Data Center Manager

Data Center Manager

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.

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

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

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.

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.