Data Center Program Director at The Training Center – Edison, New Jersey

Our mission is to launch durable careers through an industry‑leading, hands on training programs at tremendous value to students. As our Program Director, you will architect the program to create “field-ready” technicians with state of the art hands-on lab and industry leading curriculum. You’ll blend hands‑on facility skills with IT hardware and structured cabling, and you’ll coach students on procedures, professionalism, and shift‑work realities so they walk in the field‑ready and qualified.

General Description

The Data Center Technician Program Director designs and delivers a hands-on training pathway that prepares learners for entry-level installation, remote hands, and operations/maintenance roles in colocation and enterprise data centers. You’ll own the curriculum, build the lab environment (server racks, UPS demos, CRAC/CRAH demonstrators, DCIM/BMS sims, fiber/copper benches), teach and mentor cohorts, and run a continuous‑improvement loop with employer feedback and safety/quality standards. You’ll also recruit/coach adjuncts and cultivate employer partners for site tours, guest lectures, and job placement pipelines in North Jersey’s high‑density market.

Job Structure (time allocations)

Program Teaching & Curriculum Design — 60%
Design a modular, stackable curriculum that creates full capable data center technicians and operators, course should include structured cabling and installations, IT hardware, power train, HVAC systems, communications,
Deliver high‑energy lectures, demonstrations, and shop labs (fiber/copper benches, rack builds, power‑path walk‑downs).
Coach students on professional habits: documentation, work orders, tool control, PPE, comms on radio/slack/tickets.
Run formative checks (skills check‑offs), capstones, and employer‑observed performance evals.

Program Operations, Lab Build-Out & Continuous Improvement — 30%
Training racks (server/storage
etwork), cable certification tools, fiber scopes/OTDR, UPS demo carts, mini‑CRAH demonstrators, leak detection, and DCIM/BMS simulators along with anything that changes or needed to run an industry leading program.
Track outcomes (attendance, lab mastery, credential pass rates, placement).
Update curriculum each term for standards/technology changes (e.g., TIA‑942, ASHRAE updates). Author lab SOPs and MOPs/EOPs; ensure lockout/tagout and PPE controls in every lab.

Employer Partnerships,& Placement— 10%
Align skills to colo/hyperscale hiring screens (rack/stack, cross‑connects, L1–L3 triage); coordinate on‑site observations and interviews.

Key Outcomes to make students "field-ready" (Position authors changes and modifications to keep up with industry trends and technology changes)

Installations: read build sheets; rack/stack servers and network gear; ground/bay cabinets; dress/manage copper and fiber; label and document.

Fiber hygiene & testing: scope/clean LC/MPO; pass/fail to inspection criteria; basic OTDR and loss testing; manage high‑count harnesses at scale.

Break/Fix & remote hands: swap FRUs; crash‑cart/KVM workflows; Layer‑1 to Layer‑3 triage; ticket hygiene and precise close‑outs with photos.

GPU/HPC clusters: handle QSFP/QSFP‑DD optics, AOCs/DACs, leaf‑spine bundles, and tray loading used in AI racks.

Operations awareness: read one‑lines; understand the power path (utility → UPS → PDU/RPP → rack PDUs); cooling and environmental ranges per ASHRAE TC 9.9 (mission critical data centers).

Procedure Training: write/execute MOPs, SOPs, and EOPs for safe change and incident response.

Server+ core skills: OS install; IP/DNS/DHCP/VLANs; roles/monitoring; virtualization; IAM/MFA; hardening and patching; backup/DR; HW/SW/Network troubleshooting.

Safety & compliance: ESD control program, lockout/tagout, and NFPA 70E awareness.

Decommission & chain of custody: media sanitization/asset lifecycle with secure documentation.

Physical & logical security: badging/mantraps; cabinet/cage etiquette; access and audit basics.

Skills & Experience

7-10+ years in data center operations, remote‑hands/colocation, structured cabling, or critical‑facility maintenance; demonstrated experience with rack/stack, cross‑connects, basic test gear, and procedure‑driven work.

Hands‑on literacy across power/cooling basics (UPS→PDU path, CRAC/CRAH, containment) and environmental monitoring aligned to ASHRAE Thermal Guidelines.
Comfortable authoring and running MOP/SOP/EOPs; fluent in lockout/tagout and electrical‑safety principles (NFPA 70E).

Evidence of teaching/mentoring (apprentices, technicians, military NCO, FSE team lead, or classroom).

Clear, concise documentation; strong “radio discipline” and shift‑turnover habits.

Nice‑to‑have (any mix)

BICSI Installer 1/Installer 2 (Copper or Fiber), FOA CFOT, CompTIA Server+ or DataSys+, or EPI CDCP/CDCS.

Experience with DCIM/BMS (e.g., Sunbird/Nlyte/Schneider EcoStruxure—any vendor is fine).

Prior community‑college/trade instruction or military technical training experience.