Datacenter Facility Lead

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

Elk Grove Village, IL You will make an impact by managing day-to-day data center facility operations, coordinating site execution activities, and ensuring reliable delivery of installation, maintenance, decommissioning, and smart-hands support services across supported locations. You will be a valued member of the Cloud Infrastructure and Security team, working collaboratively with engineering, operations, vendors, and facility partners.

Elk Grove Village, IL You will make an impact by managing day-to-day data center facility operations, coordinating site execution activities, and ensuring reliable delivery of installation, maintenance, decommissioning, and smart-hands support services across supported locations. You will be a valued member of the Cloud Infrastructure and Security team, working collaboratively with engineering, operations, vendors, and facility partners.

In this role, you will

• 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 approved 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.

What You Need To Have To Be Considered

• 5+ years of experience supporting enterprise data center operations, facility management, or infrastructure deployment environments.
• Strong experience with rack-and-stack activities, hardware installation, basic cabling, and hardware decommissioning.
• Experience providing smart-hands support for server, network, storage, and infrastructure teams.
• Experience with monitoring, reporting, asset tracking, work order management, and operational documentation.
• Understanding of data center operational procedures, physical security controls, and change management processes.
• Ability to work across geographically distributed teams, customers, vendors, and delivery partners.
• Strong communication, documentation, analytical, troubleshooting, and stakeholder management skills.
• Familiarity with ITIL-based service delivery, incident management, and operational support models.
• Ability to lift up to 40lbs. of hardware as required.

These Will Help You Stand Out

• Experience supporting large-scale enterprise or colocation data center environments.
• Experience coordinating with vendors, carriers, OEMs, facility providers, logistics partners, and third-party support organizations.
• Knowledge of asset lifecycle management, inventory controls, and structured cabling standards.
• Experience supporting infrastructure refresh, migration, and deployment projects.
• Experience working in highly regulated or governance-driven data center environments.
• Experience managing operational risks, issues, dependencies, and escalations.

Salary And Other Compensation

The annual salary for this position is between $79,000 - $90,000 USD depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

Benefits:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer:

The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.