Data Center Operations Technician

Job Title: Data Center Operations Technician

Location: Austin, Texas

Duration: 6+ months

Role summary:

This technician role supports daily operations of a large-scale computer hardware fleet in a data center environment. This is a hands-on hardware role: triaging monitoring-system alerts, troubleshooting devices and board-level faults at the rack, performing cable and fiber work, executing hardware replacements, and completing structured hardware upgrade campaigns across various devices.

This role requires precision, safety discipline, and the ability to follow documented procedures under live production conditions.

Responsibilities:

1. Monitor and triage hardware alerts from the site's monitoring platform - scope single-board vs. chassis-wide issues and troubleshoot at the desk and at the rack.
2. Perform live chassis pulls, inspections, and repairs - reseat and replace data, power, and cooling cables, and swap boards or components per documented procedure, while minimizing production impact.
3. Execute structured hardware upgrade campaigns (e.g. network interface card upgrades across large batches of staged chassis) - component mounting, internal power rewiring, and fiber/cable patching.
4. Manage fiber and cable routing in cable management arms carefully to avoid damaging fragile connectors and assemblies.
5. Document and hand off work - open, update, and close tickets in the internal tracking system with accurate steps and outcomes; label replaced hardware and bag removed components per site policy; escalate unresolved issues with full context.

Qualities:

1. Hands-on hardware skill with precision - comfortable working inside dense compute chassis (screws, standoffs, connectors, harnesses) with the attention to detail that sequence-critical wiring demands, where a single wrong connection can cause rework or damage.
2. Procedure and safety discipline - follows documented procedures exactly rather than improvising, and consistently applies safety practices (cable-management-arm handling, correct connector alignment, careful fiber handling, power-down before internal work, knowing when not to touch a system).
3. Live-production judgment - works carefully on systems that stay in production, minimizes downtime, and knows when to stop and escalate rather than risk a larger outage.
4. Cable and fiber competence - can identify common connector and cable types, trace paths, and confirm correct port-to-board mapping with a gentle touch on fiber work.
5. Structured, methodical troubleshooting - applies a lightest-touch-first approach (visual check reseat power-cycle cable swap component swap chassis-level action) without skipping steps or repeating already-logged work.
6. Strong documentation and communication habits - logs every action clearly enough that another technician can pick up the case without starting over.
7. Physical stamina and composure under alert volume - comfortable with long shifts, rack-height work, and repetitive upgrade cycles, while staying calm and accurate when many units need attention at once.

Experience / Background:

• 1 3+ years in data center, server hardware, or field technician work, including rack-and-stack, cable management, and chassis repair
• Comfortable reading and following technical procedures/SOPs
• Basic understanding of physical-layer networking (copper patching, fiber connectors, link status indicators)
• Experience with ticketing systems and shift handoffs
• Prior work with fiber breakout, fiber patching, or transceiver installation
• Basic knowledge of Device-internal interconnects and board-level diagnostics

Preferred Skills:

• Experience in hyperscale, HPC, or AI compute environments with dense compute racks.
• Experience supporting monitoring/alerting platforms and structured hardware upgrade campaigns (batch retrofits, component swaps, firmware rollouts)

Title:

Location:

Duration:

SUMMARY:

RESPONSIBILITIES;

QUALIFICATIONS: