Data Center Expert - Saudi National

Industry: Aviation

Work Model: On-site

Location: Riyadh

Job Summary

The Data Center Expert is responsible for the operation, optimization, and continuous improvement of data centers, with a focus on backups, storage, virtualization, and replication systems. This role ensures high availability, security, and scalability of mission-critical infrastructure, driving compliance with industry best practices and organizational requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee the daily operation of data centers, ensuring uptime, performance, and reliability of mission-critical infrastructure.
• Manage enterprise storage solutions, including provisioning, replication, backup, and disaster recovery.
• Implement and maintain backup and replication systems using industry-leading platforms such as Veeam and Commvault.
• Operate and optimize virtualization and hyper-converged infrastructure solutions, with a focus on VMware vSAN.
• Monitor capacity, performance, and availability of data center resources, ensuring proactive scaling and optimization.
• Lead data center operations for security, power, cooling, cabling, and physical infrastructure.
• Ensure compliance with best practices for data protection, retention policies, and disaster recovery strategies.
• Perform root cause analysis and implement corrective/preventive actions for system incidents.
• Develop and maintain documentation, including runbooks, system diagrams, and operational guidelines.
• Collaborate with IT security teams to enforce strict controls for access, monitoring, and system protection.
• Plan and execute system upgrades, migrations, and lifecycle management activities.
• Provide escalation-level troubleshooting for complex data center, storage, and virtualization issues.
• Conduct periodic testing of backup and disaster recovery procedures to validate system resilience.
• Ensure adherence to SLAs and compliance requirements for regulated environments.
• Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies in storage, backup, virtualization, and data center management.
• Train and mentor engineers and administrators to strengthen organizational expertise in data center operations.
• Support audits, capacity planning, and reporting to senior management on data center performance and risks.
  
  

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, or related field (Master’s degree preferred).
• Minimum of 10+ years of experience in data center operations, with at least 5 years at an expert level in storage, backup, and replication.
• Proven expertise in enterprise storage management, including SAN, NAS, and hyper-converged systems.
• Strong experience in backup, replication, and disaster recovery with platforms such as Veeam and Commvault.
• Hands-on expertise with VMware vSAN and virtualization technologies.
• In-depth understanding of data center infrastructure, including servers, networking, cooling, and power systems.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL processes and data center operations best practices.
• Excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills for enterprise environments.
• Proven experience managing large-scale, mission-critical data centers.
• Strong documentation, communication, and leadership abilities.
• Ability to work in high-pressure environments with 24/7 operational responsibilities.
• Aviation experience is preferred.
  
  

Required Certifications

• Dell EMC Proven Professional Certification
• Veeam and/or Commvault Certification
• VMware vSAN Certification
  
  

Preferred Certifications (a Plus)

• VMware VCP-DCV (Data Center Virtualization)
• ITIL Foundation or higher
• Cisco CCNP Data Center or equivalent
• Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) certification