New York needs
data center technicians for its data centers
New York is building 4.8 GW of new data centers. Here is how much data center technicians work that makes — and why there are not enough data center technicians for it.
Data center technicians for New York's data centers: 734 steady jobs once they open.
Will New York have enough workers?
At the busiest point of the build. Bars to the left mean a shortage (good if you are in that trade). Bars to the right mean workers to spare.
What this means for data center technicians in New York
New York is building 4.8 GW of new AI data centers across 21 sites. On a data center, data center technicians run and fix the live building — power, cooling, and computer hardware — day and night.
Data center technicians: once open, the data centers will need about 734 data center technicians to run them — steady, permanent jobs that New York can mostly fill.
New York has 21 data-center sites in the works, with 4.8 GW still to build. That keeps data center technicians busy for years: as one job winds down, the next one is starting, so the work does not dry up after a single build.
New York data center technicians earn about $60,220 a year on average. Data-center work pays more than that, and when a trade is short, overtime can push experienced data center technicians well over $100,000 a year, with health care and a pension through the union.
It is the same across the country: builders cannot find enough skilled workers. The U.S. needs about 140,000 more trade workers by 2030 to build all the data centers, and most builders say hiring is their hardest problem. Microsoft's president has called the shortage of electricians the biggest thing slowing data centers down.
The building work runs a few years, not forever — but New York has enough lined up to keep you busy, and the skills carry over to every other big job in the state. To start, look at the New York data center technicians apprenticeship programs. That is the way in. Sources: a national survey of data-center building plans, plus U.S. jobs and pay data.
Get data center technicians job updates for New York
New New York data-center sites, tips on getting hired, and pay updates for data center technicians.
READ THE NATIONAL DATA CENTER TECHNICIANS SWITCH GUIDE -- $9
National data center technicians training, pay, and licensing context. This is not a New York-specific paid guide.
NEW YORK PROGRAMS
The New York data center technicians apprenticeship programs, schools, and licensing path.
The data centers behind these numbers
- 1 Gig Data Center East Fishkill — Donovan Drive Holdings LLC (Treetop Development), East Fishkill (1 GW)
- DOE Brookhaven National Lab AI Data Center — US Dept of Energy / operator TBD, Upton (750 MW)
- STAMP Data Center Campus (Genesee County) — Stream Data Centers, Alabama (500 MW)
- Cayuga HPC Site — TeraWulf, Lansing (400 MW)
- Lake Mariner – Niagara County, NY — Fluidstack, Barker (360 MW)
- TeraWulf Cayuga Site (former coal plant, Lansing) — TeraWulf, Lansing (320 MW)