Chief Engineer, DCEO

Amazon is hiring a Chief Engineer, DCEO in Cape Town, South Africa. Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this role: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions facility management, people management and critical infrastructure among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a lead role.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Lead data center engineering operations to ensure continuous uptime and reliable mechanical and electrical infrastructure.

facility-managementpeople-managementcritical-infrastructuredata-center-operations

AWS Data Centers run critical IT infrastructure and require a reliable supply of uninterrupted cooling and power at all times in order to deliver continuous uptime availability and service for our customers. We are growing our team in South Africa and are looking for a Data Center Engineering Operations technical leader to operate as a Senior Chief Engineer and support the DCEO Cluster Manager as required, to join us in Cape Town.

You will support a team of Facility Managers and Chief Engineers across the region and oversee the best in class operations and maintenance of the mechanical and electrical infrastructure for data centers in AWS Cloud region. Our Data Centre Engineering Operations Managers are highly driven, self-managed individuals who demonstrates initiative mindset, proactively seeks solutions to problems and strives for operational excellency.

Key job responsibilities
Safety: Set and maintain the highest standard for safety and actively promote a world-class safety culture.

People Management:
• Demonstrate capabilities to lead as manager of managers to a wide group of skilled facility professionals:
• Hire, manage, develop and coach a team of DC facility management staff
• Effectively collaborate with other department leaders including Engineering, Finance, Safety, HR, Recruiting.
• Effectively manage vendors and vendor contracting negotiations

Operations and Maintenance:
• Manage operations in a mission critical environment with high complexity and scale while ensuring not to jeopardize quality. You will operate with autonomy and at high pace and always insists on the highest standards. You will possess strong capabilities to plan and organize continuously overlapping and changing priorities
• Execute strategic preventative maintenance and corrective break-fix planning on mission-critical infrastructures. Review and approve equipment maintenance and repair processes and procedures as well as the ability to tactfully drive continuous organizational change management.
• Manage a mission-critical operations environment with electrical and mechanical equipment, including Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS’s), Switchgear, Circuit Breakers, Automatic Transfer Switches (ATS’s), Diesel Generators, Chillers, Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC), Exhaust Fans, Variable Frequency Drives (VFD’s), and Transformers.
• Prepare for and leading the organization through facility infrastructure incident management plan. This includes event planning, drill coordination, leadership escalation, incident mitigation, and post event reporting and follow up.

About the team
AWS Infrastructure Services owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain — and we’re looking for talented people who want to help.

You’ll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You’ll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you’ll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion.

Diverse Experiences
AWS values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why AWS?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (gender diversity) conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

Mentorship & Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.

Basic qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field
- Experience carrying new design concepts through exploration, development, and into deployment or mass production
- Experience in MS Excel, Word, and Windows Operating Systems
- Experience with power management and power monitoring systems

Preferred qualifications

- 5+ years of project management in data centers or comparable critical infrastructure experience
- Knowledge of critical data center equipment
- Knowledge of engineering documentation, electrical diagrams and standard operating procedures
- Knowledge of building codes and regulations including Life Safety, BOCA, NFPA, NEC, or OSHA
- Experience in project management in data centers or comparable critical infrastructure
- Experience in Data Center Engineering Operations, with a deep understanding of electrical and mechanical data center infrastructure
- Experience reading and interpreting construction specifications and drawings for all domains

Amazon is an equal opportunities employer, and we value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. We welcome applications from all members of society irrespective of age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief. Amazon is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from South African citizens who are members of designated groups who may contribute to Employment Equity within the workplace and the further diversification of ideas. In this regard, the relevant laws and principles associated with Employment Equity will be considered when appointing potential candidates. We are required by law to verify your ability to work lawfully in South Africa. Amazon requires that you submit a copy of either your identity document or your passport and any applicable work permit if you are a foreign national, along with an updated curriculum vitae.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

How we rate this

Chief Engineer, DCEO at Amazon rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Chief Engineer, DCEO is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in ZA, Cape Town.
The job was posted on May 13, 2026.
Seniority: lead.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Facility ManagementPeople ManagementCritical InfrastructureData Center Operations

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where facility management was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where people management was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where critical infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where data center operations was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Facility Management, People Management, Critical Infrastructure, and Data Center Operations. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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