Data Center Manager

Salary: Depends on Qualifications
Location : Tallahassee, Florida
Job Type: Salaried Full-Time
Job Number: 202500132
Office: Office of Legislative IT Services
Opening Date: 05/08/2026
Closing Date: Continuous


General Summary
The Florida Legislature is seeking an experienced and operationally focused Data Center Manager to support the Office of Legislative Information Technology Services (OLITS) Infrastructure and Operations division. This position services as a key operational leader responsible for ensuring the stability, reliability, and effectiveness of day-to-day infrastructure operations. Working under the direction of the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Infrastructure and Operations, this role provides oversight across Customer Support, Systems Administration, Networking, and the Data Center Facilities teams to ensure coordinated execution of operational priorities. The Data Center Manager functions as a trusted second in command of operational activities, leading cross-team coordination, managing escalations, and ensuring that services are delivered efficiently and consistently. This position emphasizes operational discipline, risk awareness, and lifecycle planning while enabling executive leadership to focus on strategic initiatives.

Examples of Work Performed

• Provide operational oversight across infrastructure teams, including Customer Support, Systems Administration, Networking, and Data Center Facilities
• Coordinate day-to-day operations to ensure reliability, performance, and service continuity across all infrastructure services
• Serve as the primary escalation point for operational incidents and cross-team issues
• Participate in performance evaluations of working managers and assist in aligning team priorities, goals, and workload distribution
• Facilitate cross-team collaboration to resolve conflicts, improve processes, and ensure consistent service delivery
• Develop, maintain and enforce operational standards, procedures, and runbooks
• Coordinate maintenance windows, system changes, and infrastructure cutovers to minimize disruption
• Own and manage lifecycle planning activities, including:
  • Maintaining lifecycle schedules
  • Coordinating multi-year reinvestment planning
  • Tracking asset age, risk exposure, and refresh timelines
• Assist in development of infrastructure lifecycle reinvestment budgets in coordination with leadership
• Collaborate on infrastructure design decisions impacting the data center and enterprise systems
• Ensure readiness and accuracy of backup, disaster recovery (DR), and continuity of operations (COOP) capabilities and documentation
• Support cloud integration initiatives, including hybrid and Azure-based environments
• Identify operational risks and implement mitigation strategies to improve system resilience and reliability
• Participate in compliance related activities, including alignment with CJIS and NIST frameworks and remediation of audit findings
• Provide regular operational status updates and briefing to leadership
• Maintain awareness of emerging technologies and operational best practices
• Perform other related duties as required

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong leadership and decision-making skills in operational environments
• Ability to remain calm and effective under pressure during incidents and escalations
• Strong process-oriented mindset with the ability to improve operational efficiency
• Ability to coordinate and align multiple teams toward shared objectives
• Ability to analyze complex operational issues and implement practical solutions
• Ability to communicate technical operational information clearly and effectively
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships across teams and leadership
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail

Minimum Qualifications
A bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in computer science, management information systems, or engineering and six years of progressively responsible information systems experience, two years of which must have been in a managerial or supervisory capacity. Progressively responsible information systems experience can substitute on a year-for-year basis for the required college education. Any combination of progressively responsible information systems experience and post-secondary training in disciplines as described above totaling ten years.

Preferred Qualifications

Preference will be given to applicants with the following:

• Extensive experience in infrastructure operations leadership across multiple technical domains
• Experience overseeing and coordinating cross-functional IT teams in an operational environment
• Knowledge of backup disaster recovery (DR), and continuity of operations (COOP) planning and execution
• Experience supporting hybrid cloud environments, including Microsoft Azure integrations
• Experience developing and managing lifecycle refresh and reinvestment planning
• Knowledge of operational risk identification and mitigation strategies
• Familiarity with CJIS and NIST frameworks
• Experience developing operational documentation, runbooks, and standards
• Strong understanding of enterprise IT operations, including incident management, change coordination, and service delivery

Working for the Florida Legislature includes a lucrative benefits package, including affordable health insurance options, free dental, long-term disability and employee life insurance, as well as competitive retirement. Employees have access to a college tuition waiver program, an employee assistance program, paid annual and sick leave, and paid holidays. Learn more below!

Health and Dental Insurance

Employees have a choice of participating in the State Self Insured Plan or a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) if available in the county of residence or employment (Standard and High Deductible Investor plans are available). Full-time employees pay $30 per month for family coverage or $8.34 per month for individual coverage. Part-time employees pay premiums based on the total hours of work. For dental insurance, the Legislature offers a PPO plan that offers choice of dentist and pays from 50 to 100 percent of usual, customary, and reasonable charges. There is a $1500 maximum benefit per plan year. The Legislature pays the total premium for full-time employees and part-time employees pay premiums based on the total hours of work.

Leave Accrual Benefits

Annual Leave accrues as follows based on creditable state service:


Up to 5 years - 11 hours per month 5 to 10 years - 13 hours per month Over 10 years - 15 hours per month

Sick Leave accrues at 9 hours per month for all full-time employees.

Life and Disability Insurance

Group Term life Insurance with an accidental death and dismemberment benefit provides $25,000 coverage. The Legislature pays the total premium for full-time employees and part-time employees pay premiums based on the total hours of work. For disability insurance, the Legislature offers a Group Long Term Disability Insurance Plan that provides a monthly benefit of 60 percent of covered monthly earnings after an elimination period of 360 days. The Legislature pays the total premium.

Retirement

Participation in the Florida Retirement System is compulsory for all salaried staff, except certain re-employed retirees. New employees have until the end of the eighth month following their first month of employment to select a retirement plan, from the traditional pension plan or the investment plan. New employees will receive an informational packet approximately two months after the hire date. Members and staff contribute 3% of their salary towards retirement and the Legislature pays the remainder of the premium

Florida Pre-Tax Plan and Deferred Compensation Plan

This state sponsored program includes Supplemental Insurance Plans, Health Savings Account (when enrolled with an Investor Health Plan), and a Flexible Spending Program on a pretax basis. The Supplemental Insurance Plans include hospitalization, cancer/intensive care, dental, vision, and accidental/disability. The Flexible Spending Program includes healthcare and dependent care accounts. A competitive Deferred Compensation Plan is also offered. The State of Florida Deferred Compensation Plan offers a number of investment options including variable annuities, mutual funds, and a bank, with a variety of contract providers.

Paid Holidays

New Year's Day - Martin Luther King Day - Memorial Day - Independence Day - Labor Day - Veteran's Day - Thanksgiving Day - Friday After Thanksgiving - Christmas Day - Personal Holiday

Total Compensation Statement

The Total Compensation Statement provides a monetary value of each benefit listed below as well as a total annual compensation estimate. The annual salary amount used in this example is $60,000. Note: All values are based on individual plans.