NineTech
Data Centre Manager
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Data Centre Lab Manager – Contract
Location: Leeds
Working Pattern: 3 days per week on site
Contract: 6 Months
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Data Centre Lab Manager to take ownership of the day-to-day operation of an on-premise data centre lab facility in Wakefield.
This is a highly practical, hardware-focused position combining hands-on data centre engineering with team leadership and operational management. You will be responsible for the physical hardware lifecycle across the lab, including racking, cabling, hardware builds, configuration, testing, and decommissioning, while also coordinating the wider lab team's workload across business-as-usual activity and project delivery.
The role sits at the centre of several technical functions, so strong collaboration is essential. You will work closely with software, networking, floor management, and customer-facing teams to ensure hardware is provisioned, tested, and delivered effectively.
Software configuration is owned by other technical teams; your focus will be on the physical infrastructure and hardware layer, together with the leadership and coordination of the lab function.
Key Responsibilities
- Take overall responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the data centre lab, ensuring hardware processes, documentation, auditing, and operational standards are maintained.
- Lead the end-to-end physical lifecycle of hardware, including provisioning, installation, racking, cabling, configuration, and decommissioning.
- Oversee the introduction and certification of new server and component hardware against core platforms, including technologies such as Dell PowerEdge.
- Ensure hardware configurations are correctly integrated with VMware environments, providing the link between physical infrastructure and the virtualisation layer.
- Act as the senior technical escalation point for the lab team, supporting complex hardware issues and incident investigations.
- Recreate physical environments where required to support high-priority incident investigation and troubleshooting, including P1 incident recreation.
- Work collaboratively with software, network, and floor management teams to coordinate technical dependencies, planning, and delivery.
- Engage with customers and internal stakeholders to understand requirements and ensure lab activities are delivered to agreed expectations.
- Manage and prioritise team workload through Jira, including sprint planning, task allocation, and balancing BAU activity with project commitments.
- Lead and support a team of approximately six technical staff, ensuring work is appropriately allocated and delivery standards are maintained.
- Establish, document, and continuously improve hardware testing and certification standards across the lab.
- Maintain a strong focus on operational control, quality, documentation, and repeatable hardware processes.
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Skills & Experience
Essential
- Proven hands-on experience working with data centre hardware and physical infrastructure, including racking, cabling, server builds, and hardware troubleshooting.
- Practical experience with server management and hardware administration consoles such as Dell iDRAC, HPE iLO, or Lenovo XClarity.
- Working knowledge of VMware, sufficient to understand and support the relationship between physical hardware and virtualisation environments.
- Strong understanding of SAN and storage infrastructure, particularly from a physical hardware connectivity and infrastructure perspective.
- Experience using Jira or a similar work management platform for task allocation, sprint planning, and workload management.
- Previous experience leading a technical team, ideally with responsibility for a team of around six people.
- Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise competing BAU, project, and incident-driven workloads.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to work across technical and non-technical teams.
- A practical, hands-on approach with the ability to troubleshoot issues and take ownership of technical escalations.
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Desirable
- Experience working within a regulated or highly controlled environment, with financial services experience particularly advantageous.
- Experience with hardware certification, platform qualification, or formal hardware testing processes.
- Experience supporting high-priority or critical incident investigations within a data centre or lab environment.
- Familiarity with enterprise server platforms such as Dell PowerEdge.
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