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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Data Center Engineer

💰 $80,000 - $130,000

Data CenterInfrastructureIT OperationsFacilitiesColocation

🎯 Role Definition

The Data Center Engineer is a technically skilled, safety-focused professional responsible for the design, installation, operation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of critical data center infrastructure. This role combines hands-on facilities work (power, cooling, fire suppression, security) with IT operations tasks (rack-and-stack, cabling, server lifecycle, monitoring, DCIM). The ideal candidate ensures uptime, efficiency (PUE), compliance (NFPA, OSHA, ISO), and excellent customer experience for internal teams or colocation clients.

Key search and SEO terms: Data Center Engineer, data center operations, DCIM, UPS maintenance, generator testing, PDU, CRAC/CRAH, structured cabling, rack and stack, colocation, Tier III/IV, preventive maintenance, capacity planning.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Data Center Technician / Technician II
  • Facilities Technician or Building Engineer (with IT exposure)
  • Systems Administrator or Hardware Technician transitioning to facilities

Advancement To:

  • Senior Data Center Engineer / Lead Data Center Engineer
  • Data Center Manager / Facilities Manager
  • Infrastructure Operations Manager / Director of Data Center Operations

Lateral Moves:

  • Network Engineer / NOC Engineer
  • Cloud Infrastructure or Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
  • Field Services Engineer / Colocation Operations Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own end-to-end installation and commissioning of racks, PDUs, network and fiber cabling, and server/storage/network hardware, coordinating with project managers and clients to meet scope, schedule, and quality requirements.
  • Perform scheduled preventive maintenance and testing of critical infrastructure systems including UPS systems, generators, automatic transfer switches (ATS/STS), and power distribution units (PDUs) to ensure redundancy and continuous uptime.
  • Monitor and operate cooling systems (CRAC/CRAH units, chillers, chilled water loops), continuously tune environmental controls to maintain SLA temperature/humidity bands and optimize PUE.
  • Execute generator load tests, fuel system checks, and transfer tests while documenting outcomes and remediation steps; coordinate third-party contractor execution and vendor warranties.
  • Troubleshoot and resolve complex electrical and mechanical incidents in a 24x7 production environment, including power anomalies, thermal events, water leaks, and fire suppression activations, following incident response and escalation procedures.
  • Maintain and operate Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) systems and environmental monitoring platforms (temperature, humidity, airflow, leak detection) to drive automated alerts, capacity planning, and change management.
  • Lead rack-and-stack and cable management activities for server, storage, and network deployments, enforcing structured cabling standards, labeling best practices, and patching documentation to minimize mean time to repair (MTTR).
  • Administer data center security controls — physical access systems, CCTV, biometric readers, badge provisioning, visitor escorts — and support audits for SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and colocation SLAs.
  • Coordinate and supervise third-party vendors and contractors for planned work (electrical upgrades, HVAC interventions, major rollouts), validating permits, lockout/tagout (LOTO), safety plans, and quality of service.
  • Perform capacity planning and forecasting for power, cooling, network, and floor space; provide detailed reports and recommendations for expansion, consolidation, or life-cycle refresh projects.
  • Manage change control and maintenance windows using ITIL-based processes, communicating impact, rollback plans, and verification steps to stakeholders and clients in multi-tenant environments.
  • Respond to on-call incidents, dispatch technicians, perform root cause analysis (RCA), and produce post-incident reports with remediation and preventive actions to reduce recurrence.
  • Implement and validate fire detection and suppression systems (pre-action sprinklers, FM-200, NOVEC 1230), conduct annual inspections, and coordinate NFPA-compliant testing and certifications.
  • Perform regular safety and compliance inspections; ensure adherence to OSHA, local electrical code, AHJ requirements, and company safety programs including PPE, LOTO, and confined space procedures.
  • Administer patch panels, MPO/MTP fiber trunks and splicing, multi-mode/single-mode transitions, and certify fiber runs using optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) and power meter testing.
  • Maintain accurate asset inventories, serial-level hardware records, network port maps, and DCIM-based power/cooling models for auditability and lifecycle management.
  • Drive continuous improvement projects to increase availability and efficiency, including PUE optimization, hot/cold aisle containment, airflow management, and replacement of legacy infrastructure.
  • Support disaster recovery (DR) planning and execution, including failover rehearsals, continuity plans, recovery time objective (RTO) validation, and cross-site coordination.
  • Provide remote-hands and on-site engineering support for customers, coordinating installs, swaps, and troubleshooting with strong customer service and SLA adherence.
  • Lead or participate in site design reviews and capacity planning meetings for new data center builds, retrofits, or major expansions, providing technical input on electrical one-line diagrams, chilled water loops, and raised-floor configurations.
  • Maintain and enhance monitoring and alerting configurations (SNMP, Modbus, BACnet, APIs), integrating device telemetry into observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, Nagios, Zabbix) for predictive maintenance and anomaly detection.
  • Author and maintain comprehensive runbooks, SOPs, emergency procedures, and handover documentation to facilitate on-call rotations and knowledge transfer across global teams.
  • Ensure efficient spare parts programs, vendor-managed inventories, and targeted service level agreements (SLAs) to reduce mean-time-to-repair and increase resilience.
  • Participate in procurement evaluation for critical equipment (UPS, PDUs, CRACs, switchgear) and provide technical requirements, acceptance criteria, and test plans to validate supplier performance.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Support cross-functional initiatives with IT, Security, and Facilities to ensure seamless operations and continuous improvement.
  • Assist in budgeting and CAPEX/OPEX planning by providing technical cost estimates and lifecycle replacement schedules.
  • Mentor junior technicians and new hires on best practices, safety, and operational disciplines in the data center environment.
  • Update dashboards and KPIs for executive stakeholders showing uptime, capacity utilization, PUE, and incident trends.
  • Validate vendor test reports and factory acceptance tests (FAT) and participate in site acceptance tests (SAT) for electrics and mechanical systems.
  • Conduct routine training and tabletop drills for emergency scenarios (power loss, fire, flood) with cross-functional stakeholders.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) platforms: hands-on experience configuring, using, and integrating DCIM telemetry and floor plans.
  • Power systems: deep knowledge of UPS systems (single-line, parallel), ATS/STS, switchgear, transformers, PDUs, and high-voltage safety practices.
  • Generator systems: execution and interpretation of load bank testing, automatic transfer testing, and diesel fuel system maintenance.
  • Cooling and HVAC: operation and troubleshooting of CRAC/CRAH units, chillers, chilled water systems, and environmental optimization for PUE.
  • Structured cabling and fiber optics: MPO/MTP, LC/SC terminations, OTDR certification, copper cabling standards (Cat6/Cat6A/Cat7), and cable management best practices.
  • Rack and server hardware lifecycle: rack-and-stack, KVM/IPMI access, firmware updates, hardware diagnostics, and vendor RMA processes.
  • Monitoring & telemetry: SNMP, Modbus, BACnet integrations, and observability tools (Grafana, Prometheus, Nagios, Zabbix).
  • Networking fundamentals: Ethernet switching, VLANs, LACP, fiber cross-connects, and basic routing knowledge.
  • Scripting and automation: familiarity with scripting (Python, Bash, PowerShell) to automate monitoring, reports, and routine tasks.
  • ITSM and ticketing systems: ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, or similar for incident/change management and SLA tracking.
  • Safety & compliance knowledge: NFPA 70, NFPA 75, OSHA, local electrical code, and data center-related standards (ISO 27001, SOC 2).
  • Capacity planning & modeling: tools and methodologies for forecasting power, cooling, and space utilization.
  • Vendor & contract management: writing SOWs, evaluating vendor deliverables, and managing maintenance contracts and escalations.
  • Hands-on electrical/mechanical troubleshooting and the ability to read electrical one-line diagrams, mechanical schematics, and P&IDs.
  • Familiarity with virtualization environments and server OS (VMware, Hyper-V, Linux, Windows) to coordinate host-level activities.

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication tailored to technical and non-technical audiences, including customers and executive stakeholders.
  • Excellent troubleshooting and analytical thinking with a structured approach to root cause analysis.
  • Customer service orientation and experience supporting internal and external (colocation) clients with professionalism and accountability.
  • Attention to detail and strong documentation discipline for audits, SOPs, and asset records.
  • Ability to prioritize and manage multiple concurrent projects in a 24x7 operational environment.
  • Team player with mentorship capability to grow junior staff and cross-train peers.
  • Calm under pressure with proven incident management and escalation skills during emergencies.
  • Adaptability and continuous learning mindset to adopt new tooling, standards, and infrastructure technologies.
  • Negotiation skills for managing vendor performance and procurement outcomes.
  • Time and change management skills to coordinate maintenance windows with minimal business disruption.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Associate degree in Electrical Engineering Technology, Computer Information Systems, Facilities Management, or equivalent technical experience (3+ years in critical infrastructure operations).

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or Facilities/Building Systems.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Mechanical / HVAC Engineering
  • Computer Science / Information Technology
  • Facilities Management / Building Systems
  • Telecommunications / Network Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–7 years in data center operations, facilities, or colocation environments with hands-on experience in power, cooling, and rack-level installations.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years in a Tier III/Tier IV or hyperscale data center environment.
  • Prior colocation or customer-facing site operations experience.
  • Certifications such as BICSI Installer, CompTIA Server+, CompTIA Data+, Cisco CCNA, Uptime Institute credentials, NFPA or OSHA safety certifications, or vendor-specific UPS/CRAC certifications.
  • Demonstrated experience with DCIM tools, ITSM platforms (ServiceNow), and monitoring/observability stacks.
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