Part-Time Data Center Technician (Contractor)

About the Role

We are looking for a part-time Data Center Technician Contractor to provide hands-on operational work in our Columbus, Ohio data center environment. This role is ideal for someone with practical data center experience who is comfortable working with physical infrastructure, network equipment, server hardware, virtualization platforms, and operational documentation.

The contractor will conduct day-to-day data center tasks, hardware support, troubleshooting, documentation updates, and infrastructure validation. This position requires attention to detail, comfort working in a production data center environment, and the ability to follow established procedures while communicating clearly with remote engineering and operations teams.

Responsibilities

Data Center Operations

• Rack, stack, remove, power, and cable servers, sensors, network devices, and other infrastructure equipment.
• Perform structured cable runs, cable tracing, labeling, and cleanup.
• Ensure equipment is properly labeled and documented according to internal standards.
• Conduct hardware swaps, moves, additions, and changes within the data center.
• Validate rack layouts, device locations, power connections, and cabling against documented records.

Hardware Support

• Reimage supported hardware as needed.
• Troubleshoot hardware issues, including basic connectivity, boot, power, and configuration problems.
• Provide engineering teams with hands-on troubleshooting for physical and network-layer issues.
• Support test and performance lab equipment as needed.

Network and Systems Support

• Conduct Arista switch mapping, port validation, and connectivity checks.
• Support NetBox validations and updates, including device, rack, interface, cabling, and IP address records.
• Ensure firewall rule management, validation, cleanup, and hardening efforts based on standards established by the infrastructure team.
• Provide support for the current VMware infrastructure, including basic troubleshooting and operational assistance.

Testing and Performance Support

• Provide the performance team with Ixia test setup, troubleshooting, and validation.
• Connect, validate, and troubleshoot test equipment and traffic generation environments.
• Coordinate with remote engineers to execute documented test setup and troubleshooting steps.

Required Qualifications

• Hands-on experience working in a data center, lab, network operations, or infrastructure environment.
• Comfortable racking, cabling, labeling, powering, and troubleshooting physical equipment.
• Able to lift and move items up to 50 pounds each.
• Basic understanding of networking concepts, including switch ports, VLANs, IP addressing, and firewall rules.
• Experience with structured documentation and asset tracking tools.
• Ability to follow detailed technical instructions and escalate issues clearly.
• Strong attention to detail, especially when working with cabling, labeling, and inventory records.
• Ability to work independently on-site at the Columbus OH data center while coordinating with remote teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with NetBox or similar data center infrastructure management tools.
• Experience with Fortinet networking equipment.
• Experience with Arista switches or similar enterprise networking equipment.
• Familiarity with VMware environments.
• Experience with Ixia or other network traffic generation and performance testing tools.
• Experience supporting security or firewall rule management processes.
• Prior experience supporting sensor, appliance, or network security hardware.
• Familiarity with change management and production data center procedures.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a dependable, detail-oriented technician who enjoys hands-on infrastructure work. They are comfortable working in a data center, can execute operational tasks carefully, and know when to escalate issues. They are customarily engaged in work that is similar in nature to the work described above. They do not need to be a senior engineer, but they should be technically capable, organized, and able to communicate clearly with remote infrastructure, networking, and performance engineering teams.

Work Schedule

This is a part-time contractor role. Specific work hours may vary based on operational needs, scheduled maintenance, hardware deployments, and project work. Some work may need to be coordinated around planned maintenance windows.

Key Skills

Data center operations, cabling, rack and stack, hardware troubleshooting, sensor reimaging, NetBox, Arista switching, VMware support, firewall rule validation, Ixia testing, infrastructure documentation, equipment labeling.