The Workforce Comes First

When a new data center project gets approved, the plan that follows is usually detailed: site work, power interconnection, structural build, electrical and mechanical systems, networking, and a commissioning schedule that leads to energization. What's often missing from that plan, or added much later than everything else, is a matching plan for the people who will actually do the work.

That's a gap worth closing early. Every phase of a data center's life, from breaking ground to running at full capacity years later, depends on a specific mix of skilled labor showing up at the right time. The trades that pour foundations and pull cable are not the same people who commission switchgear, and the technicians who commission a facility are not the same people who staff its network operations center five years into steady-state operations. Each of those transitions is a staffing event, and each one works better when it's anticipated rather than discovered.

This article looks at why workforce planning belongs in the same conversation as project planning, from day one, rather than as a task that starts once construction is already underway and hiring pressure has already begun.

Building the Facility Is Only Part of the Job

A data center is, in the most literal sense, a building full of systems: structural steel and concrete, power distribution and backup generation, cooling infrastructure, fiber and network connectivity, security systems, and the IT and telecom equipment the whole facility exists to support. Delivering all of that on schedule is a genuine engineering and construction achievement.

It's also not the finish line. None of those systems installs, commissions, or operates itself. Electricians and mechanical contractors bring the power and cooling infrastructure to life. Commissioning agents and controls specialists verify that systems perform the way they were designed to before a facility is trusted with live load. Network and infrastructure teams validate connectivity. And once the facility is energized, critical facilities technicians, operations staff, and maintenance teams are what keep it running for the next decade or more.

The scale of current construction activity makes this connection harder to ignore. JLL tracked roughly 35 gigawatts of data center capacity under construction across North America as of year-end 2025. Each gigawatt of that capacity represents a large, sustained draw on the skilled trades and technical roles required to build, wire, commission, and eventually operate it. Associated Builders and Contractors' 2026 workforce estimate points to the same dynamic from the labor market side, noting that demand for electricians capable of precision wiring work has risen specifically because of the pace of data center construction.

None of this means a specific role is provably in short supply everywhere; the available data doesn't support a claim that precise. What it does support is a simpler point: the physical build and the workforce behind it are the same project, viewed from two different angles.

Workforce Planning Should Start Before Hiring Does

Most of the major inputs to a data center project get planned years ahead of groundbreaking. Site selection accounts for power availability, water access, fiber routes, and zoning. Power procurement accounts for utility capacity and interconnection queues; JLL reports that grid interconnection now averages more than four years in many markets, a timeline that shapes a project's entire schedule from the outset. Construction scheduling accounts for permitting, material lead times, and phased buildout.

Workforce planning is rarely built into that same early-planning discipline. In many organizations, staffing conversations begin closer to groundbreaking, or in some cases only once a facility is nearing completion and hiring becomes urgent. That timing mismatch matters because the labor market a data center project draws from doesn't sit still and wait. Electricians, for example, are projected to see 9% employment growth nationally from 2025 to 2035, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, faster than the average for all occupations, with roughly 72,700 openings projected per year. That's a competitive, in-demand pool, and every organization with a similar project timeline, not just other data center developers, but semiconductor plants, manufacturing megaprojects, and general commercial construction, is drawing from the same regional and national talent.

A workforce plan built early can account for the specific variables a project actually faces: which project phases will require the largest labor pulls and when, what skills and certifications those phases require, whether the local labor market is deep enough to support the project or whether sourcing needs to extend regionally or nationally, what staffing commitments general contractors and specialty subcontractors have actually confirmed (as opposed to what's implied in a signed contract), how long it realistically takes to source and onboard people into each critical role, and how staffing needs to shift as the project moves from construction into commissioning and then into operations.

None of this requires predicting exact headcounts a year in advance. It requires treating workforce planning as a standing input to the project plan, reviewed at the same milestones as everything else, rather than a hiring function that starts reacting once positions are already overdue to be filled.

The Workforce Changes as the Project Moves Forward

A data center project doesn't have one workforce; it has several, arriving in sequence. Early construction leans heavily on structural trades, concrete and steel crews, and general contractors managing sitework. As the project moves into electrical and mechanical installation, the mix shifts toward electricians, pipefitters, and mechanical contractors capable of precision work on power distribution, UPS systems, generators, and cooling infrastructure. Network and infrastructure deployment brings in a different set of technicians focused on structured cabling, fiber, and connectivity.

Commissioning is its own distinct phase, and it calls for a different skill set again: commissioning agents and controls specialists who test and validate that installed systems perform to design before the facility carries live load. Startup and energization require close coordination between construction, commissioning, and the operations team that will ultimately own the facility. Once a site is live, the workforce need shifts a final time, toward the roles that operate and maintain it day to day: critical facilities technicians, network and NOC staff, and facilities management and supervisory personnel.

It's worth being precise about what the evidence supports here and what it doesn't. Available research does not support a claim that any single one of these downstream roles, network engineers, NOC technicians, or critical facilities technicians, is facing a quantified, verified shortage nationally. What the data does support is that these roles sit downstream of a fast-moving construction and delivery pipeline, and that construction-phase hiring and operations-phase hiring draw from meaningfully different labor pools with different lead times and screening requirements. A workforce plan built only around getting through construction can reach commissioning without a plan for what comes next.

What Happens When Workforce Planning Waits

Treating workforce planning as a late-stage hiring task, something that starts once a project is close to completion, changes what options are available. It doesn't create a documented shortage on its own; the data doesn't support that kind of causal claim. But it does compress the amount of time available to do the things good hiring requires: sourcing enough qualified candidates, screening and vetting them properly, working through onboarding and, for many mission-critical environments, background and compliance requirements, and giving new hires time to ramp up before they're needed at full capacity.

That compression happens at the worst possible point in a project. Commissioning and startup are exactly when a facility can least absorb a delay, and they're also the point at which workforce needs shift the most, from construction trades to commissioning specialists to operations staff, often within a matter of months. An organization sourcing for all of that at once, under time pressure, is competing for the same electricians, technicians, and specialized operations staff that every other active project in the region is also trying to hire, without the lead time to look regionally, build a bench, or work through a deliberate screening process.

Late-stage hiring also tends to fall hardest on internal recruiting teams and hiring managers, who are asked to fill mission-critical, often licensed or clearance-dependent roles on a compressed timeline, at the same time they're managing whatever else is on their plate. None of this is guaranteed to derail a project. But it's a predictable, avoidable source of risk, and it's the kind of risk that early workforce planning is specifically designed to reduce.

Aligning Workforce Strategy With the Project Plan

Aligning workforce strategy with a project's schedule doesn't require a separate, parallel planning process. It requires folding workforce questions into the planning and milestone reviews that already exist for the physical build.

Tie workforce forecasting to project milestones. Build a labor forecast around the same milestones already used for the physical project: permitting, groundbreaking, energization, commissioning, and stabilization into steady-state operations. That gives hiring activity a real head start instead of a reactive trigger.

Plan construction and operations staffing as separate tracks. The trades that build a facility and the technicians who commission and later operate it come from different labor pools, need different lead times, and often require different screening. Planning them together as one undifferentiated hiring effort tends to shortchange whichever phase comes later.

Confirm labor availability by geography early. A regional labor market that can support one project may not be deep enough to support several running concurrently. Understanding that early leaves time to consider relocation support, regional or national sourcing, or a staffing partner with an existing multi-market bench.

Use the workforce model that fits the phase. Contract and project-based staffing can absorb construction and commissioning peaks without long-term overhead. Direct hire and contract-to-hire fit roles meant to carry into steady-state operations. Matching the model to the phase reduces both overstaffing and last-minute scrambling.

Confirm contractor and vendor staffing plans directly. A signed contract with a general contractor or specialty subcontractor doesn't guarantee they can staff their scope on the project's timeline. Building a workforce check-in into regular project governance, not just a schedule check-in, closes a common blind spot.

Review workforce readiness on a recurring cadence. A quarterly or milestone-based review, covering timeline, skills, geography, and contractor staffing, catches gaps while there's still time to act on them, rather than at the point demand has already peaked.

None of these steps depend on predicting the future with precision. They depend on giving workforce planning the same seat at the table that power, site, and construction planning already have. Explore Anistar's infrastructure and data center staffing, or connect with our team to map workforce milestones against your project schedule.