Data Center Tech
To get one of the hottest jobs in tech, she didn’t need a four-year bachelor’s degree. She needed a flair with a screwdriver, a high tolerance for artificial lighting and an outwardly calm demeanor.
This is a short story article involving the experience of several workers within the career path of Data Center Technicians including Deborah Martinez Castellanos (DMC) – a female working in Virginia and Damian Diaz (DD), employed by Google in South Carolina.
While four-year college degrees are not required, data center technicians must be deeply tech-oriented, comfortable with computer programming and related systems plus manually capable (‘good with your hands’).
GETTING STARTED AS A DATA CENTER TECHNICIAN
DMC attended the Data Center Operations program at Northern Virginia Community College (‘NOVA’). It offers a one-year certification and two-year degree covering topics from fiber-optic technology to power transmission.
Employers are eager to hire students who have pursued this type of technical training, sometimes making employment offers before the students have completed their full school programs without having earned their certificate or degree.
One data center, Equinix, pays an average of $30 an hour as a starting wage (as of 8/24), with senior technicians earning ‘six figures’ annually. That company notes that while certifications or associate degrees are helpful, they also train workers with just a high-school diploma.
After completing her formal education, DMC was hired at $29 an hour (2022) by Aligned Data Centers, which leases data-center space to businesses around the country.
Two years later, DMC earns $43 an hour at the same employer, yielding around $90,000 a year, working 12-hour shifts three days a week and every other Wednesday. She uses her off-days to paint, play guitar or explore waterfall trails in Northern Virginia. Her work schedule is common to the industry.
TYPICAL WORKDAY IS ACTUALLY A NIGHT
DMC works the ‘night shift’ – from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at a giant, mostly windowless data center in Ashburn, Virginia, part of a fast-growing legion of workers who keep the nation’s internet running.
One of DMC’s routine tasks is to check on the rooftop pumps which transport chilled water through the building, ensuring its equipment stays cool. If a server overheats, customers risk losing access to their data.
If a server becomes at risk of overheating, alarms ring on her phone and flash on its screen. When that happens, her job is to fix the problem. Left alone, such glitches can keep countless users from logging onto their bank accounts or put their email service on the fritz.
“I don’t want to say you have a sense of fear, but you must develop a sense of ‘OK, you can’t panic,” says DMC, who also does her equipment checks while walking, clocking at least 10,000 steps a night.
A DIFFERENT EDUCATION – ON THE JOB TRAINING
DD immigrated from Cuba nearly two decades ago, working as a fence builder and at an ice-cream factory before behind hired by Google. His ‘on-the-job training took a year, which DD described as “like drinking out of a fire hose.”
After four years at Google, DD makes $112,000 a year, plus bonuses and company stock (also known as ‘equity’). He is saving income above his living expenses to help bring his parents from Cuba to the U.S.
FROM TECH TO MANAGER
(Editor – The best careers offer opportunities to continue learning plus advancing to positions with broader responsibilities – to earn more money and keep life interesting.)
Nick Park (NP) began working as a data technician after dropping out of college in the 1990s, when the data-center industry was in its infancy. He now manages several data centers for Uber Technologies, earning a base salary of around $175,000 plus bonuses and company stock that roughly doubles the value of his salaried compensation.
“Data-center technicians are the unsung heroes,” says Park, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. “We do our job well, so servers typically don’t go down, but when they do, it’s pretty catastrophic.” Though he works mostly remotely, NP is responsible for going on-site and helping fix issues, even if it takes days. “I’ve been on call since 1999” he says.
JOB SECURITY
“The data-center industry is growing gangbusters,” says a senior vice president at data-center operator Equinix.
While the growth of A.I. (artificial intelligence) is powering the explosion of data centers, those who work in them are at little risk of being replaced by it, notes the chief operating officer at data-center operator DataBank. “If a server goes down in a rack, I need a body to physically go see what went wrong. Did a breaker flip? Did a server catch on fire, (threatening more than that one piece of equipment)? We still need humans.”
Understanding the steady need for humans within data center operations, a recent new tech hire, John Clark, took a job at a Microsoft data center near his home in Clarksville, Virginia after his college plans fell through. He had once thought of becoming a programmer, but the drought in white-collar (non-manual skills or ‘desk jobs’) hiring made him reconsider.
Though the data-center environment took getting used to – he wears noise-canceling headphones and listens to rap to drown out the drone of fans that cool the center’s servers – (This senior-age Editor notes the irony of using rap music to drown out other noise…LOL), Clark says he likes problem-solving on the job. Plus, “there’s a lot of job security here.”
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This story involving several workers within the technology industry focused on maintaining data centers was based on an article written by Te-Ping Chen, published by the online Wall Street Journal on August 14, 2024.
