Data Center Manager - Richmond

At DigitalOcean, our Data Center Managers are critical to the success of our business. They are hands-on technical leaders who own the end-to-end operations of our physical infrastructure—ensuring we meet customer expectations for reliability, performance, and scale. You will lead a talented team of technicians and engineers, support data center initiatives in the region, and work closely with our architects and infrastructure product teams to bring new solutions online at lightning speed.

This position is based near the Richmond, VA region and requires you to be onsite. 

• Managing on-site operations of our MEM data center, overseeing a team of technicians and engineers to ensure uptime, efficiency, and safety.
• Leading and mentoring: managing staffing, scheduling, performance, and career development.
• Overseeing deployment, maintenance, and optimization of compute, storage, and networking infrastructure—including GPU-based systems.
• Managing the physical infrastructure environment—including power delivery, airflow, and cooling—to support high-density compute workloads and liquid cooling systems where applicable. This includes working closely with facilities and capacity planning teams to optimize rack density and energy efficiency, as well as partnering with vendors, OEMs, and suppliers to ensure timely delivery of components, manage RMAs, and resolve hardware escalations.
• Working with facilities and infrastructure engineering teams to understand mechanical and electrical designs, contribute to floor planning, and ensure alignment between facility capabilities and compute growth.
• Partnering with internal teams, including data center architects and cloud product owners, to align infrastructure buildouts with evolving customer and platform requirements.
• Collaborating globally with regional data center managers and infrastructure leads in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Richmond, Atlanta, Kansas City, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bangalore,  Singapore, and Sydney to:
• Share operational patterns and best practices
• Raise awareness of local and global risks
• Align on scalable infrastructure plans
• Drive cross-site consistency and innovation
• Working closely with the Supply Chain and Asset Management team to maintain inventory accuracy, streamline inbound/outbound logistics, and ensure component readiness.
• Aligning with the Capacity Management team to forecast and fulfill infrastructure demand, enabling rapid deployment in support of customer growth and product launches.
• Managing day-to-day task flow through Jira, using Kanban methodology to ensure smooth operations and continuous delivery.
• Work closely with DC providers to maintain operational excellence. 
• Collaborating with external vendors, managing RMAs, shipping/receiving, and inventory control.
• Serving as the local escalation point and incident lead for operational or technical challenges.

• 6–10 years of progressive experience in data center operations, including 3+ years of team leadership or site management in a high-scale environment.
• Deep technical knowledge of data center systems—compute, storage, networking, airflow/cooling—and the ability to coach others in these areas.
• Experience with GPU deployments; familiarity with liquid cooling infrastructure or high-density rack solutions is a plus.
• Strong understanding of facility infrastructure, including electrical systems, power distribution, UPS, and cooling design principles.
• Hands-on experience with data center health monitoring, rack design, structured cabling, and server manageability tools.
• Experience using work tracking tools (e.g., Jira) and applying Kanban or similar agile workflows to visualize work, identify bottlenecks, and optimize flow. Brings a systems-oriented mindset focused on team health, building habits that improve throughput, predictability, and accountability over time.
• Strong leadership skills: capable of driving performance, setting goals, and creating a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills; you enjoy working cross-functionally to make things better.
• Global mindset and experience working with geographically distributed teams; comfortable aligning across time zones and infrastructure standards.
• Ability to be on-call for escalations outside of business hours.
• Must be able to lift up to 50 lbs and be on your feet during extended work sessions.
• Traveling up to 10% typically domestically to and from multiple locations during the workday, and occasionally domestically to other sites for overnight stays.
• May work 12-hour shifts, including shift assignments during non-standard business hours such as evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays.

• $135,000 - $164,000

• • Non-sales roles: In addition to base salary, this role is eligible to participate in DigitalOcean’s annual bonus plan and may be eligible for a new hire equity grant, subject to plan terms and local eligibility. Bonus amounts depend on company and individual performance.
  • Sales roles (sales compensation eligible): In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible to earn incentive compensation under the applicable sales compensation plan and may be eligible for a new hire equity grant, subject to plan terms and local eligibility.

*This is an onsite role

JR: 2026-8392 

#LI-Onsite