Microsoft

Data Center Technician Manager

Microsoft • $75K — $167K *
Phoenix, AZ 85032In-Person
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • High School Diploma, GED, or equivalent with basic knowledge of computer hardware.
  • 3+ years of experience in supporting IT equipment or related technology.
  • 1+ year experience in a supervisory or management role.
  • Ability to work 12-hour shifts during non-standard hours, including nights and weekends.
  • Strong analytical skills for monitoring and improving team performance against KPIs.

Responsibilities

  • Lead a team of technicians to ensure timely completion of assignments and ticket resolution.
  • Review and advise on improvements to processes impacting service quality and efficiency.
  • Provide guidance on IT datacenter technology processes, including troubleshooting and decommissioning.
  • Ensure compliance with data center policies and procedures, addressing any gaps directly.
  • Conduct daily safety briefings and ensure adherence to EHS training and safety protocols.

Benefits

  • Opportunity for career advancement within a leading tech company.
  • Exposure to a high-tech, fast-paced datacenter environment.
  • Comprehensive training on ITIL and compliance management processes.
  • Opportunity for occasional business travel to support additional sites.
  • A culture that emphasizes teamwork, feedback, and continuous improvement.
Full Job Description
Overview

As a Microsoft Data Center Technician (DCT) Manager, you will lead a team of technicians, providing expert guidance on performing hardware deployments, diagnostics on equipment, and hardware decommissions. You will support technician performance, prioritizing technician tasks while monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This opportunity will allow you to model leadership principles, provide training to technicians, and accelerate your career growth in the process.

In this environment, you may be asked to go on business travel to support other metros periodically, 0-25% of the time and have the ability to work 12-hour shifts, including shift assignments during non-standard business hours that may include evening, nighttime, weekends and/or holidays.

Microsoft is unable to sponsor a work visa for this role due to the nature of the role's job duties.

Responsibilities

Datacenter Operations

  • Ensures a team of technicians can complete assigned tickets efficiently and in alignment with relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) per task type. Supports escalation of challenging or complex tickets to internal business partners and appropriately summarizes relevant issues for communication to direct-line management. Coordinates and assigns tasks to technicians, and/or provides input or coordination with appropriate program managers and direct-line management for ticket assignment automation to provide direction as needed, to ensure work is appropriately allocated to meet Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) per task type. Monitors progress of tickets assigned to teams of technicians and adjusts where necessary, to meet established Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) per task type. Analyzes data related to technicians' performance on tickets and shares with direct-line management.


  • Advises on and reviews suggested modifications to process and procedures to manage changes and drive improvement in service quality and/or efficiency. Proactively investigates, evaluates, and analyzes changes. Reviews Process Change Notifications (PCNs) to evaluate impact on service execution and shares relevant information about change with stakeholders across functions and disciplines to mitigate the impact they may have on others. Encourages technicians to ask questions when they do not have required information, resolves others' questions in a timely manner, and may provide feedback on changes to processes to direct-line management, standards management teams, and/or project, program, or special initiative managers.


  • Encourages the sharing of expertise in and provides guidance on standard processes and procedures for preparing, installing, performing diagnostics, troubleshooting, replacing, and decommissioning IT datacenter technology(ies) and equipment. Encourages the sharing of expertise and provides guidance on the functions of, and interactions between cabling infrastructure, network, server, and storage equipment. Develops awareness of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation components: Incident Management and Change Management.


  • Provides guidance on, and holds a team of technicians accountable for compliance with Data Center business unit policies, procedures, and deadlines. Proactively reviews and provides feedback regarding Data Center business unit policies, procedures, and deadlines. Resolves issues related to compliance or operational assurance activities directly, or with assistance from compliance colleagues and/or business partners. Provides input on improvement plan components for service delivery gaps or challenges.


Datacenter Work Environment

  • Working for extended periods under elevated levels of ambient noise, heat, and light due to necessary equipment and ventilation systems.


  • Completes required security and data management training, ensures technicians completion of applicable training, and maintains accountability for technician compliance with security and data management procedures/policies. Ensures that policies and procedures securing physical access to the data center or network site environment(s) are appropriately enforced. May escort third party vendors or IT support on-premises at data centers or network sites. Appropriately takes action and reports physical security access concerns and/or incidents, and gathers information about such events reported by their team to inform direct-line management and escalates to relevant stakeholders. Participates in identifying the root cause of any physical security access violations and manages corrective actions and escalations related to technician violations of physical security procedures or policies.


  • Traveling up to 25% 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.


  • Promotes a positive and effective team environment by modeling best practices, leading regular team meetings, cross-discipline collaborations, and monitoring the status of work across their team to understanding the impact on other shifts/technician teams, engineering groups or internal business partner needs and the overall business. Provides, responds to, and encourages providing feedback regarding on ways to work more effectively or enhance efficiency within their team and adopts best practices shared within-and-across shifts or technician teams.


  • Occasional climbing of ladders. Frequent climbing of stairs and/or ramps. Prolonged standing. Occasional lifting up to 25lbs / 11kg without assistance. Occasional lifting 25-50lbs / 11-22.5kg with lift assistance. Occasional push or pull 50-75 lbs / 22.5-34kg with assistive device. Normal visual acuity (near, far and peripheral with correction), defined via standard medical terms and applicable criteria. Normal color vision for electrical work, defined via standard medical terms and applicable criteria.


  • Conducts daily safety briefings, ensuring their team members attend, and/or participates in onsite safety committees. Completes required Environmental & Health Safety (EHS) training, ensures technicians comply with EHS training completion requirements and are compliant with safety procedures (e.g., equipment use, lifting, electrical hazards, ladder/rolling stair use), Task Hazard Analysis (THAs) completion, and use of appropriate equipment and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for assigned tasks. Adheres to and promotes a culture of safety, empowering technician teams to report and/or take proactive action regarding safety concerns, near-misses, and/or incidents. Participates in regular cadence proactive safety observation reporting processes and systems, and follows up with their team members as needed regarding actionable safety observations reported.


Managing Service

  • Partners with internal and external stakeholders to manage the removal of risks to personnel and/or resource availability, performance, and compliance.


  • Identifies and assigns required training as applicable across all technician job focus areas and workloads (i.e., Break fix, Deployment, Simple Change, Decommission, IT Critical Environment) along with Personnel Management training in a timely manner per direct-line management assignment(s) and validates completion of assigned training by team members. May complete additional or supplemental training to obtain or maintain relevant industry or technical certifications and advise their team on relevant certifications to obtain.


  • Exercises judgment and discretion to contribute to issue tracking related to follow-up and resolution to overall quality of service escalations and/or proactive initiatives. Maintains responsibility for client and technician team interactions for escalations and/or engagements between them and other internal business partners.


  • Collects and reviews appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for their team to support line of business (e.g. performance measures, long-term trends) and/or business intelligence analysis (e.g., service availability data, system health). Shares feedback from reviews with technicians to drive improvement in meeting KPI expectations and sharing learnings from reviews with direct-line management.


People Management

  • Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. Model: Live our culture. Embody our values. Practice our leadership principles. Coach: Define team objectives and outcomes. Enable success across boundaries. Help the team adapt and learn. Care: Attract and retain great people. Know each individual's capabilities and aspirations. Invest in the growth of others.


Service Delivery

  • Follows procedures to immediately engage Designated Responsible Individuals (DRIs) for appropriate communication, reporting, and incident management of data center technical or safety related incidents with direct-line management, internal business partners, and impacted engineering group contacts. Participates in bridge calls to provide details on incident status and executes on-site follow-up actions as directed if necessary. May leverage learnings to contribute to the improvement of quality of service and support.


  • Proactively reviews schedules and avoids conflicts when possible. Identifies, coordinates, manages expectations, and offers alternatives when defining technical solutions in light of ongoing operations and procedures (e.g., schedule, technical feasibility, policy, procedure, tools).


  • Coordinates training packages for technicians on procedures for installation, deployment, upgrade, refresh, simple change, decommission and/or replacement of infrastructure cabling, network, storage, or server equipment. Provides guidance to technicians for developing an effective execution order of assigned tasks and ensures technicians have access to tools and/or supplies required to perform work. Investigates root causes of issues that may have negatively impacted ticket Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) per task type, and takes proactive corrective action.


  • Verifies compliance with standards and procedure for data-bearing devices (DBDs) destruction and/or confirms any-and-all such devices (e.g. hard-drives, solid-state drives, flash cards, etc.) contained within network, storage, or server equipment has been identified for eradication or destruction. Creates schedules for shift-based technicians to ensure positioning and availability to execute work as defined by organizational standards, negotiates with internal team colleagues to organize project timelines, with guidance from direct-line management, and appropriate notification to stakeholders.


  • Manages assigned projects or programs to meet service delivery objectives. Participates in pilot programs or task forces to ensure smooth implementation for future service delivery as directed.


  • Evaluates procedures for performing quality checks to ensure they align with compliance standards and process adherence, and takes responsibility for impact to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by task type of work performed by technicians. Performs post-execution verification of grounding, staging, labeling, and cabling as needed to ensure alignment with all safety protocols, deployment standards, and planned Network Design Templates (NDTs), taking corrective action(s) to address any non-compliance, and validates post-execution quality or validation training has been completed by applicable technicians to enable them. Identifies errors in deployment standards or Network Design Templates (NDTs) and coordinates directly with internal business partners, technologists, or subject matter experts (SMEs) to develop corrections as needed.


  • Evaluates diagnostic and troubleshooting processes and suggests improvements. Maintains advanced awareness of conditions, circumstances, and scenarios which may reflect significant customer or business impact within the Data Center environment, and escalates observations of imminent incident risks or potential situations immediately to direct-line management.


Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

  • High School Diploma, GED, or equivalent and basic knowledge of computer hardware and components. AND 3+ years experience supporting IT equipment or related technology or related experience working with teams OR equivalent experience.


  • 1+ year(s) experience directing, supervising, or managing others or leading a project.
  • Ability to work shifts, including shift assignments during non-standard business hours that may include e

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Join Microsoft today and be part of a company that values innovation, leadership, and diversity in its workforce. As a global leader in technology and digital transformation, Microsoft offers unparalleled job opportunities that propel your career to new heights.

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Career growth at Microsoft is about more than climbing the corporate ladder; it's about continuous learning, expanding your skills, and improving your capabilities. With access to various leadership and training programs, you can evolve as a professional and make a significant impact within the company and on the global stage.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Enterprise Technology
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
NASDAQ
MSFT
* Ladders Estimates

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