Work in Indigo as a Data Centre Engineer

I work out of the Indigo office in Clichy, Paris, part of a team of four that provides data centre services to around 10 different facilities in the region. My own frontline experiences, first as a technician and now as a team leader, reflect how dynamic the sector has become in the last few years.

As Project Manager I have wide-ranging skills that span hardware, cabling, SANs, LANs and power. It’s a level of technical expertise that’s needed at Indigo to serve a diverse client base, from telcos and cloud providers to data centre groups, and it’s something that has to constantly evolve to meet changing market demands and capitalise on new and emerging technologies.

Six years ago, I was working for Belcom247, a data centre solutions company with a global footprint. The company was bought by Indigo in 2017, at a time when I was contracted out to Global Switch, an international operator with data centres in Europe and Asia-Pacific. My first job was all about installation and maintenance before I moved up to become a specialist in cabling, applying frameworks to optimise efficiencies in racks and cages for Global Switch.

What I liked about Belcom247 and now Indigo is the culture and the opportunity to build a career. The management listen to you and are always open to new ideas. I suggested some operational improvements to bring even more efficiencies to the services we provide and within six months they had created a new role of Operations Supervisor for me. It was a busy time because I became a father in the same year!

Racking up experience

With the new job came new responsibilities and I really felt like my career was progressing.

I learned more about handling teams, managing bigger projects while ensuring the quality of work was still up to the high standards that our clients have come to expect from Indigo. As a manager, I learned a lot about team performance and operations as well as cost optimisation and reporting. I also became involved in the hiring process as demand for our expertise grew.

In October 2020, I was promoted again, this time to my current position of Project Manager. It happened in the middle of the pandemic. While we were inevitably impacted by lockdown – one major project was put on hold and we had to rely on sub-contractors for another – we were still busy, reflecting how data centres acted as a hub for essential services.

Coming out of the pandemic, we are seeing signs of pent-up investment waiting to be ploughed back into data centres. Their importance is only likely to grow as cloud services gain more traction post-pandemic. There was always a demand to ensure ‘racks and stacks’ are kept up to date and optimised, and it’s only likely to accelerate now that more businesses have seen the role data centres play in business continuity.

We have just finished a major refresh for a global client, which was a two-month project where we updated their entire equipment stack and connectivity to improve availability and performance.  It was challenging but rewarding. I really enjoy working in a job where the demands are constant and always developing. And there’s no better place to be involved in data centre solutions than Indigo, at the leading edge, where the mission is to always stay one step ahead of the technology curve.

Find out more about job openings on our Careers page.