Building the People Pipeline for the Data Center Boom

As the AI boom drives a massive expansion of digital infrastructure, a core challenge has come into focus: finding the people to design, build, and operate it. The talent gap is already here, with an estimated 500,000 open jobs with "data center" in the title and millions more across related skilled trades. The biggest constraint on this growth is not the technology itself, but the shortage of a human pipeline.

Carrie Goetz is the Principal and CTO at consultancy StrategITcom,  a professional technology writer, and the author of Jumpstart Your Career in Data Centers. She brings more than four decades of global experience designing and operating data centers, and her work spans construction, operations, workforce development, and education. Goetz is known for her clear views on the sector’s talent crisis, arguing that the industry cannot build the future until it fixes the widespread lack of awareness about the careers that power it.

"The industry keeps talking about automation, but every data center still lives or dies on people. Until we start building a real pipeline of talent, we simply will not keep up with the growth we are creating," says Goetz. The industry’s visibility problem begins long before hiring even starts. With limited early exposure and a narrow definition of what counts as a "tech career," the sector loses talent well before it has a chance to recruit it.

• Beyond the code: The demand for talent reaches every corner of this ecosystem, from the skilled trades to the local businesses that support each site. "Most kids' first exposure to a technical career is a coding class, which is a very specific skill set. If they don't like it, they write off technology entirely. The problem is, there are a million jobs in technology that have nothing to do with writing a piece of code," Goetz explains. "For the most part, people still fall into this industry by accident. We don't talk about the data center sector as an intentional career destination."

• Not so scary: Goetz’s answer to the perception problem starts with demystification. The industry needs to replace the idea of data centers as impenetrable fortresses with a clear, tangible view of how they work, and that shift is already taking shape in pockets across the sector. "You can't just walk up to a data center and ask for a tour, but with the right coordination those tours happen all the time," she says. "There are labs being built across the country for student training, and even simple walkthrough videos from companies like Google help take the scary out of it by showing what these places really look like."

Goetz points to formalized, structured apprenticeship programs as the key solution. She says much of the industry has settled into an unsustainable hiring strategy: poaching talent from competitors rather than developing new resources. A well-structured, skills-based apprenticeship, she notes, is a smarter investment and a faster path to a productive workforce.

• Day 1 A1: "Employees who come through an apprenticeship are onboarded and productive 50% faster than a college graduate who still has to be taught on the job. The whole point is skills-based learning, not memorizing a bunch of information that never gets used," she notes. "It creates a steady pipeline of talent that can contribute from day one."

Ultimately, Goetz reframes workforce development as a matter of competitive advantage. In a market with a shallow talent pool, the companies that build and retain their own workbench will set the pace. She warns that this shift is arriving faster than many leaders expect, forcing a clear choice between investing in talent or being outmaneuvered by those who do.

"In the next three to six months, RFPs and RFQs will start asking exactly how companies plan to build and onboard their talent," she concludes. "No client wants to hand over a multimillion dollar project and hope the team stays in place, and in a market this competitive that kind of hope is not a strategy."