Responsibilities

Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement: Build and mature a disciplined operating model across all data center locations, with clear standards, repeatable processes, strong metrics, and continuous improvement mechanisms.
Scalable Site Operations Model: Develop the staffing models, leadership structures, training programs, procedures, and governance required to support rapid growth in both the number of locations and the complexity of operations.
Rapid Data Center Expansion Readiness: Ensure new sites can be operationalized quickly and consistently through standardized launch playbooks, readiness checklists, vendor coordination, staffing plans, and operational acceptance criteria.
Performance, Reliability, and SLA Improvement: Improve site-level performance against availability, service delivery, maintenance, change management, incident response, inventory accuracy, deployment execution, and customer-impact prevention.
AI/GPU Operational Enablement: Prepare on-site operations to support high-density GPU environments, liquid cooling, complex cabling, accelerated hardware deployments, higher-touch customer requirements, and increased operational risk.
Provides senior leadership for data center on-site operations across DigitalOcean’s existing and expanding global footprint.
Leads the development and execution of a scalable operating model for data center sites, including standards for staffing, shift coverage, escalation, maintenance, change management, incident response, vendor oversight, inventory control, deployment support, and customer-impact prevention.
Drives operational excellence across all data center locations by identifying gaps, standardizing best practices, improving execution discipline, and ensuring consistent adoption of policies, procedures, and operating standards.
Leads site operations teams responsible for 24x7 data center support, ensuring availability, reliability, safety, quality, and service delivery meet or exceed business and customer expectations.
Improves on-site execution performance by strengthening accountability, defining clear ownership, and implementing measurable performance standards across locations.
Build repeatable operational processes that allow DigitalOcean to scale from a regional data center footprint to a larger, more complex, and more globally consistent operating environment.
Develops standardized site launch playbooks, operational readiness checklists, escalation models, staffing templates, maintenance routines, training plans, and vendor management practices for new and existing sites.

Qualification

Ability to lead in a highly complexAbility to translate businessExcellent communication skills

Required

Strong experience leading data center operations in a large enterprise, cloud, colocation, or high-growth infrastructure environment.
Demonstrated ability to improve operational performance across multiple data center locations.
Experience building scalable operational processes, playbooks, staffing models, governance routines, and performance systems.
Strong understanding of data center on-site operations, including power, cooling, cabling, hardware support, maintenance, vendor management, change management, incident response, logistics, and customer-impact prevention.
Experience operating against SLAs and improving performance in environments where availability, reliability, and execution quality are mission critical.
Ability to lead in a highly complex, fast-moving, matrixed organization with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
Strong understanding of data center growth challenges, including new site launches, capacity expansion, staffing readiness, vendor coordination, process standardization, and operational handoff.
Experience supporting high-density compute environments, GPU infrastructure, liquid cooling, large-scale server deployments, and complex cabling environments is strongly preferred.
Strong knowledge of data center critical infrastructure, including UPS systems, generators, transfer switches, power distribution, DC power systems, HVAC, cooling systems, liquid cooling, racks, structured cabling, and physical security.
Ability to translate business, server, storage, networking, and customer requirements into practical data center operational needs.
Strong vendor management and negotiation skills, with the ability to hold partners accountable while maintaining effective business relationships.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to present complex operational issues clearly to executive, technical, and non-technical audiences.

Principal Engineer, Inference Memory and Storage Systems at DigitalOcean · LumiJobs

Principal Engineer, Inference Memory and Storage Systems

Responsibilities

Qualification

Required

Benefits

Company

DigitalOcean

More roles at DigitalOcean