Fierce Network
Mitch Wagner
August 28, 2026
- Digital Realty is widening hiring to bring in master electricians, HVAC techs and people with no tech background, then training them for engineer roles
- The U.S. faces roughly 81,000 openings for electrician positions alone
- The aging construction workforce will only make the shortage worse
The data center boom is driving a skilled worker shortage and operators like Digital Realty are responding by widening their hiring criteria and then training them from scratch.
Data center engineers — the technicians who keep facilities running — are the roles Digital Realty most needs to fill, said Audrey Escalante, head of global operations learning and development, in an interview with Fierce. There is no pipeline producing them ready-made. “We don’t have data center engineers coming out the door,” Escalante said. “We’re always going to have to train people.”