Data center guide
Hiring timeline by build stage
Each search below is tied to a milestone on the build schedule. Find your dates for these milestones and work backward: first factory witness test, energization, Level 3 start, Level 4 start, integrated systems testing (IST), turnover and first rack delivery.
By Czarina Tabayoyong, Founder, Critical Path Hiring. Former Amazon, AWS and Google recruiter.
Last reviewed · First published
Reviewed as terms, pay and markets change.
Stage 1
Power and site work
The date to plan against is energization, when permanent utility power reaches the site.
- Power and energy procurement managers and utility interconnection managers: before the building design is final
- Substation, protection and controls, and high-voltage electrical engineers: before the building design is final
- Where the owner or general contractor self-performs substation and duct bank work, hire high-voltage electricians before that work starts. See data center electrician
- NETA-certified electrical testing technicians: before switchgear and transformers get acceptance testing, which comes before they can be energized
Utilities, renewable energy projects and transmission work all hire the same high-voltage and substation people. Level 4 and Level 5 testing can't begin until energization, so a late hire here pushes back every test after it.
Related: Power and site work · Power and project controls hiring
Stage 2
MEP and construction
The dates to plan against are the start of design and preconstruction, then the start of electrical and mechanical install.
- Owner's project manager: before design starts. The role represents the owner from design through turnover.
- BIM / VDC coordinator: during design and preconstruction, while the 3D model is being built
- MEP coordinator: before install starts, since the job is resolving clashes between trades before they install
- MEP manager: before install starts, on builds with more coordination than one MEP coordinator can handle. This person also hands systems to the commissioning team when they are ready to test.
- Construction superintendent: before the general contractor (GC) mobilizes on site
- Data center electricians, pipefitters and sheet metal workers: hired by the GC and trade contractors ahead of their part of the install
- Structured cabling technicians: before cabling install starts
Virginia's legislative audit commission (JLARC) found a single data center site can employ up to 1,500 workers during construction. Owners and GCs hire the leadership roles directly. Commissioning agents run Level 2 and Level 3 checks during this stage, and the GC and trades fix the issues they log before Level 4.
Related: MEP and construction
Stage 3
Commissioning levels
The dates to plan against are the first factory witness test (Level 1), Level 3 start and IST (Level 5).
- Commissioning agent (CxA): open this search first, between pre-design and the end of design development, so the CxA is in place for the first factory witness test, where the CxA witnesses Level 1 at the manufacturer. The CxA lead should be identified before Level 3 starts. ASHRAE Guideline 0 applies commissioning to every phase of a project, design included. LEED requires the commissioning authority to be engaged by the end of design development.
- Commissioning manager: when testing will run on more than one building at a time
- Commissioning engineers: before Level 3 starts. They write and run the Level 3 to 5 test scripts.
- Controls / BMS technicians and controls engineers: before point-to-point checkout, when each controls point is checked against the BMS and EPMS during Level 3
- Commissioning technicians and startup technicians: in the hiring wave before energization
Electrical and mechanical commissioning are separate specialties. Open a separate search for each discipline the project needs.
People only learn commissioning on live, energized projects, so there are few qualified candidates. Most of them are booked on a named project when you call and become free when that project finishes. A CxA hired after the GC has started its commissioning plan ends up reviewing decisions they can no longer change.
Related: Commissioning levels L1 to L5 · Commissioning roles explained · Commissioning recruiting · Controls, BMS and DCIM hiring
Stage 4
Operations and turnover
The dates to plan against are Level 4 start, IST and turnover.
- Chief engineer and facility or site manager: first of the operations roles, hired during construction and in seat before Level 4 starts so they can watch Level 4 and Level 5 testing
- Critical facilities engineers and shift leads: before Level 4 starts, for the same reason
- Critical environment technicians, mechanical / HVAC technicians and controls / BMS technicians: in staged waves, so training, badging and shadowing finish before turnover
- Data center technicians: before the building opens. Many sites put them on a separate team from facilities.
The operations team runs the site around the clock from turnover on, so each shift role needs several people. Owners often bring the chief engineer and shift leads on site during Level 4 and Level 5 testing so they see each system tested under load before they take it over. People with both commissioning and operations experience can fill either role.
Related: Operations · Critical facilities hiring guide · Turnover and handover package
Stage 5
GPU cluster deployment
The date to plan against is IT install, when the first GPU racks arrive.
- Commissioning coverage for liquid cooling and rack power: already in place from stage 3, because these systems are tested before the GPUs arrive
- GPU cluster engineer and AI network engineer (InfiniBand / RoCE): before the first racks land. For a first cluster, the first hire is one operations-capable engineer with network fabric experience.
- Structured cabling technicians and network / fiber technicians: before fabric cabling starts
- Data center technicians: before rack delivery, to rack, cable and swap hardware
- Site reliability, platform and MLOps engineers: later, as the cluster takes on customer commitments and production pipelines
The fabric that links the GPUs takes a very large amount of fiber, all of it labeled, tested and documented before burn-in. Engineers doing fleet and fabric work do better on site, close to the hardware, during bring-up.
Related: GPU clusters · AI infrastructure team design · GPU and HPC infrastructure hiring
Schedule
- Put your dates for each milestone above next to the roles that depend on it. Take the dates from the construction and commissioning schedule. The requisition approval date doesn't show when someone has to be on site.
- Add notice periods and relocation for each role. Most hiring plans leave these out.
- Before outreach starts, approve the pay range, hold interview slots for the length of the search and agree to give feedback within 48 hours of each candidate submitted.
- For commissioning roles, list who is finishing a build in your region in the next quarter. Those are the people who can move.
- When a milestone date moves, move the hiring dates tied to it.
If you send us your construction and commissioning schedule, we'll mark which searches should already be open. See site launch and team builds for how we run a full launch program, and the cost of vacancy calculator to estimate what an open seat costs.
Questions
- When should we start the search for a commissioning agent?
- Open it first, between pre-design and the end of design development, and have the CxA lead identified before Level 3 starts. The CxA witnesses Level 1 testing at the manufacturer and writes or approves the scripts for Levels 3 to 5. Commissioning agents who are free to move usually come off a project that is finishing, so plan the search around project completion dates in your region.
- Do operations staff need to be hired before turnover?
- Yes. Owners often bring the chief engineer and shift leads on site during Level 4 and Level 5 testing so they see every system tested under load. Technicians are hired in waves so training, badging and shadowing are done before turnover.
- Can we hire each stage's team once that stage starts?
- Most roles have to be hired before their stage starts. The high-voltage and utility roles are planned before the building design is final, commissioning leadership is in seat while scripts are written, and GPU cluster and network engineers are hired before the first racks land. Each stage also depends on the one before it: Level 4 and Level 5 testing cannot begin until energization, and GPUs are not installed until the cooling and power to the racks have been tested.
Czarina Tabayoyong
Founder and principal recruiter, Critical Path Hiring. Czarina recruits commissioning, MEP, power and critical facilities people for data center builds. She previously recruited cloud and data center architecture talent at AWS Professional Services, and PMO and project delivery talent for hyperscale data center campuses in Texas and Virginia.
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