Data Center Manager

We want people who are passionate about operational excellence and scaling infrastructure that powers the cloud.

At DigitalOcean, our Data Center Managers are critical to the success of our business. They are hands-on technical leaders who own the end-to-end operations of our physical infrastructure—ensuring we meet customer expectations for reliability, performance, and scale. You will lead a talented team of technicians and engineers, support data center initiatives from SFO to ATL, and work closely with our architects and infrastructure product teams to bring new solutions online at lightning speed.

This position is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and requires you to be onsite. You must also be willing to lead a remote team in Atlanta and travel as needed.

What You’ll Be Working On:

• Managing on-site operations of our SFO data center, overseeing a team of technicians and engineers to ensure uptime, efficiency, and safety.
• Leading and mentoring a distributed team across SFO and ATL locations; managing staffing, scheduling, performance, and career development.
• Overseeing deployment, maintenance, and optimization of compute, storage, and networking infrastructure—including GPU-based systems.
• Managing the physical infrastructure environment—including power delivery, airflow, and cooling—to support high-density compute workloads and liquid cooling systems where applicable. This includes working closely with facilities and capacity planning teams to optimize rack density and energy efficiency, as well as partnering with vendors, OEMs, and suppliers to ensure timely delivery of components, manage RMAs, and resolve hardware escalations.
• Working with facilities and infrastructure engineering teams to understand mechanical and electrical designs, contribute to floor planning, and ensure alignment between facility capabilities and compute growth.
• Partnering with internal teams, including data center architects and cloud product owners, to align infrastructure buildouts with evolving customer and platform requirements.
• Collaborating globally with regional data center managers and infrastructure leads in Toronto, New York, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Singapore, and Sydney to:
  • Share operational patterns and best practices
  • Raise awareness of local and global risks
  • Align on scalable infrastructure plans
  • Drive cross-site consistency and innovation
• Working closely with the Supply Chain and Asset Management team to maintain inventory accuracy, streamline inbound/outbound logistics, and ensure component readiness.
• Aligning with the Capacity Management team to forecast and fulfill infrastructure demand, enabling rapid deployment in support of customer growth and product launches.
• Managing day-to-day task flow through Jira, using Kanban methodology to ensure smooth operations and continuous delivery.
• Monitoring, maintaining, and developing key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure consistent operational performance, providing regular updates to leadership on progress and outcomes 
• Collaborating with external vendors, managing RMAs, shipping/receiving, and inventory control.
• Serving as the local escalation point and incident lead for operational or technical challenges.

What We’ll Expect From You:

• 6–10 years of progressive experience in data center operations, including 3+ years of team leadership or site management in a high-scale environment.
• Deep technical knowledge of data center systems—compute, storage, networking, airflow/cooling—and the ability to coach others in these areas.
• Experience with GPU deployments; familiarity with liquid cooling infrastructure or high-density rack solutions is a plus.
• Strong understanding of facility infrastructure, including electrical systems, power distribution, UPS, and cooling design principles.
• Hands-on experience with data center health monitoring, rack design, structured cabling, and server manageability tools.
• Experience using work tracking tools (e.g., Jira) and applying Kanban or similar agile workflows to visualize work, identify bottlenecks, and optimize flow. Brings a systems-oriented mindset focused on team health, building habits that improve throughput, predictability, and accountability over time.
• Strong leadership skills: capable of driving performance, setting goals, and creating a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills; you enjoy working cross-functionally to make things better.
• Global mindset and experience working with geographically distributed teams; comfortable aligning across time zones and infrastructure standards.
• Ability to be on-call for escalations outside of business hours.
• Must be able to lift up to 50 lbs and be on your feet during extended work sessions.

Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean:

• We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.
• We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.
• We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support your overall well-being, from one-time work from home stipend to wellness allowance to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.
• We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is between $130,000 - $160,000 based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program. 
• We value diversity and inclusion. We are an equal-opportunity employer, and recognize that diversity of thought and background builds stronger teams and products to serve our customers. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

*This is an onsite role in San Francisco Bay Area

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