Position Title: Data Centre Operations Manager
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Employment Type: Full-time permanent
Work Arrangement: On-site 5 days a week
Role Overview
Our client is a fast-scaling, private-equity-backed digital infrastructure business that owns and operates data centres in markets across Canada and lets Canadian organizations build and scale without giving up control of their data. The Data Centre Manager will take ownership of the day-to-day performance of a mission-critical facility, including critical infrastructure, customer deliverables, and service performance.
This role offers an experienced data centre leader the chance to combine hands-on operational expertise with strong people leadership, driving continuous improvement across a facility that keeps Canadian data close to home. The right candidate will bring rigorous operational discipline and calm, decisive leadership to incidents and escalations, while working closely with customers, internal teams, and partners on onboarding, capacity planning, and change management.
Key Responsibilities
Operations & Service Delivery
- Own the facility's overall operational performance, ensuring uptime, service continuity, and SLA compliance.
- Manage day-to-day operations, including client onboarding, MACDs (moves, adds, changes, deletions), remote hands, and change execution.
- Act as senior escalation point for incidents, problems, and changes, ensuring fast resolution and clear communication.
- Oversee security policy, physical security, and access control processes.
Facility & Infrastructure
- Own operation and maintenance of critical infrastructure, including UPS, generators, CRAC/HVAC systems, power distribution, fire protection, and monitoring.
- Lead troubleshooting of mechanical and electrical issues, coordinating internal teams and external vendors to mitigate risk and restore service.
- Keep preventive maintenance programs, asset documentation, and operating procedures current and adhered to.
- Work directly with contractors and vendors to ensure work is completed safely, on time, and to standard.
Compliance, Risk & Governance
- Maintain and enforce the controls required for SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI, ISO 27001, and other regulatory or contractual obligations.
- Align operational processes with ITIL best practices across service design, transition, operation, and continual improvement.
- Participate in audits, risk reviews, and compliance meetings, ensuring timely remediation of findings.
Leadership & People Management
- Provide clear leadership, direction, and accountability to the data centre operations team.
- Build, develop, and retain a high-performing team through coaching, training, and performance management.
- Ensure staffing models and on-call coverage meet business and customer needs.
- Foster a culture of ownership, safety, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Operational Efficiency & Continuous Improvement
- Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency, reliability, and customer experience through process optimization, automation, and standardization.
- Drive data-driven decision making through operational metrics, reporting, and trend analysis.
- Lead the development, review, and enforcement of SOPs, operational policies, and workflows.
- Partner with engineering, sales, and solutions teams to ensure operational readiness for new services and customer growth.
Stakeholder & Customer Engagement
- Serve as a key operational interface for customers, internal teams, suppliers, and partners.
- Support customer expectation management through clear, accurate, and accountable operational communication.
- Represent Data Centre Operations in internal forums, customer discussions, and cross-functional initiatives.
Qualifications & Experience
- Post-secondary education in Data Centre Operations, Facilities Management, Engineering, IT, or equivalent experience.
- 5+ years of experience in data centre, critical facilities, or multi-system operations environments.
- Demonstrated leadership experience, including people management and operational accountability.
- Strong working knowledge of data centre infrastructure: UPS, generators, HVAC/CRAC, power distribution, monitoring, and environmental systems.
- Solid understanding of ITIL disciplines, change management, incident/problem management, and service delivery best practices.
- Experience operating in regulated or audit-driven environments (SOC, ISO, PCI).
- Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with customers, vendors, and executives.
- PMP or formal project management experience considered an asset.
Why Join?
- Play a hands-on leadership role in a mission-critical facility that keeps Canadian data and infrastructure secure and close to home.
- Own a highly visible mandate with real influence over reliability, uptime, and customer experience.
- Work across engineering, sales, and operations, shaping how the company scales its services.
- Join a growing, in-country infrastructure business at a time when demand for sovereign data solutions is accelerating.
