From Construction to Commissioning: The skills data centres need

Why Data Centre Delivery Depends on More Than Construction Skills

Demand for digital infrastructure is accelerating everywhere, but delivering a data centre is far more complex than simply constructing a high-specification building. The success of a facility depends on how well its power, cooling, controls, connectivity to the grid, physical infrastructure and operational processes perform together, particularly under failure conditions.

For developers, contractors and end users, this means talent planning must begin long before site mobilisation. The skills needed to develop a resilient facility evolve through the project lifecycle: from site location and early-stage power and cooling design, to MEP construction delivery, integrated systems testing, commissioning, handover and live-site operations.

A delay at any stage of a data centre project, be it a design coordination failure or incomplete test regime, can have significant consequences for programme certainty, cost and eventual uptime. That’s why it’s critical to have specialist personnel across electrical, mechanical, civil/structural, controls, automation, commissioning and facilities operations disciplines.

From a recruitment perspective, the data-centre opportunity is fundamentally an engineering and commissioning challenge: finding the right people who understand individual systems and how critical systems operate together when reliability is non-negotiable.

This article, the third in our series focusing on the growth of data centres and what that means for recruitment, will look at how workforce strategy should be aligned to the data centre programme from concept development onwards, rather than treated as a late-stage mobilisation activity, and the specific areas project managers should look at when hiring.

Lifecycle Overview: Talent needs change as projects mature

The key distinction that applies specifically to data centres and other specific large builds like those found in oil and gas and renewables is that the project workforce cannot remain static. A data centre needs different types of expertise at different points, and a successful workforce plan anticipates the handovers between those teams.

This means that workforce plan, and subsequent hiring etc was done well in advance and not at each stage for a seamless transfer and project continuity.

Below is a quick snapshot of the typical phases a data centre would go through, what they’re trying to carry out, the disciplines required to carry them out, and potential challenges:

Phase 1: Concept, Site Strategy and Early Engineering

At the earliest stage, data-centre feasibility is driven by factors that are highly technical: available grid capacity, connection timescales, substation requirements, utility infrastructure, fibre connectivity, water strategy where relevant, planning constraints, access and ground conditions. Before a brick is even laid, or a design is even conceived, it’s all about the requirements, pre-planning, and what needs to be considered and required for a working data centre.

Some of the key technical disciplines to look at during this stage, without getting into specific job roles, include:

• Grid connection studies and electrical demand forecasting.
• HV and MV network assessments.
• On-site substations, transformers and switchgear strategy.
• Backup-power philosophy, including generators, fuel systems, UPS systems and battery technology.
• Cooling concept selection, including air-cooled, water-cooled, chilled-water, direct-to-chip or liquid-cooling strategies where high-density workloads are expected.
• Site civil engineering, drainage, flood risk and geotechnical constraints.
• Energy efficiency and sustainability considerations, including PUE targets, heat reuse potential, renewable power procurement and energy-storage integration.
• Capacity planning for phased campus development.

Recruitment Takeaway:

As data centres become increasingly power-intensive, the boundary between digital infrastructure and the energy sector is becoming less distinct. Access to engineers with grid, high-voltage and power-generation experience is therefore becoming a strategic advantage.

Detailed Design and Engineering

A data centre’s resilience is shaped in the design phase. The engineering team must convert availability requirements into coordinated electrical, mechanical and controls systems that can be installed, tested, operated and maintained safely.

Robust detailed design engineering at this stage de-risks construction and procurement by producing clear specifications, wiring diagrams and routes that enable accurate tendering, smoother installation, and predictable commissioning, while ensuring the facility can scale for AI/high-density workloads and meet security, sustainability and regulatory requirements.

The three core technical themes that need to be considered thoroughly during the design phase are:

Electrical Engineering

Engineers must carefully plan high-voltage grid connections, medium-to-low voltage transformers, backup diesel generators, and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems to handle sudden load transitions and outages. Other important areas include:

• Electrical distribution architecture from incoming utility supply through to the IT load.
• HV/MV substations, transformers, LV switchboards, busways and PDUs.
• UPS topology and battery systems.
• Generator systems, synchronisation, paralleling switchgear and fuel infrastructure.

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineers’ design, build, and maintain critical cooling, heating, and ventilation systems that keep high-density server equipment from overheating while maintaining maximum uptime. This centres around:

• Chilled-water plants, chillers, cooling towers, pumps, CRAH/CRAC units and containment systems.
• Airflow modelling, CFD analysis and white-space cooling strategy.
• Direct liquid cooling and rear-door heat exchangers for high-density compute environments.
• Pipework design, water treatment, leak detection and plant redundancy.

Controls and Digital Systems

This area concentrates on integrating intelligent management platforms to monitor and automate critical infrastructure safely. This looks at the implementation of:

• Building management systems (BMS).
• Electrical power monitoring systems (EPMS).
• SCADA, PLCs, sensors, alarms and integrated controls.
• Networked monitoring, data collection and alarm-management philosophy.
• Cybersecurity considerations for operational technology.

Recruitment Takeaway:

While these disciplines may be regarded as separate entities, personnel in each group must be familiar with the other teams’ requirements so they can all work together, so hiring talent that have experience in their main vocation as well as knowledge of the others is so important.

Construction and MEP delivery

After designs are finalised and construction starts, the workforce expands rapidly. However, data-centre projects require more than volume mobilisation. They depend on experienced mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) and specialist-installation teams that understand quality assurance, traceability, clean installation practices, testability and the importance of completing systems in a logical sequence.

A datacentre isn’t just a large unit housing multiple racks of servers. The computing resources are probably the less important aspect as without the other components, made up of cooling towers, water storage, chillers, networks and power connections, they would be useless without them.

Multiple teams will be required to work together on:

• Civil works, foundations, structural frames and envelope construction.
• Substation installation and HV/LV electrical works.
• Generator placement, exhaust systems, fuel tanks etc.
• UPS, battery, switchgear and busway installation.
• Mechanical plant installation, including chillers, cooling towers, pumps, pipework and CRAH/CRAC systems.

The list could go on and on.

Recruitment Takeaway:

For contractors, access to experienced MEP and quality personnel can be as important as access to labour volume. In critical facilities, the cost of rework is amplified when issues are discovered during commissioning rather than during installation. That’s why construction quality determines how successfully a facility can be commissioned.

Commissioning - The Critical Transition

Commissioning is not a final inspection. It is a structured process of proving that systems operate as designed, individually and collectively, including under abnormal conditions.

Commissioning itself can fall under several different phases, which we’ve outlines below:

Recruitment Takeaway:

Orion Group’s strength in commissioning recruitment lies in understanding that commissioning is not a generic project stage. It requires specialists who can work across electrical power, mechanical cooling, controls, automation and operational procedures, and who can manage the risks of testing critical systems in a live or near-live environment. This is particularly important as data-centre projects move from construction completion into energisation and integrated testing, where schedule pressure is at its highest.

Handover, operations and long-term resilience

Like commissioning, the final stage is not simply handing over the keys to the operations team, but is made up of multiple stages and checks. It is transferring knowledge, documentation, maintenance strategy and decision-making confidence to the people responsible for keeping the site available 24/7.

Topics to cover

• Facilities management mobilisation.
• Development and validation of standard operating procedures (SOPs), methods of procedure (MOPs) and emergency operating procedures (EOPs).
• Asset registers, maintenance plans and spare-parts strategy.
• Computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS).

Again, the number of areas that need to be covered during handover is lengthy, and also includes staff training, shift-team structures and escalation pathways, alarm management, energy-efficiency optimisation after occupation, reliability-centred maintenance, and so on.

Recruitment Takeaway:

As mentioned at the start, part of the workforce strategy was to have all personnel in place well before each stage. A key risk emerges when operations teams become involved too late. Operators should have visibility during late-stage commissioning, so they understand the facility’s systems, test outcomes, abnormal operating scenarios and maintenance constraints before responsibility changes hands.

The most effective handovers are not document transfers; they are knowledge transfers.

Workforce Challenges Shaping Data Centre Delivery

Specialist Scarcity

Data-centre delivery is being shaped by an increasingly constrained specialist workforce. Competition is especially intense for engineers with direct critical-environment experience, while electrical and mechanical talent is also in demand across energy, construction, manufacturing, semiconductors and other mission-critical sectors. As AI workloads drive higher-density computing, projects need deeper capability in power systems, advanced cooling, controls, BMS, EPMS and automation - not simply general skilled trades expertise.

Mobilisation Issues

Project clustering can intensify local labour pressure, making it harder to secure the right people when programmes need them most. Commissioning teams, in particular, must be mobilised at a precise point in delivery, and early demobilisation can create knowledge gaps before operations teams are fully prepared.

Recruitment Takeaway:

Successful workforce planning therefore requires a flexible mix of permanent, contract, project-based and international mobilisation models, alongside careful access to specialists with proven critical-facility experience.

Orion Perspective

In order to match the growth of data centre projects around the world and overcome the challenges associated with data centre recruitment which has become stretched, as with other large expanding industries like LNG, working with a recruitment specialist like Orion has numerous advantages:

• Build workforce plans alongside the master programme.
• Identify long-lead roles early, especially commissioning leadership, controls specialists, HV engineers and senior MEP package managers.
• Maintain talent pipelines across engineering, construction, commissioning and operations that aren’t in isolated silos.
• Use transferable experience from power generation, oil and gas, manufacturing, process industries, infrastructure and other high-reliability environments where appropriate.
• Look beyond job title to assess candidates for system-level understanding, safety credentials, documentation discipline and live-environment experience.
• Plan overlap periods between construction, commissioning and operations teams.

 A lifecycle workforce partner for critical infrastructure

With nearly four decades of specialist recruitment and services, ranging from talent acquisition (from skilled trades to senior level) to managed services (mobilisation and resource management), we bring a range of experience combined with an extensive talent pool to suit any phase of your data centre project:

• Technical recruitment expertise across electrical, mechanical, civil, controls, automation, project controls, HSE and quality disciplines.
• Strong understanding of high-voltage systems, power generation, energy infrastructure and complex engineering projects.
• Commissioning expertise across electrical, mechanical, controls and integrated systems testing.
• Ability to support both permanent hires and project-based contract mobilisation.
• International delivery capability for projects requiring cross-border talent sourcing and mobilisation.
• Experience supporting workforce needs from front-end engineering through construction, commissioning and operational readiness.
• Access to adjacent talent pools in energy, oil and gas, renewables, power generation, process industries, construction and engineering.

Whether the requirement is a lead commissioning manager for an energisation programme, electrical engineers for critical power design, BMS specialists for integrated testing, or long-term facilities teams for a newly operational site, Orion Group can help build the technical capability behind resilient data-centre infrastructure.

Contact our team now to discuss your data centre recruitment requirements: https://www.orionjobs.com/upload-vacancy/