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 organizations 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

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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

Bachelors 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 $110000 - $140000.

At Backblaze we value being fair and good to our customers partners and employees. Thats why diversity equity and inclusion are at the core of our values. We are committed to fostering a workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging regardless of race ethnicity nationality gender sexual orientation age religion socio-economic status ability veteran status and education. We believe that our dedication to cultivating a diverse workspace not only allows us to better serve our customers in over 175 countries but further reinforces our commitment to doing the right thing. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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