Data Centers Senior Manager

Job Description

• To lead and maintain Infrastructure architecture, ensuring seamless interfacing of ITS applications used by MTNIrancell with numerous applications and downstream network elements.
• To manage and oversee IT data center and its infrastructure to adopt and integrate emerging technologies and services, including but not limited to managed services, cloud-native infrastructure, and performance management technologies.
• To oversee the OAM of MTN Irancell’s Enterprise-class IT Infrastructure, encompassing all data centers and related infrastructure deployed in Iran, to meet evolving business, technology, legal, and security requirements.
• To develop, implement, and maintain policies, processes, and procedures for MTN Irancell’s data centers based on related world-class standards, ITSM, and ITIL, ensuring alignment with business objectives and compliance with organizational policies and environmental regulations.
• To manage the end-to-end availability and reliability of ITS infrastructure Managed Services and Hardware, encompassing applications, interdependent systems, virtual, containerized, and physical infrastructure, and associated network components in which the management and devices are available.
• To lead the optimization of available ITS infrastructure capacity (especially compute/storage) and all spare parts, ensuring sufficient support and resources are ordered on time to accommodate business growth, data processing demands, and system maintenance.
• To manage day-to-day operational activities & incidents, including:

1. Provide strategic inputs to the ITS solution delivery and network planning divisions to improve the availability and performance of ITS systems and services.
2. Plan and design IT infrastructure managed services and solutions in various infrastructure domains of virtualization, DevOps/SRE, backup, and database to host MTN Irancell’s business applications.
3. Program management of the IT Infrastructure projects portfolio.
4. Support the ITS DR strategy by leading the ITS infrastructure disaster recovery plan in conjunction with the infrastructure vendor and ensuring it is tested and functional.
5. Provide input for ITS business plans to meet business requirements.
6. Daily monitoring and follow-ups of incidents and problems of ITS infrastructure to meet SLA targets
7. Continually improve ITS DC operations using metrics-driven insights
8. Follow expansion of current managed services, upgrade plans, and licensing renewals in accordance with CAPEX/OPEX annual planning

• To collaborate with the service management senior manager to manage the outsourcing contracts of infrastructure operational services, ensuring optimal performance and compliance by infrastructure vendors managing MTN Irancell’s enterprise data centers.
• To ensure security operations within data centers on the delegated layers, including Operating Systems (OS) and Database (DB), comply with MTN Irancell’s established policies, procedures, and standards, maintaining a secure and robust operational environment.
• To manage the capital and operational expenditures associated with outsourced data center operations, ensuring cost efficiency and alignment with business goals
• To lead and participate in critical negotiations with external legal authorities, vendors, and service providers, ensuring that all IT Data Center requirements are comprehensively addressed and met
• To oversee and ensure proper implementation of installation & commissioning procedures and related policies throughout all new or, expansion or modernization projects involved.
• To resolve the performance management challenges by applying and monitoring strict service levels and contract management mechanisms while simultaneously establishing and maintaining the team dynamics required for effective performance.
• To guide and mentor the technical teams within the infrastructure outsource partner in terms of technical support, best practices, and service availability improvements.
• To act as a consultant to outsourced vendors to ensure service levels are maintained and system downtimes are minimized, safeguarding operational continuity.
• To act as a mentor and trainer to outsourced vendor staff in the interest of MTNIrancell to ensure that ITS best practices are upheld.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, or related fields (mandatory).
• Manager track record of 5 years or more in relevant sector/industry in IT infrastructure, data center management, or similar roles.
• Knowledge of ITIL, ITSM, TIA-942, and ISO 27001 standards.
• Strong knowledge of IT infrastructure architecture, including servers, storage, networking, and virtualization.
• Proficiency in managing day-to-day operations of enterprise-class data centers, Ability to define, measure, and improve KPIs for data center operations.
• Worked across diverse cultures and geographies advantageous
• Experience in supervising/managing others in at least a team of 50-100 engineer
• Experience working in large-scale organization
• Extensive experience in operation, administration, and maintenance of ITS data centers and infrastructure.
• Experience in developing and enforcing security policies and procedures to ensure data protection and compliance.
• Proven experience in managing infrastructure service delivery, including incident resolution and disaster recovery planning based on standards and directives in the area of IT Service Management in alignment with ITSM and ITIL.
• Ability to quickly respond to and resolve service disruptions, ensuring minimal impact on business operations and maintaining high availability.
• Familiarity with world-class standards for data center operations and disaster recovery strategies.
• Proficiency in virtualization, backup, database management, DevOps/SRE practices, and performance monitoring tools.
• Understanding operating systems (OS), databases (DB), and network infrastructure.
• Understanding telecom-grade IT requirements.
• Strong skills in managing outsourced vendors, service providers, and contracts to ensure performance and compliance through operational metrics of SLA, availability, and service reliability.
• Proficiency in managing CAPEX and OPEX budgets, with a focus on cost efficiency.
• Familiarity with performance management and monitoring tools for modern IT environments.
• Experience in overseeing installation, commissioning, and expansion of IT infrastructure projects.
• Experience in management of large-impacting ITS infrastructural projects with the objectives of technology change and upgrade, service optimization, infrastructure transformation, new managed service roll-out from design to realization, and modernization projects.
• Certified Data Center Professional (CDCP) or Certified Data Center Manager (CDCM) is a plus.