Uptime Institute, with support from Google, Meta and Microsoft, has launched the Data Center Career Pathfinder, a free online tool that uniquely lists hundreds of career possibilities in the fast-growing global digital infrastructure industry. Based on typical real-world job roles, the Career Pathfinder resource was designed to inform and raise awareness about career opportunities in the unseen world of data centres and invite people from all backgrounds to consider entering the industry.
The Career Pathfinder is not a job site, but an exploratory resource that lists more than 230 different types of job roles that span the design, build and operation of data centres, ranging from sustainability strategy to construction. Each role includes minimum education requirements and key competencies, such as communication, problem-solving or critical thinking.
Uptime Institute created the Career Pathfinder to provide concrete information for students, job seekers, job changers, workforce returners and anyone else considering their future career journey. Governments, educational institutions and industry groups can also use the Career Pathfinder to support efforts to expand curricula, training and other programmes specific to the data centre industry.
The growth in data centres on a global basis continues as more in the world is digitised. Every time someone uses the Internet, they are using the services of data centres. The extraordinary industry expansion requires a growing and diverse workforce. Concerns over the industry’s ability to meet its workforce needs are growing. According to Uptime Institute’s 2021 Global Data Center Survey of IT and data centre managers, 47% of respondents reported having difficulty finding qualified candidates for open jobs, up from 38% in 2018.
“The data centre industry is one of the fastest-growing markets on the planet and offers a wide variety of job roles, yet far too many people are unaware of the career opportunities within it,” said Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President of Research at Uptime Institute. “Regardless of your background, there’s very likely a career path in the data centre industry that matches your individual goals and our new resource can help you find it.”
In the first-ever forecast of data centre workforce needs (reported by region, by data centre type and by education requirements), Uptime Institute estimated staff requirements will grow globally from about 2 million full-time employee equivalents in 2019 to nearly 2.3 million in 2025, based on the 230 specialist job roles in the Career Pathfinder (that are needed to design, build and operate data centres).
