Data Center Manager - Kansas City

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.

We want people who are passionate about operational excellence and scaling infrastructure that powers the cloud.

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 Kansas City, MO region and requires you to be onsite.

What You’ll Be Working On:

• 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.

What We’ll Expect From You:

• 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.

Compensation Range:

• $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 a onsite role

JR: 2026-8391

#LI-Onsite

Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean

• 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.

• DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.