Site Operations Manager

Microsoft Games; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Johannesburg is seeking a Site Operations Manager to oversee data center operations and ensure compliance with service levels. The ideal candidate has experience in mission-critical service management and a strong background in leading diverse technical teams. This role offers opportunities for professional growth and encompasses strategic leadership in a global environment.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Inclusive work environment

Health and wellness benefits

Qualifications

• 2+ years' experience in mission-critical service management.
• Experience managing budgets of $500k+.
• 3+ years' experience in leading a diverse technical team.

Responsibilities

• Oversee a team on data center operations.
• Ensure end-to-end service compliance and client satisfaction.
• Drive accountability with building landlords on service-level agreements.

Skills

Mission-critical service management

People management

Service delivery and compliance

Critical Environment infrastructures

Leading diverse teams

Education

High School Diploma or equivalent

Bachelor's Degree in relevant field

Tools

Budget management tools

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

ITIL Foundation

Job description

Business Function Overview

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day and we need you as a Site Operations Manager (SOM). Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers our cloud services. As a CO+I Site Operations Manager, you will perform a key role in delivering the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's online services including Bing, Office 365, Xbox, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform. As a group, CO+I is focused on the personal and professional development for all employees and offers trainings and growth opportunities including Career Rotation Programs, Diversity & Inclusion trainings and events, and professional certifications.

Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than 100 datacenters and 1 million servers. Our foundation is built upon and managed by a team of subject matter experts working to support services for more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 90 countries worldwide.

With environmental sustainability and optimization at the forefront of our datacenter design and operations, we continue to grow and evolve as we meet the ever-changing business demands that hold Microsoft as a world-class cloud provider.

Do you want to empower billions across the world? Come and join us in CO+I and be at the forefront of the action!

Responsibilities

People Management

• Deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring.
• Live our culture, embody our values, and practice our leadership principles.
• Define team objectives and outcomes, enable success across boundaries, and help the team adapt and learn.
• Attract and retain great people, know everyone's capabilities and aspirations, and invest in the growth of others.
• Oversee and coach a team on the operation of various systems and equipment within the data center in a safe and professional manner and advise junior colleagues on inspection and supervision issues.

Data Center Operations

• Document and drive alignment on dependencies, supplier contracts, success metrics, resource readiness, operational, supportability, and manageability criteria.
• Review Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) and provide input to improve or increase efficiency across IT services.
• Drive accountability with building landlord to adhere to MSFT service-level agreement.
• Partner cross-functionally to support global and regional initiatives (e.g., environmental health and safety, risk assessments, certifications).
• Manages/supports alignment to budget of the Data Center and makes tradeoff decisions to adhere to sound fiscal practices.
• Support budget planning and forecasting demand costs, driving awareness among business leaders on implications of service management issues and negotiating to win resources of costs, risks, and team leads as required.
• Plan and work with business partners when executing their requirements to maintain adherence to datacenter availability, safety, and security.
• Follow and adhere to run book provided by Environmental Health & Safety division, immediately reporting any safety or security issues or concerns and ensuring a culture of safety is upheld.

Service Delivery

• Accountable for end-to-end service compliance, quality, and client satisfaction for the agreed-upon service levels.
• Manage relationships with clients to ensure that all expectations are clarified and understood and deliver solutions that exceed client expectations while maintaining a strong customer focus.
• Apply deep subject matter expertise and elevate where needed to meet SLA/OLAs with minimal disruption to the client/customer and business.
• Share common and repeating cases with regional and global teams, while providing best practices to address and mitigate recurrence of issues and implement more efficient solutions for resolution.
• Participate in every Sev 1 and Sev 2 Incident Bridge meeting and approve root cause analysis and postmortem reporting.
• Lead key processes, prioritize work across team, and rebalance resources and priorities to respond to changes, while recommending additional resources as necessary.
• Manage resources appropriately to accommodate pilot programs and task force participation and make recommendations for additional funding where necessary.
• Be accountable for end-to-end service compliance, quality, and client satisfaction for agreed-upon service levels.
• Empower teams to work collaboratively, ensuring they have the platform and support to participate in cross-functional work and the opportunity to network.

Data Center Work Environment

• Drive service implementation, adoption, training, quality audits, and the education of support teams (including vendors) to enable the best support and service levels.
• Remove barriers that inhibit agility to enable team to shift priorities quickly without losing productivity.
• Maintain a broad perspective and work to incorporate diverse viewpoints while identifying and evaluating opportunities to create strategies that cross organizational boundaries and drive broad business goals.
• Establish a culture of safety, quality, and customer obsession while ensuring team's standards are consistent with overall service objectives.
• Create the type of conditions for successful collaboration, geared toward identifying and resolving organization-wide issues by bringing together creative and relevant solutions from diverse perspectives.
• Understand workforce capability and delegate work accordingly across team to effectively deliver results, finding ways to accomplish more by enabling others.
• Act as a trusted resource and advisor to a wide network of colleagues with diverse viewpoints.
• Delegate to others to promote growth and development of future leaders.
• Recognize team successes and reward teamwork and contributions to team success while driving a culture that's focused on meeting strategic goals

Ownership

• Have pride and a sense of personal accountability for end-to-end service quality, completeness, and resulting customer experience.
• Identify unaddressed issues across service and resolve, elevate, or find the appropriate owner to ensure the highest level of quality.
• Drive and own the service management perspective to ensure that business leaders understand the business implications of risks, dependencies, and budgets to enable good business decisions and ensure the long‑term value of the service.
• Model and foster accountability and morale for the team.

People Management

• Help employees identify growth opportunities, develop skills, and build development plans.
• Establish and communicate performance expectations, identify and address gaps, and monitor performance to ensure plans are met.

Other

• Embody our Microsoft One culture and values.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• High School Diploma or equivalent AND 2+ years' experience of mission-critical service management (e.g., providing IT services, manufacturing, warehouse, retail, military, or managing physical operations in an IT and/or critical environment infrastructure)

Background Check Requirements

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years' experience in Critical Environment infrastructures (e.g., UPS, Generator, AHU) AND 5+ years' experience working in physical IT infrastructures (e.g., Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling) AND Experience managing budget $500k+.
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Math, Telecommunications, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Supply Chain Management, or related field.
• 3+ years' experience in leading a diverse, technical team.
• Applicable certifications: ASICS/Inventory Control, CompTIA, Microsoft, Network Certifications, CCNA Certifications, ITIL v3 Foundation, Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) Certifications, Leadership Development Certifications, PMP, CDCP Enterprise-level experience in managing large‑scale and complex projects/programs

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.