Data Center Operations Manager

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 for critical incidents and maintenance windows.

Work performed on data center floors; hearing protection may be required and temperatures may be elevated.

May require lifting equipment up to 50 lbs and working in raised-floor environments.

Travel (up to 15%).

To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. We set standard base pay ranges for all roles based on function, level, and country location, benchmarked against similar-stage growth companies. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate location, skills, depth of work experience, and relevant licenses/credentials, and may vary from the amounts listed below.

The expected salary range for this role is $110,000 - $140,000.

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