Staff Data Center Engineer

About Digital Ocean:

At Digital Ocean, we're on a mission to simplify cloud computing so developers worldwide can spend more time creating technology that changes the world. With our high-performance, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure, we enable small and medium-sized businesses to deploy and scale applications quickly and easily. As a remote-first organization, we value diversity and inclusivity, encouraging professionals from all over the globe to contribute to our dynamic and innovative team.

Position Overview:

Digital Ocean is seeking an experienced Staff Datacenter Engineer to join our Datacenter Operations team as part of the Infrastructure organization. We build, maintain and optimize the foundation upon which the cloud runs. This role reports to the Director, Datacenter Operations, and focuses on leading edge hardware build outs, the use of power and cooling technologies, the implementation of structured cabling standards; and the delivery of critical infrastructure at scale. You are expected to independently manage large-scale, organization-wide projects at the Staff Datacenter Engineer level, demonstrating deep technical expertise and a broad understanding of organizational impacts. Your role involves designing, implementing, and maintaining our global datacenter infrastructure, ensuring availability (uptime), reliability, and stability for our diverse customer base.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and execute initiatives to enhance data center processes, products, and services with minimal guidance, demonstrating a clear understanding of the technical and business implications.
• Design scalable data center layouts for production compute, storage and GPU products, optimizing for availability, reliability, maintainability and security.
• Key participant in datacenter capacity and roadmap planning, which includes selecting new sites, choosing power and cooling systems, and making site layout decisions based upon future hardware requirements. 
• Support and contribute thought leadership to the development and implementation of best practices which support the growth and ongoing management of our global data center footprint
• Develop a standardized operational framework that improves the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the department. Communicate direction and changes throughout the department and infrastructure organization.
• Author, run, and improve runbooks, policies, and procedures, driving the adoption standards and best practices across the team to mitigate risk and technical debt.
• Participate in improving incident response within the data center, coordinating with other teams to reduce our time to repair. This includes conducting detailed technical post-mortems to glean learnings from in order to prevent future incidents. 
• Collaborate with hardware engineering, power engineering and network engineering teams to develop innovative solutions that meet evolving product and feature requirements while meeting customer performance expectations.

What We Expect From You:

• Proven experience in building critical IT infrastructure at scale and in operating large data centers sites (>5-10MW); ability to translate hardware and network demands into physical topology requirements. 
• Advanced understanding of data center electrical and mechanical equipment including generators, PDUs, UPS, switchgear, chillers, CRAC units and CDUs, etc.; the maintenance of them along with their operational limitations. 
• Advanced understanding of various cabling standards and experience delivering complex structured cabling projects. Experience translating bandwidth needs into physical cabling requirements is a plus. 
• Experienced with site selection, budget planning, RFP's, space planning, hardware placement, power allocation, air containment, network infrastructure, and hardware installations. Experience ensuring their adherence to operational standards.
• Experience with holding data center vendors accountable to contractual SLAs.
• Proficient with DCIM tools like dcTrack and Netbox; comfortable with power monitoring tools and competent performing failover analysis.
• Proficiency in Linux, Ansible and scripting languages (Python, Shell or similar) for data center automation and configuration; proficiency with SQL queries and data center certifications like CDCP are a plus. 
• Exceptional ability to communicate complex engineering topics to technical and non-technical audiences, ensuring mutual understanding and fostering collaborative problem-solving.
• Leadership experience making decisions with minimal direction and prioritizing across multiple competing demands.
• A track record of mentoring junior and senior technical staff and driving work engagement, job satisfaction, and quality within the team.
• Detail oriented with a data-driven approach to decision making.
• Willingness to travel to data center sites around the globe as required (up to 15%). 

Why You'll Like Working for Digital Ocean:

• Rewarding Work: The salary range for this position is between $150,000.00 - $200,000.00 and is based on relevant years of experience and skills, bonuses, equity compensation, and opportunities for professional growth.
• Continuous Learning: Work with industry experts, access to training and conferences, and a culture that values innovation and intellectual curiosity.
• Comprehensive Benefits: We offer a competitive array of benefits, including health, wellness, and retirement plans, tailored to meet global needs.
• Diverse and Inclusive Culture: An equal opportunity employer that values diversity, inclusivity, and collaboration across global teams.

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