Data Center Operations Lead — Hybrid (Austin)

thales; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 121,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

Thales is seeking a Data Center Operations Lead in Austin, TX to oversee day-to-day data center and infrastructure operations, ensuring availability, reliability, and security of critical environments. The role provides technical leadership, incident coordination, and continuous service improvement, supporting global infra during U.S.

business hours. The candidate will work with engineering, cloud, security, and cross-functional teams to maintain high service levels, lead incident response, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (field) with 5–8+ years of experience or Master's with 4+ years of experience.
• 7+ years IT infrastructure or data center ops.
• 2+ years leading technical or operational teams.
• Experience with Windows and Linux server administration.
• Experience with AWS or Azure.
• Experience with scripting/automation (PowerShell, Python, Bash).
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to work across global teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily operations of production data center and cloud infrastructure.
• Coordinate and manage major incidents and escalations during U.S. business hours.
• Ensure infrastructure availability, performance, security, and compliance.
• Develop and maintain runbooks and procedures.
• Drive automation and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Coordinate maintenance, upgrades, and change implementations.
• Monitor health and proactively identify risks.
• Mentor operations engineers and provide guidance.
• Collaborate with Security, Network, Cloud, and Product Engineering teams.
• Participate in on-call rotations and leadership as required.
• Track operational metrics, SLAs, and capacity planning.

Skills

Windows/Linux admin

VMware

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure)

Scripting/Automation

Incident management

Strong communication

Education

Bachelor's degree (field)

Master's degree (field)

Tools

VMware vSphere

Monitoring tools

Automation frameworks

Job description

Thales is seeking a Data Center Operations Lead in Austin, TX to oversee day-to-day data center and infrastructure operations, ensuring availability, reliability, and security of critical environments. The role provides technical leadership, incident coordination, and continuous service improvement, supporting global infra during U.S.

business hours. The candidate will work with engineering, cloud, security, and cross-functional teams to maintain high service levels, lead incident response, and