Datacenter Facilities Lead — Operations & Smart‑Hands

Cognizant; Illinois; On-site; USD 79,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental/Vision Insurance

401(k) Plan

Paid Holidays & PTO

Disability Insurance

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking an experienced Data Center Facilities Specialist in Elk Grove Village, IL. You will manage day-to-day data center operations, coordinate site activities, and ensure reliable delivery of installation, maintenance, decommissioning, and smart-hands support across locations.

Join a Cloud Infrastructure and Security team and collaborate with engineering, operations, vendors, and facility partners to uphold safety, security, and quality standards.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in enterprise data center operations, facility mgmt, or infra deployment.
• Rack-and-stack, hardware installation, basic cabling, decommissioning experience.
• Smart-hands support for server, network, storage, and infra teams.
• Monitoring, reporting, asset tracking, work orders, and operational docs.
• Understanding data center procedures, security controls, and change mgmt.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate daily site work, work orders, access requirements, maintenance windows, and technician assignments.
• Perform and validate rack-and-stack, device installation, basic cabling, labeling, and connectivity tasks.
• Lead hardware decommissioning, including verification, removal, records updates, and handoffs.
• Deliver smart-hands support for remote engineering and operations teams under documented instructions.
• Monitor local facility and equipment conditions and route alerts to resolver teams.
• Maintain work logs, installation records, asset updates, completion evidence, and status reports.
• Coordinate with internal teams, carriers, OEMs, facility providers, logistics partners, and vendors.
• Enforce site safety, physical security, change governance, and quality standards.

Skills

Data center ops

Rack and stack

Smart-hands support

Monitoring assets

ITIL processes

Cross-team collaboration

Technical documentation

Physical lifting

Job description

Cognizant is seeking an experienced Data Center Facilities Specialist in Elk Grove Village, IL. You will manage day-to-day data center operations, coordinate site activities, and ensure reliable delivery of installation, maintenance, decommissioning, and smart-hands support across locations.

Join a Cloud Infrastructure and Security team and collaborate with engineering, operations, vendors, and facility partners to uphold safety, security, and quality standards.