Conlan Elijah Sykes

Operations Manager experienced in leading multi‑site data center operations. Sev‑1 incident POC, cutover/rollback planning, documentation (SOPs/runbooks), and dashboards/automation to drive measurable results.
Open to: Data Center Ops On‑site 0–25% travel
Download PDF
Contact LinkedIn vCard
Impact
Maintained >99.99% uptime Led ops across 16+ sites Sev‑1 incident POC 100+ users of internal tools Consolidated KB + SOPs
Highlights
  • Developed leadership pipeline in a 16‑member team
    Trained 2 shift leads, promoted 5 members, and introduced 1:1 templates adopted by other managers
    2024–2025
  • Directed nightly operations across 14+ data center sites
    Coordinated DCO, facilities, and network; maintained >99.99% uptime
    2024–2025
  • Sev‑1 incident response: agent outage, black‑fiber cut, thermal event
    POC, delivered AARs, tracked preventive actions to closure
    2024–2025
  • Consolidated documentation into a Microsoft 365 knowledge base
    Standardized SOPs/runbooks; safety & readiness training
    2024–2025
  • Built staffing and operations dashboards
    Python/TypeScript automations adopted by 100+ builders
    2024–2025
Experience Download clean PDF
  • Operations Manager, Data Center
    Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Portland, OR (regional) AWS AWS
    Data Center Operations Incident Response Night Shift Team Leadership Automation
    • Managed night operations for a multi‑billion dollar datacenter cluster; primary escalation for incidents/outages; executed pivot plans during high‑risk scenarios across 14+ buildings; owned multi‑team projects in the PDX East region.
    • Developed leadership pipeline: trained 2 shift leads; promoted 5 builders; introduced 1:1 templates adopted by other managers.
    • Consolidated documentation into a single KB; authored SOPs/runbooks; standardized safety/readiness training and drills.
    • Sponsored team‑proposed projects from proposal through budget/approval to execution; aligned with operational priorities.
    • Built staffing/operations dashboards and automations (Python/TypeScript) adopted by 100+ builders; sustained >99.99% uptime.
    Jun 2024 – Aug 2025
  • Inventory Flow Lead (Seasonal Assignment)
    Target · Minneapolis, MN Target Target
    Operations Processes Inventory Analysis Audit Readiness
    • Led and trained 10–15‑person audit teams; completed full‑building audits on schedule.
    • Partnered with leadership to align outcomes with compliance standards.
    Feb 2024 – May 2024
  • Team Lead — Fulfillment
    Target · Minneapolis, MN Target Target
    Operations Processes Communication Fulfillment Team Leadership
    • Supervised 15 associates; raised order accuracy and shortened turnaround.
    • Built a bench through coaching; three promotions within 12 months.
    Jan 2022 – May 2024
Skills
Incident response (Sev‑1) Cutover/rollback SOPs & runbooks Dashboards & KPIs Team leadership Stakeholder comms Microsoft 365 AWS (EC2, S3, CloudWatch) Python TypeScript Jira ServiceNow
Education
  • B.S., Computer Science (Online)
    Wilmington University
    2023 – 2027
GPA: 3.87
Results
  • Critical Site Power Loss – Incident Leadership
    When a cluster-wide power loss struck during my shift, I served as the primary point of contact with limited context from DCEO. I aligned a team of 9 technicians on an unfamiliar task, coordinated with upper management, and led a manual sweep of every rack and host to verify power and stability. Built a live data sheet to track issues in real time, escalated findings to DCEO, and ensured clear reporting to district-level leadership. The 3-hour effort prevented host outages, enabled rapid root-cause isolation, and earned recognition from senior leadership for decisive crisis management.
    Sev‑1
  • Endpoint agent outage — fleet stability
    Problem: agent outage across fleet degrading automation and monitoring.
    Action: drove comms cadence; applied staged mitigations and selective rollbacks; aligned owners; updated SOPs/runbooks.
    Result: fleet stabilized; recovery verified with dashboards; SOP updates reduced time‑to‑mitigation for similar incidents.
    Sev‑1
Endorsements
  • “Calm under pressure, decisive in Sev‑1s.”
    Peer Manager, Data Center Operations
    2025
  • “Raised our documentation and SOP quality bar.”
    Senior Engineer, PDX East
    2025
Mini game — Night Ops Runner
Score: 0 Best: 0
Press Space or Tap to jump. Avoid the outages.
Tap or press Space to start
Contact
Umatilla, OR · +1 541-639-2239 · [email protected] · linkedin.com/in/conlan-sykes
Tip: Use the sidebar or keys O/H/E/S/C to jump between sections.