IT Operations Manager

Job ID: 200045859Posted: 2026-07-29Location: United States, California, Santa ClaraSalary: USD $127,600 - $229,200 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: Fully on-siteRole type: People ManagerTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Data CenterDiscipline: Data Center Operations ManagementCompany: MicrosoftOverviewIn 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 IT Operations Manager. Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers our cloud services. As a CO+I DC IT 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!ResponsibilitiesAs an IT Operations Manager, your success will be measured by: 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.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 and Critical Environment (CE) services.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.Follows and adheres to run book provided by Environment, Health, & Safety division. Reports immediately any safety or security issues or concerns.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.Applies deep subject matter expertise and escalates to meet SLA/OLAs with minimal disruption to the client/customer and business and reviews metrics with team to ensure understanding of targets and current performance levels.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.Manage resources appropriately to accommodate pilot programs and task force participation and make recommendations for additional funding where necessary.Understand future business demand within the datacenter to ensure staffing levels are appropriate.Ensure teams complete the required training and partner with Learning & Development organization to evolve training portfolio.Participate in every Sev 1 and Sev 2 Incident Bridge meeting and approve root cause analysis and postmortem reporting.Empowers teams to work collaboratively and creates visibility to help other teams succeed with regional/global management teams.Data Center Work EnvironmentRemove 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 the 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.Find opportunities for collaboration across groups within division, ensure that cross-team commitments are set, and achieve scale by enabling the work of others.Delegate to others to promote growth and development of future leaders.Act as a trusted resource and advisor to a wide network of colleagues with diverse viewpoints.Recognize team successes and reward teamwork and contributions to team success while driving a culture that’s focused on meeting strategic goalsOwnership: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, escalate, 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.Other:Embody our Microsoft One culture and values.QualificationsRequired Qualifications:High School Qualification or equivalent AND 6+ 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)OR equivalent experience1+ year(s) people management experience.Other Requirements: Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate’s citizenship will be verified with a valid passport.Preferred Qualifications:Bachelor's or Technical College Degree in Computer Science, Math, Telecommunications, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Supply Chain Management or related field AND 12+ years experience in critical environment infrastructures (e.g., UPS, Generator, AHU), or working in physical IT infrastructures (e.g., Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling) OR High School Qualification or equivalent AND 14+ years experience in critical environment infrastructures (e.g., UPS, Generator, AHU), or working in physical IT infrastructures (e.g., Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling)OR equivalent experience.3+ years people management experience.Applicable certifications: APICS/Inventory Control, CompTIA, Microsoft, Network Certifications, CCNA Certifications, ITIL v3 Foundation, Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) Certifications, Leadership Development Certifications, PMP, CDCMP.BS/BA degree in Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Telecommunications, or equivalent experience. Demonstrated ability to collaborate, present, and negotiate across various levels and functions, including executive company leaders, engineers, suppliers, partners, and external customers.Working knowledge of physical IT infrastructures (e.g. Servers, SANs, Networking, Capacity, DC Rack/Enclosures, structured cabling, etc.). Knowledge of critical environment concepts and infrastructure (e.g. Electrical Distribution, Mechanical Cooling Systems, etc.).Firm comprehension of financial management, budgeting, and forecasting.Awareness of IT Service Operations fundamentals and principles (ITIL, MOF, OLA/SLA, etc.).Project or program management experience and certification(s) (e.g. PMI, etc.).Experience with process improvement principles such as Six Sigma or Kaizen.Data Center Operations Management M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $127,600 - $229,200 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $168,900 - $253,300 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.