Lead Level 2 Data Center NOC Engineer

We are seeking a Lead Level 2 Data Center NOC Engineer to provide technical leadership and operational ownership across modular, edge, and distributed data center environments. This lead role acts is responsible leading incident response, mentoring NOC staff, and ensuring uptime of critical infrastructure including power, cooling, and networking systems. The ideal candidate combines deep hands-on troubleshooting with strong leadership, communication, and process ownership.

What You'll Do (Key Responsibilities)

Shift & Operational Leadership:

• Act as the senior technical lead on shift, guiding and supporting L1 NOC technicians.
• Serve as primary escalation point for incidents until resolution or handoff to L3 Engineering.
• Lead shift handovers, prioritization, and operational decision-making.
• Mentor and coach junior NOC staff and support onboarding.
• Represent the NOC during cross-functional incident bridges.

Incident Command & Reliability:

• Serve as Incident Commander for medium to high-severity incidents.
• Own end-to-end incident lifecycle: detection, triage, mitigation, communication, and resolution.
• Drive root cause analysis (RCA) and corrective actions for recurring issues.
• Ensure high-quality, executive-ready incident communications.
• Continuously improve MTTR and operational reliability.

Infrastructure & Data Center Operations:

• Monitor and troubleshoot physical infrastructure using PLC, BMS, and DCIM platforms.
• Perform health checks on UPS, PDUs, generators, CRAC/CRAH systems.
• Troubleshoot MEP-related issues and coordinate maintenance and remote hands.
• Support modular, containerized, and micro data center deployments.
• Enforce physical and logical security policies.

Networking Operations & Troubleshooting (L2):

• Monitor and troubleshoot switches, routers, firewalls, and edge connectivity.
• Perform L2/L3 troubleshooting (VLANs, IP addressing, MTU, routing fundamentals).
• Validate fiber/copper connectivity, optics, link status, and redundancy paths.
• Troubleshoot VPNs and secure remote access solutions.
• Escalate architecture or design issues to Network Engineering (L3).

Tooling, Runbooks & Automation:

• Use observability and ITSM platforms (Grafana, Zenduty, ServiceNow, Jira, SolarWinds).
• Own and maintain operational runbooks, SOPs, and escalation procedures.
• Improve alerting quality, dashboards, and noise reduction.
• Support automation, reporting, audits, and compliance requests.

Collaboration & Change Management:

• Partner with Engineering and Product teams.
• Participate in change planning, execution, and post-change validation.
• Identify operational gaps and drive continuous improvement initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years experience in NOC, data center, or infrastructure operations.
• Demonstrated experience leading incidents or technical shifts.
• Strong hands-on experience with DCIM/BMS platforms (Distech, Schneider, RadixIOT).
• Advanced L2/L3 networking troubleshooting experience.
• Solid understanding of power, cooling, and monitoring systems.
• Ability to interpret electrical one-lines and network diagrams.
• Comfortable with shift work and on-call rotations.

Preferred Experience and Skills

• Certifications: CCNA, JNCIA, CDCTP, CDCP, or equivalent.
• Experience with edge/remote connectivity (VSAT, LTE/5G, Starlink).
• Familiarity with Linux/Windows server environments.
• Basic scripting (Python, Bash, PowerShell).