Data Center Engineer

About Claranet

Founded at the beginning of the dot.com bubble in 1996, our CEO Charles Nasser had a light bulb moment to develop a truly customer-focused IT business. Since then, Claranet has grown from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the UK to being one of the leading business modernisation experts, who deliver solutions across 11+ countries. At Claranet, we’re experienced in implementing progressive technology solutions which help our customers solve their epic business challenges. We’re committed to understanding their problems, delivering answers quickly, and making a lasting impact to their business.

We are agile, focused and experienced in business modernisation. Our approach helps customers make genuine, significant shifts in their business strategy, to deliver financial savings, boost innovation, and create a resilient business. We continually invest in our people and the latest technologies, so our customers get peace of mind knowing that they have access to the best talent and services.

In the UK we have over 500 staff working in London, Gloucester, Warrington, Bristol, and Leeds, or as homeworkers.

Working For Claranet

Here at Claranet we pride ourselves on going the extra mile for and with our employees. We offer an extensive benefits package that you can tailor to your needs, inclusive of a matching contribution pension scheme, healthcare, insurance, dental, discounted gyms and app supported benefit access.

But what we think makes us different is ‘Team Claranet,’ our dedicated internal part of the business that supports you with matters close to your heart. We proudly support local charities in each of our office locations, support employees with paid charity leave, organise key charity fundraising events per year and have a dedicated committee responsible for supporting employee’s fundraising efforts.

Claranet are one of the 10 founding members of TC4RE (Technology Community for Racial Equality). Being a part of a group of leading UK technology organisations, we are dedicated to building a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Our Vision

Our vision is to become the most trusted technology solutions partner; renowned for being the best and brightest, having lasting impact with our customers and delivering exceptional returns to our stakeholders.

Position Summary

The Data Centre team is responsible for operational excellence across all Claranet UK Data Centres, including installation and support of Claranet and customer equipment, mechanical and electrical facilities management and security. This extremely customer focussed team is split between London and Bristol, providing critical on-site support to customers and the business around the clock.

Our Data Engineers are responsible for the lifecycle of all managed hardware hosted within Claranet UK Data Centres, remote assistance for colocation customers and supporting facility operations to ensure maximum uptime.

Role Mission

Claranet’s strategy is to build long-term, trusted relationships with its customers by delivering market-leading, integrated managed services. Our portfolio platforms, infrastructure and data centres are critical to our strategy and ensuring our customers have access 24*7*365. We are seeking a Data Centre Engineer who will be a key contributor to create stable and reliable platforms and ensure that technologies and services are running optimally and maximising synergy and efficiency across the technology landscape.

Objectives and Key Results

The Data Centre Engineer is part of the Data Centre Practice department within the Customer Experience and Managed Service. The key objectives will be to:

• Commit to several dayshifts operating between the hours of 8:00am to 8:00pm Monday to Friday. The dayshifts are rostered on a rotational basis with each engineer working 37.5hrs/week.
• Form part of an on-call Rota, covering escalations outside of the above hours. On-call and overtime are claimed in addition to your base salary, in-line with company policy. Generally, engineers will be expected to cover 1 in every 4 weeks on call.
• Meet and assist Claranet customers and visiting engineers with the installation and support of services, presenting yourself as a professional public face of Claranet at all Data Centre sites.
• Review and maintain site security and access control at all times, working closely with the security team to maintain our existing quality and security certifications which include ISO9001 and ISO27001.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Troubleshooting and repair of hardware faults and the installation of spares or components as required.
• You will be based at our Docklands and Hoddesdon Data Centres (must live within 1 hour commute to the data centres- EN11 & E14) with occasional travel to other UK sites when required.
• Provide hands and eyes services to all Claranet departments and external customers.
• Installation and decommission of managed equipment within the Data Centres and external customer sites.
• Performing routine maintenance on server and network equipment to maintain maximum uptime of customer environments.
• Accepting and taking ownership of fault escalations from internal teams.
• Providing internal and external customers with timely updates on progress of incidents.
• Make regular physical checks of the Data Centre facilities and assist with the production of monthly statistics.
• Documentation of Data Centre equipment, service configuration and hardware solutions.
• Carry out physical checks and audits as required by the business and its customers.
• The management and control of Claranet assets.
• Manage and maintain Data Centre security by allowing only authorised personnel access to the Data Centre facilities.
• Update and maintain Claranet databases following all changes to equipment or assets.

Teams to collaborate with

Customer Experience and Managed Services as well as with the Technology Practices. As part of the role, you will be required to work closely with the Delivery, Support and Change teams to facilitate the installation and support of customer and Claranet equipment to the highest possible standards.

Position Specifications

Behavioural competencies – organisational and behavioural fit

• A positive ‘can-do’ attitude.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure whilst maintaining good prioritisation, high standards and risk mitigation.
• You will be expected to communicate with corporate clients via telephone, tickets, email and face-to-face and should therefore possess excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Enthusiastic and highly motivated.
• Ability to work alone, under own initiative considering the safety of themselves and others at all times.
• Ability to dynamically assess and reduce/mitigate risk to service and safety.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Full UK manual driving license.

Critical competencies – technical fit

• At least 1-year prior experience working for an Internet/Data Centre service provider, managed services provider or large corporation supporting server hardware.
• Experience installing and troubleshooting server hardware, components and firmware.
• Experience installing and physically troubleshooting firewalls, switches and routers.
• A demonstrable passion for delivering exceptional customer service.
• Demonstrable problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability and drive to create and maintain up-to-date documentation.
• Ability to follow complex instructions for unfamiliar tasks.
• Experience working within Data Centres, installing equipment in data racks and an appreciation of how power and cooling operates in such environments.
• Copper and fibre cabling – types, installation, termination.
• Certified Data Centre Technician (CDCT) or equivalent Data Centre qualification.
• Basic Cisco switching and routing experience.
• Basic Linux and Windows experience.
• VMware hypervisor and basic VM management experience.