Data Center Operations Manager

About this role

About Backblaze

Backblaze provides reliable, high-availability cloud storage trusted by consumers, SMBs, enterprises, and developers in over 150 countries. Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage supports data-intensive workloads including backup, media, analytics, and modern AI pipelines. Our teams focus on building durable, scalable systems with a strong emphasis on developer experience and operational efficiency.

Role Overview

The Data Center Operations Manager leads the day-to-day management of the organization's infrastructure, personnel, and vendor relationships across one or more data center sites or regions. The Manager works cross-functionally across engineering, security, finance, and operations teams to align infrastructure priorities with broader organizational goals. This role is responsible for maintaining mission-critical systems at peak reliability while ensuring operations remain secure, compliant, and cost-effective. The Manager is the primary owner of uptime, operational integrity, and continuous improvement across the team.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Team Leadership & People Management

▸ Recruit, onboard, mentor, and evaluate a diverse team of data center technicians and inventory controllers.

▸ Foster an inclusive environment that encourages collaboration, safety, and continuous professional development.

▸ Set and track individual performance goals, growth plans, and career pathways for all direct reports.

▸ Partner with HR on DEI initiatives, succession planning, and workforce development.

▸ Delegate responsibilities to ensure workload balance and effective utilization of team skills.

• Project Management

▸ Define and manage project scope, timelines, budgets, and resources in collaboration with stakeholders.

▸ Lead concurrent projects including hardware refreshes, capacity expansions, and migrations.

▸ Maintain project documentation including MOPs, change control records, and post-mortems.

▸ Coordinate internal teams, vendors, and contractors to meet milestones; report status to leadership on a defined cadence.

• Risk Mitigation & Business Continuity

▸ Maintain and regularly test Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP).

▸ Conduct risk assessments to identify threats to availability, integrity, and confidentiality of data assets.

▸ Enforce incident response protocols, ensuring rapid containment, root-cause analysis, and corrective action.

▸ Manage physical access controls and coordinate with cybersecurity teams on information security alignment.

• Compliance & Regulatory Adherence

▸ Ensure adherence to applicable standards including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, and NIST.

▸ Maintain audit-ready documentation, evidence repositories, and control libraries; support internal and third-party assessments.

▸ Enforce policies governing data handling, access control, change management, and incident reporting.

▸ Ensure staff complete required compliance training and maintain role-relevant certifications.

• Equipment Maintenance & Infrastructure Support

▸ Manage preventive and corrective maintenance programs for servers, storage arrays, and networking hardware.

▸ Oversee hardware installation, decommissioning, and lifecycle replacement in line with policy.

▸ Maintain vendor and OEM relationships to ensure timely support, warranty compliance, and SLA adherence.

▸ Monitor environmental conditions via DCIM tools and escalate anomalies through appropriate channels.

▸ Enforce cable management, labeling, and documentation standards; maintain 24/7 readiness through on-call and escalation procedures.

▸ Own vendor SLA governance across all colocation providers, ensuring contractual obligations are met and leading escalations and remediation when they are not.

• Data Analysis & Performance Reporting

▸ Track and report KPIs including uptime (SLA/SLO), PUE, capacity utilization, and incident rates.

▸ Use DCIM, ITSM, and monitoring platforms (Zabbix, Grafana) to generate operational insights and capacity forecasts.

▸ Deliver executive dashboards and reports that translate technical metrics into business narratives.

▸ Perform root-cause and trend analysis on incidents; benchmark performance and identify optimization opportunities.

• Inventory Coordination & Asset Management

▸ Maintain an auditable asset register in CMDB/ITAM platforms (Netbox, NetSuite) across all sites.

▸ Coordinate procurement, receiving, staging, and deployment of hardware and consumable supplies.

▸ Manage spare parts pools and lifecycle disposition, including secure data sanitization (NIST 800-88) and e-waste compliance.

▸ Conduct regular physical inventory audits and reconcile discrepancies against system records.

▸ Collaborate with procurement and finance to forecast hardware needs and manage purchase orders.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Education

▸ Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field required, or equivalent professional experience in data center operations.

Experience

▸ 10+ years of progressive experience in data center operations, IT, or infrastructure management.

▸ 5+ years in a supervisory or management role overseeing technical teams.

▸ Proven track record managing projects and vendor relationships in mission-critical environments.

Certifications (Preferred)

▸ PMP | ITIL 4 Foundation or higher | CompTIA Server+ or Network+

Core Competencies

▸ Strong leadership and team-building skills with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

▸ Analytical mindset with attention to operational detail and the ability to drive data-informed decisions.

▸ Clear communicator — able to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.

▸ Experience with DCIM, ITSM (Jira, Confluence), asset management (NetSuite, NetBox), and monitoring tools (Zabbix, Grafana).

▸ Effective at managing competing priorities.

WORKING CONDITIONS

▸ Occasional after-hours, weekend, or on-call availability required f

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