Data Center Operator

The Data Center Operator (DCO) is a facilities-focused role responsible for the operational integrity, commissioning, and regulatory compliance of the electrical power, mechanical, monitoring and control systems, and the processes that maximize customer uptime in the most cost-effective way for highly available, concurrently maintainable, fault tolerant mission-critical data center environments.

The DCO ensures that all electrical, mechanical, and fire/life safety equipment within the data center operates at peak efficiency and the utmost levels of reliability. This involves planned preventive maintenance, daily corrective work, and response to emergency issues. The DCO is our front line for hands-on electrical and mechanical troubleshooting and serves as an expert technical resource reporting to the Site Manager, interacting with On-Site Multi-Skilled Operators (MSOs) and third-party vendors.

In this role the DCO is also the technical authority over vendor work on site. In addition to scheduling and escorting vendors; the DCO reviews and approves their procedures, witnesses critical steps, verifies results against OEM and industry criteria, and decides when work may start, stop, or be closed out. The DCO is the singular focal point for all facility operations within a given data center.

Equipment that supports mission-critical servers must maintain better than 99.999% uptime. This equipment includes, but is not limited to, standby diesel generators and related fuel systems, electrical switchgear, UPSs, PDUs, AHUs, thermal management equipment and systems, coolant distribution units (CDUs) and facility water loops for liquid cooling, chemical treatment systems (where applicable), pumps, motors, VFDs, and building automation systems.

Responsibilities

Safety and core operations

• Place SAFETY at the top of anything and everything done, without fail, and remain consistently focused on SAFETY in every task.
• Operate, monitor, maintain, and respond to abnormal conditions of facility systems.
• Conduct periodic inspections of building systems (HVAC, electrical distribution) and keep mechanical equipment rooms and enclosures clean, functional, and safe.
• Rapid response, investigation, and management of indoor emergency situations and air quality complaints, including humidity.
• Maintain complete working knowledge of creating, closing, and tracking work requests (WR); initiate or respond to work orders, follow up, and verify completion of work.

Preventive maintenance and corrective repairs

• Complete planned and ad-hoc preventive maintenance assignments requiring the skill and direction of several electrical, mechanical, and maintenance trades and engineering disciplines.
• Witness critical steps of vendor preventive maintenance and check the work performed against the OEM maintenance checklist before accepting it.
• Diagnose corrective issues, set the repair scope with the vendor, and approve the proposed fix before the work order is closed out.
• Work with the Site Manager and other stakeholders to track and complete a preventive and predictive maintenance schedule for critical maintenance and system commissioning.

Vendor procedures, pre-job briefs, and stop work authority

• Review each vendor Method of Procedure (MOP) before work begins and reject it if it is incomplete, unsafe, or does not meet OEM and site requirements.
• Lead the pre-job brief for vendor work, covering scope, sequence, hazards, rollback, and acceptance criteria.
• Exercise stop-work authority for quality and acceptance concerns as well as safety, and delay or hold work that does not meet requirements.
• Lead switching operations, or directly supervise the vendor performing switching, in line with the approved MOP and NFPA 70E practices.

Test results, return to normal, and warranty

• Read the as-found and as-left test data supplied by vendors and reject out-of-range results against NETA, IEEE, and OEM acceptance criteria.
• Confirm redundancy is restored and alarms are back to normal before signing off a work order, in addition to restoring the area to its original condition.
• Track equipment trends and reliability reports, flag repeat failures, and pursue warranty claims with vendors and OEMs.

Vendor performance and contractor management

• Directly manage contractors and consultants for daily operations and critical maintenance (UPS systems, generators, switchgear, and chiller maintenance).
• Score each vendor on quality, safety, and timeliness, note deficiencies, and feed the results into contract renewal and vendor selection recommendations.
• Directly manage and supervise Multi-Skilled Operators in all aspects of day-to-day operation and maintenance of electrical and mechanical critical facility equipment.

Emergency response and root cause analysis

• Take command of a live Emergency Operating Procedure (EOP) event, directing MSOs, vendors, and escalation to the Site Manager and management.
• Lead the root cause analysis (RCA) for incidents involving vendor work, and complete and file the incident report with corrective actions.
• Be on call to respond to emergency situations at the data center.

Liquid cooling and technical expertise

• Operate and maintain CDUs and the facility water loop for liquid-cooled deployments, including leak detection and leak response.
• Provide applied electrical, mechanical, integrated controls, and water chemistry technical expertise for the entire data center.

Commissioning, capacity, and efficiency

• Interface directly with the management team, contractors, and consultants for phased data center construction commissioning, including integration and testing of new systems while keeping critical systems online.
• Ensure the data center operates at maximum operational efficiency by analyzing operating conditions, recommending new technologies, and improving efficiency and reducing cost.
• Own data center white space and back-of-house electrical loading and capacity, including client installations and systems.
• This position may require unusual hours approximately once every other week to meet critical maintenance windows.
• Perform other related duties and responsibilities as assigned by management.

The DCO interacts across all internal departments, including executives, and with clients and vendors.

Desired Skills and Experience

• Strong background operating mechanical and electrical critical systems, design review, layout, and installation, with the ability to read and interpret electrical and mechanical one-lines.
• Ability to conduct power and thermal system capacity, safety, and code compliance assessments.
• Hands-on experience installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting large commercial and industrial electrical systems, including:

• Medium-voltage switchgear, including leading or directly supervising switching
• 480/277 V and 208/120 V generation and distribution systems
• Diesel-powered AC generators and fuel systems
• Static and dynamic rotary UPS systems (where applicable)
• Multi-string flooded cell batteries and monitoring systems
• Static switches, PLC and relay logic controls, power monitoring, and data center power distribution and management systems

• Ability to review and critique vendor MOPs and run pre-job briefs, including sequence of operations, lockout/tagout, and rollback plans.
• Working knowledge of NETA, IEEE, and OEM acceptance criteria, with the ability to interpret as-found and as-left test data (insulation resistance, breaker trip, relay, battery, and UPS testing) and recognize out-of-range results.
• Experience with warranty administration, trend analysis, and holding vendors and OEMs accountable for repeat failures.
• Experience leading root cause analysis and commanding emergency response under a live EOP.
• Experience with liquid cooling: CDUs, facility water loops, water chemistry, and leak response (preferred).
• Experience scoring vendor performance and contributing to contract renewal decisions.
• Current knowledge of NFPA electrical, fire, and life safety and building codes, or the local regulatory equivalent; knowledge of NEC, NFPA 70E, NFPA 72, NFPA 25, and compliance issues.
• Expert knowledge of industrial safety best practices (lockout/tagout, arc flash protection, OSHA and state regulations).
• Excellent understanding of electrical and mechanical systems in critical data center operations, including feeders, transformers, generators, switchgear, UPS systems, ATS units, PDUs, chillers, pumps, air handling units, and CRAC units.
• Work directly with customers, internal teams, installation engineers, technical consultants, and implementation personnel to coordinate customer turn-ups and ensure smooth transition from installation to operation.