Data Center Lead

Job Summary

Datacenter Domain Specialist

Roles and Responsibilities

Datacenter Operations Management:

• Lead day-to-day operations of global datacenters, ensuring all systems are running optimally, including servers, storage, backup, and associated infrastructure.
• Oversee the capacity planning, performance monitoring, and resource allocation to meet current and future business requirements.
• Manage operational procedures for incident response, disaster recovery (DR), and business continuity planning (BCP).
• Ensure that the datacenter environment is reliable, secure, and aligned with business objectives.

Datacenter Infrastructure & Technology Management:

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of datacenter systems, ensuring high availability, fault tolerance, scalability, and security.
• Oversee and manage technologies such as servers (physical and virtual), storage systems (SAN, NAS, DAS), networking, and backup systems, including cloud and hybrid environments.
• Continuously assess, optimize, and manage the lifecycle of IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, and firmware updates/upgrades.
• Develop and enforce best practices for server management, virtualization, and storage.

Project Management:

• Lead and manage large-scale datacenter projects, such as infrastructure upgrades, migration initiatives, and cloud adoption strategies, from inception to completion.
• Develop project plans, budgets, timelines, and resource allocation, ensuring that projects are delivered on time, within scope, and on budget.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment on project deliverables, risk management, and change control processes.
• Ensure the timely and accurate reporting of project status, issues, and risks to stakeholders.

Backup and Disaster Recovery Management:

• Oversee the design, implementation, and testing of backup and disaster recovery strategies, ensuring that recovery objectives (RPO/RTO) are met.
• Design and implement efficient, scalable backup and recovery solutions for enterprise data, ensuring business continuity and disaster recovery (DR).
• Create and enforce backup strategies to ensure timely, accurate backups of critical systems, applications, and data.
• Develop and manage backup schedules and strategies for on-premise, cloud, and hybrid environments.
• Manage the regular testing and documentation of disaster recovery plans to ensure preparedness for unplanned outages.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation of backup and recovery procedures, configurations, and policies.
• Produce regular backup performance reports and recommend improvements to senior management.
• Create and maintain internal documentation for DR testing, incident responses, and compliance audits.
• Work with internal teams and vendors to develop, refine, and execute incident response and business continuity strategies.
• Regularly assess the storage capacity and performance of backup systems, ensuring scalability as data volumes grow.
• Perform regular optimization of backup processes to reduce backup windows, improve efficiency, and enhance overall backup performance.
• Keep up to date with new releases and patches for backup software to ensure the environment is secure and up to date.

Compliance & Audit:

• Ensure compliance with regulatory, industry, and company-specific standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, ISO 27001).
• Assist in preparing for and supporting internal and external audits, ensuring that the datacenter environment adheres to required compliance standards.
• Review and ensure that all datacenter operations meet security, risk, and privacy requirements, including data encryption, access controls, and disaster recovery protocols.
• Act as a key point of contact during audits, liaising with auditors and business units to ensure that evidence is provided and that audit recommendations are acted upon.

Vendor Management:

• Lead vendor selection, contract negotiation, and performance management for datacenter-related services, including hardware procurement, storage, backup, and cloud service providers.
• Maintain strong relationships with third-party vendors, ensuring they meet service level agreements (SLAs), resolve issues promptly, and deliver according to agreed timelines.
• Oversee vendor risk assessments and work closely with procurement and legal teams to ensure compliance with corporate policies.
• Manage vendor escalations and dispute resolution, ensuring minimal disruption to operations.

Strategic Planning and Budget Management:

• Lead the budgeting process for datacenter operations, ensuring cost-efficient resource allocation and capital expenditures.
• Provide strategic insights and recommendations for optimizing data center operations, enhancing efficiency, and reducing costs.
• Ensure that the datacenter infrastructure is aligned with business objectives and future scalability needs.
• Collaborate with finance, procurement, and senior leadership to align on budgeting, financial planning, and cost-saving initiatives.

Process and Procedure Development:

• Develop, document, and enforce operational processes and procedures for all aspects of datacenter management (e.g., change management, incident management, patch management).
• Standardize best practices for datacenter operations, including system configuration, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance.
• Drive continuous process improvement, leveraging automation and tools to streamline operations, enhance productivity, and reduce manual intervention.

Team Leadership and Collaboration:

• Lead a team of IT professionals responsible for datacenter management, including server administrators, storage engineers, and network specialists.
• Foster a collaborative and high-performance work culture, mentoring team members and ensuring skills development through training programs and certifications.
• Work with internal teams (e.g., IT Security, Cloud, Networking) to ensure alignment and integration of datacenter strategies with overall IT strategies.
• Provide leadership and guidance during major incidents, outages, or DR events, ensuring the team’s effective response and recovery.

Continuous Improvement and Innovation:

• Stay up to date on the latest trends in datacenter technologies, storage solutions, backup strategies, and disaster recovery.
• Evaluate new tools, technologies, and solutions to improve datacenter efficiency, performance,

Job Requirements

Educational Qualification: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent work experience).

Specific Certification:

• VMware Certified Professional (VCP), Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE), or Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA).
• ITIL v3 or ITIL 4 certification (Service Management).
• Certified Data Center Professional (CDCP), Certified Data Center Management Professional (CDCMP), or Certified Data Center Expert (CDCE).
• Project Management Professional (PMP), Prince2 or equivalent certifications.
• Either of EMC and NetApp, AND preferred at least one of HP storage, EMC Networker, Symantec NetBackup, CommVault, Cloud backup solution.
• Advance Excel, Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint 2013, MS Project, MS Visio

Technical Skills:

• Storage Technologies:

  Expertise in EMC, NetApp, HP Storage etc.

• Storage Infrastructure Management:

  Experience in SAN design, LUN masking, zoning, fiber channel switches (Cisco, Dell, HP, Brocade), and storage capacity planning.

• Datacenter & Infrastructure:

  Strong knowledge of SAN, NAS, server architecture, and network.

• Cloud Solutions:

  Proficient in AWS, Azure, and hybrid datacenter environments.

• Backup & Disaster Recovery:

  Expertise in backup technologies (e.g., CommVault, Veeam, NetBackup, Veritas, IBM Tivoli, Cloud Backup Solutions) and disaster recovery solutions.

Operational & Analytical Skills:

• ITIL & ITSM Frameworks:

  Experience in ITIL processes for service management and operational efficiency.

• Troubleshooting & Performance Optimization:

  Strong troubleshooting skills for SAN performance, storage issues, and network connectivity.

• Capacity Planning & Monitoring:

  Skilled in monitoring, reporting, and analysing storage systems for optimal performance and capacity utilization.

• Problem-Solving & Critical Decision-Making:

  Strong analytical skills to identify issues, provide solutions, and make critical decisions in high-pressure environments.