ROLE DEFINITION
The Data Centre Maintenance Team Leader is responsible for leading the engineering team during their day/shift, ensuring the safe, reliable, and compliant operation of electrical, mechanical, and HVAC systems. The role involves hands-on maintenance delivery, coordination of on-shift activities, and monitoring of site performance and asset condition to maintain infrastructure availability and reliability. The Team Leader provides technical leadership, supports operational continuity, and drives high standards of performance, safety, and customer service.
This role operates on a rotating shift pattern and reports to the Operations or Engineering Manager, acting as a peer to the Data Centre Engineering Supervisor.
Core Responsibilities & Deliverables
Leadership & Site Operations
* Coordinating and delivering planned, preventative, and reactive maintenance across all site systems as instructed by Operations Engineering Manager and Engineering Supervisor.
* Take full ownership of on-shift site performance, monitoring asset condition, alarms, and operational trends to maintain availability, reliability, and resilience of critical infrastructure.
* Mentor and support engineers and apprentices to develop skills, competency, and operational capability.
* Utilise change management system to support planning and labour management to maintain 100% uptime and zero customer impacting failures.
* Identify operational deficiencies and recommend improvements to enhance site performance.
* Produce incident reports, and complete corrective actions assigned by management/supervisory teams.
* Understand engineering design and operational aspects of all site systems.
* At site level, lead incident and emergency response, including equipment failures, fires, evacuations, and security incidents.
Engineering Operations, Maintenance & Asset Management
* Respond to identified issues across all site infrastructure and items that are assigned via management and supervisory teams.
* Perform hands-on maintenance activities, inspections, and site walkthroughs to verify equipment condition and operational performance.
* Ensure all faults, incidents, and remedial actions are logged, tracked, and closed via the Service Desk Incident Management System.
* Oversee PPM activities and manage close-out of findings, defects, and remedial works. Ensure all findings are raised in relevant systems to track to completion.
* Act as an Authorised Person (AP) for electrical works, controlling isolation and execution in accordance with company procedures and statutory requirements.
* Manage and control the Permit to Work (PTW) and change management processes for all maintenance and critical works on shift. Ensure Risk Assessments and Method Statements (RAMS) are reviewed and applied.
* Coordinate with internal engineering teams and contractors to safely deliver maintenance, repairs, and customer-impacting activities.
* Maintain accurate operational records, including CMMS/CAFM data, asset information, incident reports, and maintenance documentation.
Safety, Compliance & Procedures
* Ensure all activities comply with HSE legislation, local regulations, and company policies.
* Promote and maintain a strong health and safety culture across the site.
* Utilise monitoring systems (BMS, PMS, CMS) to support effective fault response, performance monitoring, and operational decision-making.
* Be fully conversant with company policies, operating and emergency procedures, and initiate improvements to minimise risk and promote best practice.
Incident & Customer Management
* Lead and be responsible for first-line response to site incidents, alarms, and system failures, including fault diagnosis, isolation, escalation, and restoration activities.
* Support incident investigations and Root Cause Analysis (RCA), implementing corrective and preventative actions to reduce repeat failures.
* Work closely with site teams and stakeholders on incident activities to ensure clear communication and service continuity to relevant end users.
* Conduct site walkthroughs to maintain system performance and operational readiness. Raise concerns immediately for rectification action.
Team management responsibilities & key relationships
* Direct line management of Shift Maintenance Engineers.
* Indirect supervision of all maintenance engineers working on shift.
* Collaborates with the Operations Engineering Manager, Engineering Supervisor, Central teams, contractors, and site stakeholders.
SKILLS, qualifications AND EXPERIENCE
Core Skills (Required)
Strong written and verbal communication skills across diverse stakeholder groups.
Collaborative leadership style with the ability to motivate, develop, and support teams.
Strong problem-solving capability and continuous improvement mindset.
Ability to make sound leadership decisions in operational and high-pressure environments.
Lead by example, providing guidance, support, and mentoring to all site engineering teams.
Qualifications
Recognised technical qualification in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering (e.g, NVQ Level, City & Guilds, BTEC, or equivalent).
Authorised Person / AP12 / AP15 or equivalent (Electrical) certification, or demonstrable experience operating as an AP under a formal Safety Rules system.
IT literate, including MS Office, CMMS/CAFM systems.
Desired management level training in leading and motivating teams.
IOSH Working Safely (Desirable)
Experience (Desired)
Minimum 2 years post-qualification experience, including proven leadership capabilities.
Experience working in critical environments (data centre, hospital, pharmaceutical, utilities, or similar).
Experience operating in customer-facing roles and resolving technical problems in high-pressure environments.
Understanding of safe systems of work and able to evidence the implementation of these in previous roles (PTW, RAMS, Change Management etc.).
Strong knowledge of BMS, PPM, CAFM, and Change Management processes.
Knowledge of and experience working to international HSE standards.
Knowledge of safe electrical and mechanical practices in line with regulatory standards.
Experience maintaining HVAC systems, chillers, cooling towers, low/medium voltage electrical systems, UPS, generators, and associated plant.
Strong troubleshooting and repair experience of critical building infrastructures.
Competence following documented procedures and maintaining accurate records in a Service Desk/CMMS system.
Note: The successful candidate will be required to complete pre-employment screening to BS7858:2019, or national equivalent. (Covers: Confirmation of identity, legal right to work, financial probity, criminal history and associations with proscribed organisations). It is the policy of Pure DC that all individuals have a responsibility for the security and protection of company’s Information and IT Resources over which they have control, according to their role