Data Center Operations Tower Director

TISTA Science and Technology Corporation•Rockville, MD

11d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Data Center Operations Tower Director is the principal contractor-side leader accountable for Data Center Operations under the contract, including Data Center and Cloud Engineering (DCCE) and Data Center Management and Operations. The role owns associated deliverables and acceptable quality levels and leads the engineering side of Infrastructure Optimization, contributing to the Strategic Infrastructure Optimization Plan owned by the Financial Operations Tower Director. The Director coordinates closely with peer towers because service providers, customers, data, and handoffs are shared, and is responsible for integrating engineering, operations, and modernization beyond facility management. The position leads 24/7/365 operations, monitoring, and incident response at enterprise and regional data centers; maintains DCIM as the source of truth for assets, layouts, and capacity; and drives infrastructure decommissioning and lifecycle modernization. Responsibilities also cover onsite assessments, design reviews and drawings across telecommunications, electrical, architectural, and mechanical disciplines, airflow and thermal simulations, configuration-management records, infrastructure optimization, disaster recovery testing, risk management, compliance, automation, technology refresh recommendations, and emerging-technology pilots. The Director establishes operating plans, staffing and shift structures, and management rhythms; ensures uptime, incident response, preventive maintenance, and accurate records; and delivers complete, timely, high-quality work for Government review. The role maintains clear boundaries between contractor recommendations and the Government’s authority over approvals, policy, prioritization, and risk acceptance. The position is based in Rockville, Maryland, or Austin, Texas, with a minimum of two days per week in the office and travel as required by customer mission needs. The suggested pay range is $150,546 to $225,875; actual compensation depends on factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Certain positions may also be eligible for additional compensation such as bonuses.

Requirements

At least 10 years of experience in data center operations, infrastructure engineering, or enterprise IT operations.
At least 5 years leading multidisciplinary engineering and operations teams in 24/7 environments.
Hands-on knowledge of data center infrastructure, including servers, network, storage, structured cabling, power systems, cooling, and environmental monitoring.
Experience with DCIM platforms and ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, including ITIL-aligned incident, change, and asset management.
Experience leading large-scale lifecycle modernization, migration, or decommissioning programs, including Windows and Linux platform migrations.
Experience operating systems under Federal security requirements, including ATO, POA&M remediation, and patch compliance.
Strong executive communication skills; must be well-written and comfortable presenting to large audiences.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, information technology, computer science, or a related field, or 16 years of relevant experience in place of a degree.
Must be able to obtain and maintain the personnel suitability, credentials, system access, and training required for a Tier 4 / High Risk clearance.
Onsite in the office a minimum of two days per week in Rockville, MD, or Austin, TX.
Travel as required by customer mission needs.

Nice To Haves

Experience working within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Experience in a large Federal, healthcare, regulated, or mission-critical infrastructure environment.
Master’s degree in engineering, information technology, or a related field.
BICSI Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD), Uptime Institute, Certified Data Center Professional (CDCP), or comparable data center certification.
Experience with Computational Flow.
Experience with disaster recovery testing and infrastructure automation using PowerShell, Python, or orchestration tools.
Experience leading Government-facing deliverables, performance standards, and corrective-action programs.
Experience in an outcomes-based environment and transforming vague parameters into clear guidelines.
Experience applying AI and machine learning to predictive maintenance or capacity forecasting.

Responsibilities

Serve as the principal contractor-side leader for Data Center Operations delivery and outcomes.
Coordinate with the Program Management Office to maintain the integrated schedule, deliverable register, risk and issue register, action log, staffing plan, and quality controls.
Establish a unified operating plan, staffing model, shift structure, and management rhythm across engineering and operations.
Lead 24/7/365 data center operations, including equipment installation, racking, cabling and decommissioning; power and environmental systems; monitoring; incident response and root cause analysis; preventive maintenance and patching; after-hours onsite support; and shift transitions.
Maintain data center and FIR application availability, meeting contract uptime standards, priority-based incident response times, preventive maintenance schedules, and shift-handover documentation requirements.
Lead environmental monitoring and energy efficiency across up to eight data centers, tracking temperature, humidity, and PUE and providing weekly uptime and energy reports.
Maintain DCIM as the authoritative source for inventories, asset accountability, ownership and criticality mapping, diagrams, floor layouts, and capacity planning.
Run the ServiceNow or equivalent helpdesk for asset changes, service requests, and incidents, and manage DCIM projects and knowledge management in SharePoint and Power BI.
Stand up the technical-debt Operational Tracking System; track technical debt and prioritize upgrades based on vulnerability, outage impact, leadership direction, and migration complexity.
Lead platform infrastructure decommissioning and lifecycle modernization, including support for customer Windows and Linux migrations and analysis of the business cost of technical debt.
Direct Data Center and Cloud Engineering, including onsite assessment and recommendation reports, CFD simulations, milestone design reviews from concept through issued-for-construction, and 2D and 3D drawings.
Oversee accessible standards, handbooks, technical briefs, bulletins, videos, and online courses that meet Section 508, WCAG 2.0, and PDF/UA requirements.
Maintain built-environment configuration materials, including cable schedules, layout and elevation maps, network maps, power panel schedules, standard labeling, and DCIM entries for four colocation data centers.
Operate and enhance the custom application, including availability, performance, release management, weekly data warehouse loads, security, ATO, POA&M remediation, patching, and CRISP compliance.
Lead the engineering side of infrastructure optimization, including assessments and baselines, asset inventory and lifecycle register, power, cooling, and resource-utilization improvements, disaster recovery plans and after-action reports, compliance audits and POA&M tracking, automation, quarterly technology refresh recommendations, and emerging-technology pilots.
Partner with other Tower Directors on shared handoffs, including engineering inputs and asset lifecycle data for the Strategic Infrastructure Optimization Plan, data center projects and workload placement, and performance reporting in the SDI Centralized Hub.
Present decision-ready status, performance trends, risks, and recommendations to executive stakeholders, and escalate risks to availability, security, or customer commitments early.
Protect sensitive information, maintain audit-ready records, and ensure work follows approved contractual and governance boundaries.
Meet deliverable quality levels by submitting complete, accurate, timely work ready for Government review, with assessments, design reviews, and drawings requiring minimal to no rework.
Follow ITIL-aligned practices, VA Handbooks 6500 and 7002 for asset disposal, and ISO 27001 and TIA-942 standards.