooling, fire/life safety, and environmental systems.
• Participate in change management, maintenance planning, and operational risk reviews.
• Ensure effective coordination between IT Operations and Facilities Operations teams.

Asset & Inventory Management

• Ensure accurate lifecycle management of servers, accelerators, networking equipment, spare parts, and serialized assets.
• Oversee inventory accuracy, chain-of-custody requirements, and asset reconciliation processes.
• Monitor spare inventory levels and replenishment activities.
• Support RMA management and hardware lifecycle processes.

Security, Compliance & EHS

• Ensure compliance with physical security requirements, access controls, visitor management processes, and customer security policies.
• Champion Environmental Health & Safety programs and safe work practices.
• Support audits, compliance reviews, and regulatory inspections.
• Ensure adherence to OSHA, NFPA, customer security standards, and applicable operational requirements.
• Promote a proactive culture of hazard identification, risk mitigation, and continuous safety improvement.

Continuous Improvement

• Develop and execute operational improvement initiatives.
• Analyze performance trends and identify opportunities for efficiency, reliability, and service quality improvements.
• Drive standardization, documentation enhancements, and process optimization efforts.
• Foster a culture of operational excellence and accountability across the site.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor''''s degree in Engineering, Information Technology, Operations Management, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum 8 years of experience supporting data center, critical facility, or infrastructure operations.
• Minimum 5 years of leadership experience managing technical or operational teams.
• Experience supporting 24x7 mission-critical environments.
• Experience managing customer-facing service delivery operations.
• Strong understanding of incident management, change management, problem management, and operational governance processes.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams in fast-paced operational environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting hyperscale, cloud, AI, HPC, or accelerator-based computing environments.
• Experience supporting liquid-cooled infrastructure and high-density compute deployments.
• Knowledge of critical facility systems including electrical distribution, UPS, generators, cooling systems, CDUs, and BMS/EPMS/DCIM platforms.
• Familiarity with structured cabling, server hardware, network infrastructure, and hardware lifecycle management.
• Experience supporting large-scale deployment and commissioning activities.
• PMP, ITIL, CDCP, CDCS, DCEP, or related certifications preferred.
• Strong executive communication and customer relationship management skills.
• Experience managing operations across rapidly growing data center campuses.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to work within active data center environments.
• Ability to walk large campus environments for extended periods.
• Ability to occasionally lift and move equipment up to 50 pounds.
• Ability to participate in on-call and after-hours operational support activities as required.
• Ability to work on site up to 100% of time
• Ability to travel periodically to support customer meetings, training, and operational reviews.

Work Environment

This position operates within a mission-critical data center environment supporting advanced AI and accelerated computing infrastructure. The role requires regular interaction with technical teams, customer stakeholders, contractors, OEM partners, and facility operators in support of 24x7 operational excellence.