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.
• Cook up 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.
• Cook up 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.
• Cook up 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.
• An analytical mindset with attention to operational detail and the ability to drive data-informed decisions.
• A 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%).