Data Centre Manager

Manpower Sa (Pty) Ltd; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 700 000 - 1 000 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading staffing solutions provider in Isando, Johannesburg is seeking a Data Centre Manager to oversee 24x7 operations. The role includes team management, equipment maintenance, and ensuring compliance with standards. Candidates should have at least 5 years of experience in data centres, with strong leadership and communication skills. This is a key position in a dynamic environment, with a focus on operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years relevant data centre experience, including team management.
• Extensive knowledge of Data Centre environments and critical infrastructure systems.
• Commitment to Integrated Management System, Occupational Health and Safety Act, ISO standards.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for equipment maintenance and managing installations.
• Supervise a team of technicians for smooth operations.
• Ensure compliance, audit, and risk management are maintained.

Skills

Finance forecasting

Leadership

People management

Excellent communication skills

Client satisfaction

Outstanding organizational skills

Education

Electrical/mechanical qualification

Cabling qualification

Job description

Overview

Our client based in Isando, Johannesburg is seeking a Data Centre Manager to join their team.

The Data Centre Manager is the leader of data centre operations, responsible for 24x7 operations of the data centre facility, in accordance with industry best practice and company policies & standards.

The incumbent manages and supervises teams of employees within the Data Centre.

The role is required to oversee equipment maintenance, inventory, customer service, contractor management and employee management.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for equipment maintenance tasks such as managing and installing custom upgrades for clients, replacing cables, components and accessories.
• Conduct working methods to ensure zero capacity incidents and to maintain agreed PUE levels.
• Ensure that records, drawings and schematics of the data centre environment are maintained.
• Evaluate best practices for design and maintenance.
• Supervise a team of technicians to ensure smooth operation of the facility.
• Manage working methods to ensure that all SLA and MSA's are achieved.
• Ensure that planned and corrective maintenance is carried out according to predefined standards and schedules.
• Share knowledge and best practices across all Data Centres by building close relationships with other DC Managers and peers.
• Improve current processes, introduce automation aiming towards simplification.
• Manage escalated support cases and lead appropriate internal technical resources and/or 3rd party vendors to resolution.
• Manage data centre infrastructure to provide a concurrently maintainable, cost‑effective system supporting % electrical uptime and % mechanical uptime.
• Capacity management of assets under safe operating design parameters.
• Manage data centre cabling infrastructure supporting % uptime.
• Active participation in new data centre builds or expansions.
• Monitoring and alerting of all critical components.
• Ensure comprehensive root‑cause analysis is completed for all incidents/outages.
• White space capacity planning.
• Quick responses to potentially critical situations.
• 3rd party vendor management and service delivery.
• Active involvement in network, physical and cyber security matters.
• Compliance, audit & risk, ensure compliance is maintained incorporating industry best practices.
• Ensure data centre facilities best practices are enforced, maintained and improved.
• Ensure data centre cleaning standards are enforced and maintained.
• Implement company and departmental policies, processes and work instructions as per the agreed quality and timeline / RFS.
• Risk identification and mitigation, ensuring adherence to all relevant standards and policies.
• Active involvement in all audits, strong adherence to process.
• Ensure inter‑departmental OLA's are met.
• Information security: identify and manage risks with regards to the company’s information assets & systems.

Skills Requirement

• Finance forecasting of future spend, monitoring and managing budgetary spend, and budgetary reporting.
• Leadership and innovation with the ability to make independent decisions while accepting direction when given.
• People management: staff onboarding, guidance, development, training and performance requirements.
• Defining personal development plans for direct reports and measurable KPIs.
• Developing and growing relationships with other business units.
• Support and adherence to BEE targets when onboarding new resources.
• Excellent communication skills across all relevant platforms.
• Administrative duties: scheduling of employee shifts, standby & after‑hour rosters.
• Change and incident management, ensuring adherence to established guidelines.
• Occupational Health and Safety responsibilities, reporting in agreed format.
• Outstanding organizational skills with ability to prioritize effectively.
• Client satisfaction: optimal customer service, client relations, response to inquiries, coordination, and meeting survey targets.
• Preparation for after‑hour support when needed.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, technical abilities, proactive problem solving.

Qualifications And Experience

• Electrical and/or mechanical qualification preferable.
• Cabling qualification preferable.
• Minimum 5 years relevant data centre experience, including team management, line management, performance reviews, hiring, and financial management.
• Extensive knowledge of Data Centre environments and critical infrastructure systems (cabling, cooling, power).
• Experience with Data Centre KPIs (incident tickets, time to solve, security metrics, staff safety, operations).
• Knowledge of SHEQ, Information Security, Legal and other requirements and obligations.
• Commitment to Integrated Management System, Occupational Health and Safety Act 85, Health & Safety Management Program, ISO 45001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001.
• Report all unsafe or unhealthy conditions and preserve confidentiality, integrity, accessibility of information.
• Commit to Quality Management System, Environmental Management System and Energy Management System, and compliance with POPIA.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.