Data Centre Specialist
Location: Centurion, Gauteng (provisional – to be confirmed)
Positions Available: 5
Salary: Market-related
Employment Type: To be confirmed
Job Overview
We are seeking experienced and technically proficient Data Centre Specialists to support the administration, operation, maintenance, monitoring and optimisation of critical data centre infrastructure within complex enterprise IT environments.
The successful candidates will be responsible for ensuring the availability, reliability, security, performance and operational continuity of data centre facilities and supporting IT infrastructure.
This role requires strong hands-on experience in data centre operations, physical server infrastructure, storage systems, networking, power and cooling infrastructure, environmental monitoring, incident management and infrastructure maintenance.
The ideal candidates will have proven experience supporting enterprise or commercial data centre environments, including rack-mounted infrastructure, structured cabling, hardware installations, equipment monitoring, infrastructure troubleshooting and operational procedures.
Candidates must understand the importance of high-availability infrastructure, redundancy, disaster recovery, physical security and compliance with established data centre operational standards.
The role requires collaboration with infrastructure engineers, network specialists, systems administrators, facilities teams, cybersecurity professionals, vendors and service providers.
This is a specialist data centre operations role requiring demonstrated practical experience working with physical data centre infrastructure. General desktop support or office-based IT administration without substantial data centre experience will not be sufficient.
Key Responsibilities
Data Centre Operations and Infrastructure Management
- Monitor and maintain the day-to-day operation of enterprise data centre infrastructure.
- Ensure the availability, reliability and operational readiness of critical systems.
- Conduct routine inspections of data centre equipment and facilities.
- Support the installation, configuration and maintenance of physical IT infrastructure.
- Monitor infrastructure health and identify potential operational risks.
- Maintain accurate records of infrastructure assets and configurations.
- Ensure compliance with approved data centre operational procedures.
- Coordinate infrastructure maintenance and service activities.
- Support capacity planning and infrastructure expansion.
- Maintain high standards of operational efficiency and service availability.
Server Hardware Installation and Maintenance
- Install, rack, stack and maintain physical servers and associated equipment.
- Support enterprise server infrastructure, including rack-mounted and blade server systems.
- Perform hardware diagnostics and troubleshooting.
- Replace failed or degraded hardware components.
- Support server commissioning, decommissioning and relocation.
- Coordinate hardware repairs with equipment vendors.
- Maintain server asset information and installation records.
- Ensure appropriate cable management and equipment labelling.
- Support hardware firmware updates in accordance with approved procedures.
- Assist infrastructure teams with physical server-related incidents.
Storage Infrastructure Support
- Support enterprise storage hardware and associated infrastructure.
- Assist with the installation and maintenance of SAN and NAS equipment.
- Monitor storage hardware health and operational alerts.
- Support storage connectivity and physical infrastructure troubleshooting.
- Coordinate hardware maintenance and component replacement.
- Assist storage specialists with infrastructure changes.
- Maintain accurate storage equipment records.
- Support storage infrastructure availability and redundancy requirements.
- Escalate storage performance or hardware issues appropriately.
- Follow established storage maintenance and change control procedures.
Data Centre Network Infrastructure
- Support the physical installation and maintenance of network equipment.
- Assist with rack installation of switches, routers, firewalls and network appliances.
- Maintain structured copper and fibre-optic cabling.
- Perform cable tracing, testing, patching and labelling.
- Support network connectivity troubleshooting.
- Coordinate physical network infrastructure changes.
- Maintain network cabling documentation and rack diagrams.
- Support network equipment replacement and maintenance.
- Collaborate with network engineers on infrastructure incidents.
- Ensure cabling practices comply with organisational standards.
Power Infrastructure and Electrical Systems
- Monitor critical power infrastructure and related alarms.
- Support operational monitoring of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems.
- Monitor Power Distribution Units (PDUs) and rack power utilisation.
- Understand redundant power configurations and critical power distribution.
- Coordinate with authorised electrical and facilities specialists on power-related issues.
- Support scheduled maintenance of critical power infrastructure.
- Identify abnormal power conditions and escalate appropriately.
- Assist with power capacity planning and equipment placement.
- Maintain power distribution documentation.
- Follow electrical safety procedures and approved operational protocols.
Cooling and Environmental Monitoring
- Monitor data centre temperature, humidity and environmental conditions.
- Support monitoring of Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) and related cooling systems.
- Identify and escalate cooling equipment alarms.
- Monitor environmental management systems and alerts.
- Support hot aisle and cold aisle management practices.
- Assist with airflow and rack layout optimisation.
- Identify environmental risks affecting equipment availability.
- Coordinate facilities maintenance activities.
- Maintain environmental monitoring records.
- Support data centre energy efficiency initiatives.
Infrastructure Monitoring and Incident Response
- Monitor infrastructure management systems and operational dashboards.
- Respond to data centre infrastructure alerts and incidents.
- Investigate hardware faults, connectivity issues and environmental alarms.
- Perform initial fault isolation and troubleshooting.
- Escalate complex technical issues to appropriate specialist teams.
- Support incident response and service restoration activities.
- Maintain accurate incident records and technical findings.
- Participate in root cause analysis and post-incident reviews.
- Support proactive monitoring and preventative maintenance.
- Ensure incidents are managed in accordance with agreed service levels.
Data Centre Physical Security
- Support the enforcement of physical access control procedures.
- Monitor authorised access to restricted data centre areas.
- Ensure visitors, contractors and vendors comply with security requirements.
- Maintain equipment movement and access records.
- Support CCTV, access control and physical security processes.
- Identify and report physical security risks.
- Ensure sensitive infrastructure is protected from unauthorised access.
- Support physical security audits and inspections.
- Follow secure equipment handling and disposal procedures.
- Collaborate with information security and facilities teams.
Asset Management and Documentation
- Maintain accurate data centre asset inventories.
- Record equipment installations, relocations and decommissioning.
- Maintain rack elevation diagrams and infrastructure layouts.
- Document equipment serial numbers, asset tags and ownership details.
- Track infrastructure warranties and maintenance arrangements.
- Maintain cabling diagrams and connectivity records.
- Support configuration management database (CMDB) updates.
- Ensure infrastructure documentation remains accurate.
- Support asset audits and equipment reconciliation.
- Maintain appropriate documentation for infrastructure changes.
Capacity Planning and Infrastructure Optimisation
- Monitor rack space, power utilisation and cooling capacity.
- Support infrastructure capacity assessments.
- Identify potential resource constraints and expansion requirements.
- Assist with data centre infrastructure planning.
- Evaluate equipment placement and rack utilisation.
- Recommend improvements to infrastructure efficiency.
- Support infrastructure refresh and technology upgrade programmes.
- Assist with equipment lifecycle planning.
- Identify opportunities to improve resilience and operational performance.
- Contribute to data centre optimisation initiatives.
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
- Support data centre disaster recovery and business continuity arrangements.
- Maintain operational readiness of redundant infrastructure.
- Assist with disaster recovery exercises and infrastructure testing.
- Support recovery procedures during critical infrastructure incidents.
- Ensure operational documentation supports recovery activities.
- Collaborate with infrastructure and business continuity teams.
- Identify single points of failure and resilience risks.
- Support infrastructure restoration following service disruptions.
- Participate in emergency response procedures.
- Recommend improvements to operational resilience.
Change Management and Maintenance Coordination
- Perform infrastructure changes in accordance with approved change management procedures.
- Support planned hardware installations and maintenance activities.
- Coordinate infrastructure work with internal teams and external service providers.
- Conduct pre-change checks and post-change validation.
- Maintain accurate change records.
- Assess operational risks associated with infrastructure changes.
- Follow maintenance windows and service continuity requirements.
- Support rollback and recovery procedures where required.
- Ensure appropriate stakeholder communication.
- Participate in infrastructure change reviews.
Vendor and Service Provider Management
- Coordinate with server, storage, networking and facilities service providers.
- Support vendor access and on-site maintenance activities.
- Log and track hardware support incidents.
- Coordinate equipment repairs and replacements.
- Monitor vendor service delivery against agreed requirements.
- Validate completion of maintenance activities.
- Maintain records of vendor interventions.
- Escalate unresolved technical issues.
- Support equipment procurement and delivery coordination.
- Ensure third-party activities comply with data centre procedures.
Operational Governance and Compliance
- Follow established data centre operational standards and procedures.
- Support infrastructure audits and compliance assessments.
- Maintain operational records and evidence.
- Apply relevant health and safety requirements.
- Support implementation of data centre security and risk controls.
- Ensure equipment handling follows approved procedures.
- Participate in operational risk assessments.
- Maintain compliance with change, incident and problem management processes.
- Support continuous improvement of operational procedures.
- Promote a safe, secure and reliable data centre environment.
Minimum Requirements
- Relevant diploma, degree or technical qualification in Information Technology, Computer Science, Network Engineering, Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics or a related discipline.
- Typically 3–5+ years of relevant hands-on experience in enterprise data centre operations, infrastructure support or a closely related environment.
- Proven practical experience working with physical data centre infrastructure – essential.
- Experience installing, maintaining and troubleshooting enterprise server hardware.
- Familiarity with rack-mounted servers, storage systems and networking equipment.
- Practical experience with rack installations, structured cabling and equipment management.
- Understanding of enterprise storage infrastructure, including SAN and NAS technologies.
- Knowledge of data centre power distribution, UPS systems and redundancy concepts.
- Understanding of data centre cooling and environmental monitoring.
- Experience using infrastructure monitoring and incident management tools.
- Familiarity with ITIL incident, problem and change management principles.
- Experience maintaining infrastructure documentation and asset inventories.
- Understanding of physical data centre security and access controls.
- Knowledge of high availability, disaster recovery and business continuity principles.
- Strong technical troubleshooting and fault isolation skills.
- Ability to work effectively with infrastructure specialists and facilities teams.
- Experience within enterprise, colocation, hosting or similarly complex data centre environments.
- Willingness to participate in shifts, standby or after-hours maintenance where required and confirmed.
Technical Skills and Competencies
Data Centre Operations
- Enterprise data centre operations
- Data centre infrastructure management
- High-availability environments
- Critical infrastructure monitoring
- Infrastructure maintenance
- Equipment commissioning
- Equipment decommissioning
- Infrastructure troubleshooting
- Data centre capacity management
- Preventative maintenance
- Operational resilience
- Data centre incident response
Server Hardware Technologies
Experience with enterprise server technologies such as:
- Dell PowerEdge
- HPE ProLiant
- HPE Synergy
- Lenovo ThinkSystem
- Cisco UCS
- Rack-mounted servers
- Blade server systems
- Server hardware diagnostics
- RAID fundamentals
- Server firmware management
- Hardware lifecycle management
- Remote management interfaces such as iDRAC and iLO
Storage Infrastructure
- Storage Area Networks (SAN)
- Network Attached Storage (NAS)
- Enterprise storage arrays
- Fibre Channel fundamentals
- Storage connectivity
- Storage hardware monitoring
- Storage redundancy
- Storage infrastructure maintenance
- Storage hardware troubleshooting
- Storage capacity awareness
Network Infrastructure
- Enterprise network equipment
- Network switches and routers
- Firewalls and security appliances
- Structured cabling
- Fibre-optic cabling
- Copper cabling
- Patch panels
- Cable testing and tracing
- Network rack installations
- Network connectivity troubleshooting
- Network documentation
- Physical network redundancy
Power and Electrical Infrastructure
- UPS systems
- Power Distribution Units (PDUs)
- Rack power distribution
- Redundant power supplies
- Critical power monitoring
- Generator infrastructure awareness
- Electrical safety principles
- Power capacity management
- Power infrastructure alarms
- Power redundancy concepts
Cooling and Environmental Systems
- CRAC and CRAH system awareness
- Data centre cooling
- Temperature monitoring
- Humidity monitoring
- Hot aisle and cold aisle containment
- Airflow management
- Environmental alarms
- Cooling redundancy
- Data centre environmental controls
- Energy efficiency principles
Data Centre Infrastructure Management Tools
Experience with relevant technologies such as:
- Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) platforms
- Schneider Electric EcoStruxure IT
- Sunbird DCIM
- Nlyte
- Device42
- PRTG Network Monitor
- SolarWinds
- Zabbix
- Nagios
- ServiceNow
- BMC Helix
- Other enterprise monitoring and infrastructure management platforms
Virtualisation and Operating Systems
A working understanding of the following would be advantageous:
- VMware vSphere
- VMware ESXi
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Windows Server
- Linux server environments
- Virtual machine infrastructure
- Virtualisation host hardware
- Hypervisor infrastructure monitoring
- Server operating system fundamentals
Data Centre Standards and Frameworks
- Uptime Institute Tier concepts
- TIA-942 awareness
- ISO/IEC 27001 awareness
- ISO/IEC 20000 awareness
- ITIL
- Data centre operational best practices
- Physical infrastructure security
- Business continuity principles
- Disaster recovery principles
- Health and safety procedures
- Infrastructure change management
Asset Management and Documentation
- IT asset management
- CMDB management
- Rack elevation diagrams
- Infrastructure inventories
- Equipment labelling
- Cabling documentation
- Asset lifecycle management
- Maintenance records
- Infrastructure configuration documentation
- Equipment movement records
Operational Processes
- Incident management
- Problem management
- Change management
- Root cause analysis
- Preventative maintenance
- Vendor coordination
- Service level management
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Operational risk management
- Disaster recovery support
- Infrastructure quality assurance
Relevant Certifications (Advantageous)
One or more of the following certifications would be beneficial:
- Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP)
- Certified Data Centre Specialist (CDCS)
- Certified Data Centre Expert (CDCE)
- Certified Data Centre Facilities Operations Manager (CDFOM)
- Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Specialist (ATS)
- CompTIA Server+
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA A+
- Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
- ITIL 4 Foundation
- VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
- Microsoft infrastructure certifications
- Dell, HPE, Lenovo or Cisco server infrastructure certifications
- Relevant data centre operations, infrastructure or facilities certifications
Key Personal Attributes
- Strong technical troubleshooting and problem-solving abilities.
- Excellent attention to detail and operational accuracy.
- Ability to work effectively in critical, high-availability environments.
- Strong understanding of operational risk and infrastructure reliability.
- Calm and methodical approach to incident response.
- Excellent organisational and documentation skills.
- Strong communication and teamwork abilities.
- Ability to follow technical procedures and safety standards.
- Proactive approach to infrastructure monitoring and preventative maintenance.
- Ability to manage competing priorities during incidents.
- High levels of accountability and operational discipline.
- Willingness to support critical infrastructure outside standard office hours where required.
- Commitment to security, safety and service continuity.
- Professionalism, reliability and integrity.
Application Requirements
Interested candidates should submit an updated CV clearly detailing their practical data centre operations and infrastructure support experience, together with copies of relevant academic qualifications and professional certifications.
Candidates should specifically highlight:
- Years of hands-on experience working in enterprise or commercial data centres.
- Data centre environments and facilities personally supported.
- Server hardware platforms installed and maintained.
- Rack-and-stack, structured cabling and equipment installation experience.
- Enterprise storage and networking infrastructure exposure.
- UPS, PDU, cooling and environmental monitoring experience.
- Data centre monitoring and DCIM platforms used.
- Hardware troubleshooting and incident response responsibilities.
- Physical security and infrastructure governance experience.
- Infrastructure asset management and documentation responsibilities.
- Disaster recovery and business continuity support.
- High-availability or mission-critical environments supported.
- Relevant vendor certifications and data centre qualifications.
- Shift, standby and after-hours operational experience, where applicable.
Important: This is a specialist Data Centre Specialist opportunity requiring demonstrable hands-on experience supporting physical enterprise data centre infrastructure. General desktop support, helpdesk administration or office IT support without substantial data centre operational experience will not meet the intended specialist profile.
Please note: This is a provisional recruitment specification prepared pending confirmation of the client's detailed requirements. The preferred infrastructure technologies, minimum experience, qualifications, certifications, remuneration, employment arrangements, shift requirements and working conditions will be confirmed during the recruitment process.