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Engineering Manager, Data Center Operations

Cloudflare· Engineering
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Hybrid (Multiple US sites)$174k - $239kFull-timePosted 5d ago

About the role

Data Center Operations manager to build and run a distributed team that brings new data center sites online and maintains them 24x7, overseeing greenfield builds through production, site lifecycle management, and compliance across multiple U.S. locations.

Responsibilities

  • Hire, develop and manage Data Center Engineers based on-site at data centers across the US. Set clear expectations, career paths and a culture of ownership across a team spread over many sites.
  • Build and take part in a 24x7 on-call rotation with your team. Define coverage models, handover protocols and incident SLAs that hold up as the footprint grows.
  • Serve as the escalation point for on-site incidents. Coordinate engineers, colocation providers and vendors to restore service quickly, and lead root-cause analysis after major incidents so the same problem doesn't happen again.
  • Own build timelines from site readiness through hardware delivery, rack-and-stack, cabling, validation and handoff to production.
  • Run greenfield builds as multi-workstream programs. Coordinate third-party integrators, contractors and colocation providers to hit dates without cutting corners.
  • Be on-site during key build phases to oversee vendor work, verify quality and make sure sites are production-ready.
  • Be accountable for availability targets for production hardware at your sites. Run break/fix, repairs, RMAs and spares strategy so that availability is measured, reported and improving.
  • Manage colocation providers and vendors day to day: escalations, remote-hands quality, power and cooling issues, and performance against contractual commitments.
  • Make sure every site is fully documented in DCIM from day one. That covers rack elevations, power and cabling, asset location, and lifecycle status, all recorded as hardware arrives rather than filled in later.
  • Treat infrastructure records as a source of truth that both operations and dependent teams rely on, giving them accurate, current visibility into where hardware is and what state it's in.
  • Partner with tooling teams to bring DCIM online at new sites, and define documentation standards that hold up as the footprint grows.
  • Own on-site decommissioning end to end: unracking, physical collections, serial number verification, chain of custody, and handoff for secure destruction.
  • Partner with vendor management on IT asset disposition (ITAD) vendors. Make sure destruction certificates and compliance evidence are filed and audit-ready.
  • Make sure your sites and team meet Cloudflare's physical security, access control, chain-of-custody and compliance obligations.
  • Follow established physical access procedures, and work with security and compliance teams to develop new ones where these sites need them.
  • Support audits with accurate, timely evidence. Treat audit readiness as a continuous standard, not something you prepare for once per audit cycle.
  • Find manual, repetitive work in build, break/fix, decommissioning and evidence collection. Influence tooling and automation teams to remove it.
  • Evaluate and adopt AI-assisted workflows for incident triage, root-cause analysis, documentation and compliance evidence generation.
  • Scale the operation through tooling, not just headcount.
  • Own weekly business reviews and monthly and quarterly reporting on availability, build progress, incidents and operational health to the Director and peer leaders.
  • Partner with network, systems, hardware, supply chain and infrastructure engineering teams to make sure physical operations support what runs on top of them.

Qualifications

  • 6+ years in data center operations, including 3+ years directly managing on-site technical teams. At least part of that time should be leading geographically distributed teams.
  • Track record of operating multi-site data center fleets at hyperscale or large-cloud scale.
  • Hands-on experience with IT hardware, including servers, network devices, optics and cabling, not only facilities infrastructure.
  • Enough hands-on depth to coach engineers on technical work and to judge the quality of vendor and contractor work.
  • Experience owning sites across the full lifecycle: delivering greenfield data center or cage builds through third-party vendors, running them in steady state, and decommissioning hardware.
  • Experience managing providers in Tier III+ colocation facilities and holding them accountable to commitments.
  • Experience managing 24x7 on-call operations and incident escalation.
  • Strong Layer 1 and Layer 2 fundamentals: structured cabling, fiber and optics, patching standards, switching basics, and troubleshooting physical connectivity for network and server hardware.
  • Solid knowledge of data center power and cooling, rack design, high-density deployments and hardware lifecycle management.
  • Strong understanding of DCIM and asset management systems. Keep documentation accurate from day one, including rack, power, cabling and asset records maintained from hardware arrival through decommissioning.
  • Working knowledge of the security and compliance frameworks common in enterprise-grade data centers.
  • Strong program management skills across multiple vendors, sites and time-bound workstreams.
  • A track record of reducing toil through tooling or process redesign.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication, including regular business reviews and status, risk and availability reporting to leadership.
  • Ability to travel regularly to data center sites.

Skills

Required:Data center managementDCIMLayer 1/Layer 2 networkingVendor/program management

Benefits

  • Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
  • For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $174,000 - $239,000
  • For New York, Washington DC, Seattle based hires: Estimated annual salary of $165,000 - $227,000
  • For Austin Texas, Denver, Atlanta based hires: Estimated annual salary of $132,000 - $182,000
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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