Senior Data Center Operations Engineer

• Senior Data Center Operations Engineer
• Contract
• Atlanta, GA – $65.00 - $82.00/hr.

The final salary or hourly wage, as applicable, paid to each candidate/applicant for this position is ultimately dependent on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the candidate’s/applicant’s qualifications, skills, and level of experience as well as the geographical location of the position.

The end client is unable to sponsor or transfer visas for this position; all parties authorized to work in the US without sponsorship are encouraged to apply.

Our client is seeking a Senior Data Center Operations Engineer in Atlanta, GA.

Role Description

A. Development & Enforcement

Accountability

Own and manage day-to-day operations for enterprise colocation facilities supporting business-

• Establish, maintain, and enforce operational standards, procedures, and documentation.
• Ensure facility compliance with operational, security, and reliability requirements.
• Maintain governance around facility access, change management, asset control, and operational processes.
• Develop and implement disaster recovery, resiliency, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Operational readiness and compliance adherence.
• Consistent execution of documented standards and procedures.
• Reduced operational risk and improved resiliency metrics.

Serve as the primary technical point of contact for all colocation and facility operations activities.

Execution

• Partner with network, compute, storage, cloud, security, and platform engineering teams.
• Coordinate with colocation providers, OEM vendors, hardware manufacturers, field service personnel, and cabling providers.
• Manage vendor activities to ensure SLA compliance and operational excellence.
• Lead cross-functional coordination during maintenance windows, incidents, expansions, and migrations.
• Effective cross-team collaboration.
• Timely resolution of operational issues.
• Strong vendor performance and SLA adherence.
• Manage asset commissioning, decommissioning, and lifecycle activities.
• Maintain accurate inventory records across all colocation locations.
• Track rack utilization, power consumption, cooling capacity, floor space, and growth projections.
• Develop and maintain rack elevation diagrams, capacity forecasts, and expansion plans.
• Support rack layout design, structured cabling standards, and infrastructure optimization.
• Monitor facility and infrastructure trends to identify future capacity requirements.
• Accurate asset and inventory management.
• Proactive capacity forecasting.
• Improved visibility into utilization and growth metrics.

Ensure continuous availability and reliability of enterprise and AI infrastructure environments.

• Perform rack and stack installations, cabling, relocations, upgrades, and decommissioning.
• Support deployment and operation of servers, storage platforms, network devices, firewalls, security appliances, backup systems, and GPU infrastructure.
• Provide remote hands and smart hands support for infrastructure teams.
• Perform physical troubleshooting, hardware replacement, diagnostics, power cycling, console access, and remediation activities.
• Successful execution of maintenance and deployment activities.

Promote operational excellence through knowledge sharing and development of team capabilities.

Drive continuous improvement and modernization initiatives across colocation and data center operations.

• Evaluate emerging technologies, tooling, and operational methodologies.
• Support deployment and operation of AI-focused infrastructure platforms, including NVIDIA GPU environments and future high-density architectures.
• Research opportunities to improve efficiency, reliability, visibility, and automation.
• Develop recommendations for infrastructure optimization, monitoring, and operational maturity.
• Adoption of innovative operational practices.
• Enhanced support for next-generation AI infrastructure.
• Support planning and execution of new colocation facility builds, expansions, and migrations.
• Collaborate on power, cooling, cabling, and rack-density strategies.
• Develop capacity models and growth forecasts for future infrastructure demand.
• Establish KPIs, dashboards, and reporting metrics to guide decision-making.
• Provide recommendations for facility resiliency, scalability, and operational strategy.

Skills & Requirements

• 10+ years of enterprise data center operations experience.
• 5+ years supporting large-scale colocation environments.
• Experience operating mission-critical 24x7 facilities.
• Demonstrated success leading data center build-outs, expansions, or migrations.
• Experience supporting Fortune 500 or similarly complex enterprise environments.
• Strong incident management and operational support experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Data Center Operations, or a related technical field; or equivalent combination of education, technical certifications, military experience.
• Rack and stack operations
• Structured cabling systems
• Asset lifecycle management
• Inventory management systems
• Capacity planning
• Power management
• Environmental monitoring

Infrastructure Technologies

• Cisco Nexus and enterprise switching technologies
• Enterprise routing platforms
• Server hardware platforms
• Blade chassis infrastructure
• Storage systems
• Backup platforms
• VMware environments
• Linux and Windows server environments

Facility Systems

• UPS systems
• Generator systems
• HVAC systems
• Fire suppression systems
• Power distribution infrastructure
• Environmental monitoring technologies

Monitoring & Operations

• Event management systems
• Infrastructure monitoring platforms
• Ticketing platforms (ServiceNow preferred)

Leadership Competencies

• Strong ownership mentality and accountability.
• Executive-level communication skills.
• Strong decision-making capabilities during operational incidents.
• Exceptional coordination and collaboration skills.
• Proven vendor management experience.
• Ability to lead through influence across multiple engineering disciplines.
• CDCDP, CDCS, or equivalent data center certifications.
• Cisco (CCNA, CCNP, or higher).
• VMware certifications.
• ITIL Foundation or higher.
• Relevant cloud and infrastructure certifications.
• Experience supporting AI infrastructure and GPU-based environments.
• Experience supporting high-density power environments (20kW+ racks).
• Knowledge of NVIDIA reference architectures.
• Experience with major colocation providers, including:
• Equinix
• QTS
• Digital Realty
• Switch
• Knowledge of modern data center network fabrics and architectures.
• Experience supporting cloud-connected infrastructure platforms.
• Familiarity with compliance and regulatory frameworks, including:
• HIPAA
• HITRUST
• PCI
• NIST
• Experience developing operational KPIs and strategic reporting frameworks.

Benefits/Other Compensation

This position is a contract/temporary role where Hays offers you the opportunity to enroll in full medical benefits, dental benefits, vision benefits, 401K and Life Insurance ($20,000 benefit).

Why Hays?

You will be working with a professional recruiter who has intimate knowledge of the industry and market trends. Your Hays recruiter will lead you through a thorough screening process in order to understand your skills, experience, needs, and drivers. You will also get support on resume writing, interview tips, and career planning, so when there’s a position you really want, you’re fully prepared to get it.

Nervous about an upcoming interview? Unsure how to write a new resume?

Visit the Hays Career Advice section to learn top tips to help you stand out from the crowd when job hunting.

Hays is committed to building a thriving culture of diversity that embraces people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better we serve our candidates, clients, and employees.

We are an equal employment opportunity employer, and we comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, genetic information, HIV-positive status, as well as any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

One of Hays’ guiding principles is ‘do the right thing’. We also believe that actions speak louder than words. In that regard, we train our staff on ensuring inclusivity throughout the entire recruitment process and counsel our clients on these principles. If you have any questions about Hays or any of our processes, please contact us.

In accordance with applicable federal, state, and local law protecting qualified individuals with known disabilities, Hays will attempt to reasonably accommodate those individuals unless doing so would create an undue hardship on the company. Any qualified applicant or consultant with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to perform the essential functions of the job should call or text 813.336.5570.

Drug testing may be required; please contact a recruiter for more information.