Senior Manager, Datacenter - Server Ops

About the role

This leader ensures high availability, performance, and security of enterprise systems while spearheading our next generation of service delivery with a strong understanding of datacenter management, financial stewardship, and team leadership. The role balances strategic planning with hands-on oversight of operations across datacenter facilities and operations teams, aligning technology services with business needs.

Responsibilities

• Oversee multi-site datacenter operations to ensure optimal performance, capacity, and 24/7 availability of critical physical and virtual server environments.
• Integrate and manage blending hosting solutions to meet scalability, resiliency, and flexibility goals in line with enterprise strategy.
• Develop and enforce operational procedures and best practices for server and virtualization platforms through a combination of system administrators, support staff, and automations.
• Monitor infrastructure health, maintain environmental conditions (power, cooling, etc.) in physical facilities, and implement capacity planning to prevent downtime and protect hardware.
• Ensure disaster recovery (DR) capabilities, backup processes, and business continuity plans are in place and regularly tested for all sites.
• Enforce rigorous security controls and compliance with internal policies and industry regulations (e.g., SOC, ISO, NIST) across data center operations.
• Proactively manage risk by keeping infrastructure updated (patch management, vulnerability remediation) and aligning with enterprise IT governance and audit standards.
• Lead vendor selection, contracts, and relationships for hardware, software, and select datacenter managed services; negotiate performance and cost expectations.
• Manage budgets for one cost center, including capacity forecasting, cost optimization, and financial reporting for data center and cloud services; drive FinOps practices and cost transparency.
• Shape the long-term hosting strategy, advising on modernization efforts (cloud migrations, colocation, platform upgrades) and collaborating with senior IT leadership on technology roadmaps.
• Lead and mentor a distributed team, set clear objectives, provide coaching, and foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, or 12+ years in IT infrastructure roles, with at least 5+ years in management of large-scale datacenter or cloud infrastructure operations.
• Demonstrated success overseeing multi-site datacenter operations.
• Deep understanding of physical and virtual server infrastructure, enterprise operating systems (Windows, RHEL (Linux)), connecting to an enterprise storage network (SAN), networking connectivity, and virtualization (VMware, Cisco UCS) in high-availability environments.
• Strong knowledge of disaster recovery, backup, and business continuity practices.
• Familiarity with IT security and compliance frameworks (e.g., NIST, PCI, SOX) and data protection standards in infrastructure services.
• Hands-on experience in budget planning and cost management for IT infrastructure, including forecasting and optimizing spending.
• Track record of managing vendor/partner contracts (e.g., co-lo facilities, hardware/software suppliers) and holding them accountable to SLAs and performance targets.
• Strong leadership and team management abilities with experience leading technical teams (including managers-of-managers) in a fast-paced, mission-critical environment.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; able to convey complex technical issues to non-technical audiences and influence strategic decisions.

Preferred Experience & Certifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (MBA or IT Management) is a plus.
• Professional certifications such as ITIL, SAFe, PMP, TBM Practitioner are highly desirable.
• Demonstrable experience with data center consolidations, migrations (site-to-site, physical-to-virtual (P2V), hyperconvergence), or large deployment administration is advantageous.
• Prior proven success in implementing automation/orchestration tools (IaC, CI/CD) and IT service management processes to improve efficiency.

Core Competencies & Leadership Attributes

• Strategic Vision & Innovation: Ability to define and execute datacenter modernization and migration strategies that align with business objectives, ensuring the organization’s infrastructure is scalable, resilient, and future-ready.
• Operational Excellence: Strong problem-solving and analytical skills with a continuous improvement mindset; committed to high standards of service reliability, performance optimization, and risk management across all infrastructure operations.
• Influential Leadership: Empathetic and decisive leader who mentors teams, fosters collaboration, and drives accountability; excellent communication, able to partner with senior executives, cross-functional teams, and external providers to achieve common goals.

Pay

National Range: $120,900 – $187,000. Actual compensation will vary based on geographic location, experience, skills, and other job-related factors. In addition to base salary, this role is eligible to participate in a bonus incentive plan. Incentive compensation is based on individual and company performance and is not guaranteed.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage
• Multiple 401(k) Savings Plan Options with Auto Enrollment in Employer-Directed Retirement Account Feature (100% employer-funded)
• Generous Paid Time Off – including 12 Paid Holidays, Volunteer Time Off, and Paid Family Leave
• Disability, Life, and Long Term Care Insurance
• Tuition Reimbursement, Student Loan Repayment, and Training & Certification Support
• Wellness support including gym membership reimbursement and Employee Assistance Program resources (work/life support, financial & legal management)
• Caregiver and Mental Health Support Services