Data Center Operations Specialist Principal
GD Information Technology•Newington, CT
•Onsite
About The Position
The Data Center Operations Technician is responsible for the installation, configuration, maintenance, troubleshooting, and decommissioning of data center infrastructure, including bare-metal servers, storage systems, and network switches. This role ensures the reliability, availability, and operational readiness of critical infrastructure while providing technical expertise, proactive problem-solving, and clear communication to internal stakeholders. The ideal candidate combines strong hands-on technical skills with the ability to identify risks, remove roadblocks, recommend solutions, and act as a trusted advisor for infrastructure-related initiatives.
Requirements
- Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science
- 5+ years of related experience
- Experience installing, configuring, and decommissioning bare-metal servers, storage systems, and network devices.
- Strong understanding of data center cabling standards and rack layout best practices.
- Familiarity with TCP/IP networking, VLANs, DNS, DHCP, routing fundaments, and switch connectivity.
- TS/SCI security clearance
- US citizenship required
- Security+ certification required
- Ability to lift and move equipment up to 50lbs
- Ability to work in raised floor data center environments
- Ability to install equipment in racks and perform cable management
- Ability to stand, bend, climb ladders, and work in confined spaces for extended periods
Nice To Haves
- CDCMP, CCNA, and ITIL certifications preferred
Responsibilities
- Rack, stack, cable, and deploy servers, storage arrays, network switches, and supporting infrastructure.
- Install and configure bare-metal systems according to documented hardware and networking requirements and documenting anything new in the environment.
- Perform hardware validation, burn-in testing, and deployment verification.
- Configure network connectivity, VLAN assignments, IP addressing, and port mappings as directed by engineering standards.
- Maintain accurate asset inventory and rack elevation documentation.
- Execute hardware refreshes, upgrades, migrations, and decommissioning activities.
- Ensure proper sanitization, removal, disposal, or return of retired equipment according to cyber, organization, and company policy.
- Track asset movement and maintain accurate inventory records throughout the hardware lifecycle.
- Coordinate equipment receiving, staging, deployment, and retirement processes.
- Diagnose and resolve server, storage, networking, and cable issues.
- Perform root cause analysis for hardware failures and operational incidents.
- Replace failed components including drives, memory, CPUs, power supplies, NICs, and other field-replaceable units.
- Escalate complex issues appropriately while maintaining ownership through resolution.
- Participate in incident response and maintenance activities to minimize service disruption.
- Follow and improve standard operating procedures (SOPs), installation guides, and operation runbooks.
- Ensure all work is performed according to quality, safety, and change management processes.
- Identify opportunities to improve deployment efficiency, operational reliability, and documentation accuracy.
- Support capacity planning, hardware audits, and infrastructure optimization initiatives.
- Serve as a subject matter expert for data center hardware deployment and operational best practices.
- Provide recommendations regarding infrastructure design, deployment methodologies, hardware standards, and operational processes.
- Advise leadership and engineering teams on potential risks, dependencies, and infrastructure readiness.
- Communicate project status, risks, roadblocks, and mitigation plan clearly and professionally.
- Collaborate with engineering, network, systems, facilities, and project management teams.
- Provide timely updates during deployment, incidents, and maintenance activities.
Benefits
- 401K with company match
- Variety of medical plan options
- Health Savings Accounts
- Dental plan options
- Vision plan
- Full flex work weeks where possible
- Variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays
- Paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave
- Short and long-term disability benefits
- Life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
