Data Center Operations Manager at Backblaze — Chandler, AZ

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 organization's 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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

▸  Bachelor's 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 $110,000 - $140,000.