Lead Data Center Facilities Technician (NIH)

Lead Data Center Facilities Technician

Location: Bethesda, Maryland, with occasional support in Sterling, Virginia Employment Type: Full-time Schedule: Onsite, MondayFriday; after-hours and on-call support may be required Position Status: Contingent upon contract award Position Summary V W International is seeking an experienced Lead Data Center Facilities Technician to oversee the operation, maintenance, monitoring, and continuous availability of mission-critical data center infrastructure supporting a federal customer. This position will serve as the senior onsite representative and technical lead for data center facilities operations. The Lead Technician will supervise onsite personnel, coordinate preventive and corrective maintenance, oversee subcontractor activity, support electrical and mechanical infrastructure projects, and ensure that all work is completed safely and without disruption to 24x7x365 production operations. The successful candidate must possess extensive experience with mission-critical electrical, mechanical, environmental-monitoring, and data center infrastructure management systems. Current Data Center Energy Practitioner certification is required.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the contractor's primary onsite representative for data center facilities operations.
• Lead and supervise Data Center Facilities and Data Center Support Technicians.
• Coordinate daily staffing, work assignments, maintenance activities, service calls, and emergency response.
• Oversee preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, repairs, quality-control inspections, and subcontractor performance.
• Monitor mission-critical electrical, power-distribution, cooling, HVAC, environmental-control, and data center infrastructure management systems.
• Maintain and support building operating protocols, maintenance procedures, Methods of Procedure, quality-control plans, and operational documentation.
• Coordinate scheduled maintenance to minimize risk and prevent disruption to production systems.
• Prepare operating reports, status updates, technical recommendations, maintenance records, and other required correspondence.
• Maintain appropriate inventory levels for tools, parts, materials, and routine maintenance supplies.
• Support electrical audits, infrastructure assessments, troubleshooting, equipment upgrades, capacity planning, and hot-aisle/cold-aisle optimization.
• Coordinate with federal personnel, building engineers, electrical and cooling specialists, customers, vendors, and subcontractors.
• Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations, safety standards, manufacturer recommendations, and customer procedures.
• Train and cross-train personnel and provide backup coverage for other data center facilities positions.
• Participate in after-hours maintenance, emergency response, and on-call support as required.

Required Qualifications

• At least seven years of professional experience in environmental data center monitoring.
• At least seven years of professional experience managing complex data center facilities.
• At least five years of professional experience in a multi-platform enterprise networking environment.
• Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in computer science, information systems, engineering, business, facilities management, or a related discipline.
• Equivalent directly relevant professional experience may be considered in place of the degree.
• Current Data Center Energy Practitioner certification required.
• Expert knowledge of mission-critical electrical power-distribution systems.
• Expert knowledge of static and rotary UPS systems, PDUs, switchgear, transfer equipment, generators and related electrical infrastructure.
• Expert knowledge of CRAC/CRAH units, air-handling equipment, heat pumps, leak-detection systems, humidity control and data center cooling systems.
• Strong knowledge of DCIM, building-management or facilities-management monitoring platforms.
• Experience developing and executing preventive-maintenance programs and Methods of Procedure.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical personnel and manage subcontractor performance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to prepare technical reports, briefings, scopes of work, procurement justifications and operational recommendations.
• Ability to qualify for federal facility access and meet applicable background-investigation requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal, healthcare, research, scientific or high-performance-computing data centers.
• Experience operating in an occupied, continuously operational mission-critical environment.
• Experience coordinating electrical and mechanical infrastructure projects.
• Familiarity with AFCOM or similar data center operations best practices.
• Additional certifications in data center operations, electrical systems, HVAC, energy management, safety or project management.