Beyond the concrete and steel, are there real remote opportunities on the software side of data centers?
Over the past year, most of the conversation around data centers has focused on one side of the workforce problem: labor shortages in construction, power, and facilities. Operators are struggling to hire electricians, mechanical specialists, and engineers quickly enough to keep pace with new builds.
The numbers reinforce that concern. Industry projections suggest the U.S. could face a shortfall of nearly 1.9 million skilled workers by 2033.
That part of the story is well understood.
What receives far less attention is what this expansion means for developers, cloud engineers, and infrastructure specialists who are not looking to relocate near a data center campus or spend their days on the floor.
Modern data centers are no longer just physical facilities. They are increasingly software-driven systems, shaped by automation, cloud platforms, monitoring stacks, capacity models, and control planes that often live outside the building itself.
As a result, some of the work that keeps data centers running does not require physical presence. It happens remotely, supporting one or multiple facilities from elsewhere.
Which raises a more specific question.
What kind of work do developers and cloud engineers actually do around data centers, and how much of it can be remote?
Why this question matters now
The renewed interest in data center jobs is not happening in a vacuum. It is the result of three forces converging at the same time: explosive demand for computing power, massive capital investment, and a growing shortage of skilled labor.
According to BCG, global data center players are preparing to deploy $1.8 trillion in capital between 2024 and 2030 to meet surging demand driven by cloud adoption and AI workloads. Data center power demand alone is expected to grow at roughly 16% CAGR between 2023 and 2028, significantly faster than in previous years.
While Gen AI captures most of the headlines, BCG signals that traditional enterprise workloads still account for the majority of data center demand today and are expected to represent around 55% of total power consumption by 2028. In parallel, GenAI workloads are becoming the fastest-growing segment, accounting for roughly 60% of incremental growth in power demand over the same period.
This expansion is reshaping where and how data centers are built. In the U.S., states like California, Virginia, and Texas (in particular DFW) have emerged as major hubs due to energy availability, land, connectivity, and regulatory conditions. At the same time, data sovereignty requirements, sustainability goals, and the declining importance of ultra-low latency for certain AI workloads are giving operators more flexibility in choosing locations that are often far from traditional tech talent centers.
Capital, however, is not the main constraint.
Talent increasingly is.
The Growing Talent Gap
Multiple sources point to the same bottleneck: the availability of skilled labor is becoming one of the biggest risks to data center growth.
The National Association of Manufacturers projects that the U.S. could face a shortage of nearly 1.9 million skilled workers by 2033. Electrical engineering roles alone are projected to grow 9%, more than double the average across occupations.
Despite strong demand, operators are struggling to hire and retain qualified staff.
The challenge is especially acute during the construction phase, where thousands of workers may be required on-site at peak. McKinsey notes that labor shortages and high turnover are already contributing to cost inflation, schedule risk, and quality issues in large-scale builds.
Yet even after construction is complete, job creation inside the facility remains limited. Large data centers may employ hundreds or even thousands during construction, but often settle into dozens of permanent operational roles once live.
This imbalance raises an important question.
If data centers are scaling faster than local labor markets can support, how do operators, hyperscalers, and vendors continue to grow?
The answer increasingly lies outside the building.
Where remote roles enter the picture
This is the context in which remote-capable roles become strategically important.
Data centers do create jobs, but not always at scale inside the facility itself. Much of the value creation shifts to software, automation, networking, monitoring, capacity planning, and AI-driven optimization layers that operate across sites and regions.
Modern automation platforms make it possible to manage even bare-metal environments remotely for many tasks. While “boots on the ground” remain essential for physical operations, a growing share of decision-making, optimization, and control happens through software systems accessed from anywhere.
This shift does not eliminate on-site roles. It changes how expertise is distributed.
And it is precisely in this gap between physical infrastructure and software-driven operations where remote and distributed talent becomes a competitive advantage.
How Data Center Teams Are Actually Structured
A common misconception is that data centers employ large, IT-heavy teams on site. In reality, once construction is complete, most facilities operate with small, specialized local teams.
A typical large data center might have:
- A limited number of data center technicians handling rack-and-stack and break/fix
- Critical facilities technicians focused on power, cooling, and generators
- Physical security staff operating 24/7
- Basic on-site NOC or client support coverage
Even hyperscale facilities usually run with dozens, not hundreds, of permanent on-site staff.
Meanwhile, many of the systems that make these facilities scalable, reliable, and cost-efficient are designed, operated, and optimized by teams that are not physically present at the site.
This is where the distinction between direct roles and indirect roles becomes critical.
Direct roles vs. indirect roles
One reason the conversation around data center jobs is often confusing is that very different types of roles get lumped together.
There are direct roles, employed by the data center operator itself. These include data center technicians, critical facilities teams, on-site networking and security staff, and local operations support. Many of these roles require physical presence, especially when dealing with hardware, power, cooling, or emergency response. Even in large facilities, these teams are relatively small compared to the scale of the infrastructure.
Then there are indirect roles, which exist because data centers exist, but are not employed by the facility itself.
This is where most software and cloud-related opportunities show up.
Which Roles in the Data Center Industry Can Be Done Remotely?
Most remote-capable roles in the data center industry are software, cloud, and engineering positions that operate around data centers rather than inside them.
Much of this work happens at companies that build, scale, and operate technology on top of data center infrastructure, such as hyperscalers, cloud providers, networking vendors, hardware manufacturers, and managed service providers.
Typical remote or hybrid roles include:
- Cloud infrastructure engineers
- Platform and distributed systems engineers
- Network engineers working on software-defined layers
- Site reliability engineers
- Automation and infrastructure-as-code specialists
- Monitoring, observability, and performance engineers
- Capacity planning and forecasting roles
- DCIM, analytics, and digital twin specialists
For them, a server is simply an endpoint. It may live in a data center, but it could just as easily be in another building, another city, or another cloud region.
In practice, many IT and cloud roles involve logging into remote systems regardless of where the infrastructure is hosted. Physical presence is only occasionally required for activities such as installations, upgrades, or complex troubleshooting. In most cases, organizations rely on on-site teams, MSPs, or remote-hands providers to handle those tasks.
Why remote work fits naturally here
This separation between physical operations and software layers explains why remote work shows up unevenly across the data center ecosystem.
Roles tied to hardware, facilities, and safety remain location-dependent. Roles tied to software, automation, monitoring, networking logic, and distributed systems are far more portable.
Remote work becomes especially valuable because data centers are often located far from traditional tech hubs. Expanding the hiring radius allows companies to access deeper talent pools, reduce relocation costs, and scale expertise across multiple facilities instead of duplicating it site by site.
In many cases, a small remote team can support dozens of data centers through standardized tooling and centralized platforms.
Why Remote Roles Matter in Data Centers
Data centers absolutely need people. But not all of those people need to be on-site.
Much of the software, cloud, and engineering work that keeps data centers scalable, reliable, and cost-efficient happens outside the facility itself. Often, it happens at companies building and operating technology on top of data centers rather than at the data centers themselves.
These are some of the advantages that remote positions can bring to the data center talent pipeline:
1) Expanding the talent pool beyond the data center location
Data centers are often built outside major cities, driven by access to land, power, and connectivity rather than proximity to talent hubs. Relying exclusively on local hiring severely limits the available skill pool.
Remote roles allow operators, hyperscalers, and vendors to access experienced engineers regardless of where the facility is located. This is especially critical in an environment where skilled labor shortages are already constraining growth.
2) Reducing cost and friction
Remote hiring does not just lower salary pressure in competitive markets. It also reduces relocation costs, visa complexity, and time-to-hire. For highly specialized roles, removing the requirement to relocate (when possible) often makes the difference between filling a position and leaving it open for months.
For companies scaling multiple data centers simultaneously, centralized remote teams are simply more efficient than duplicating expertise site by site.
3) Operating across time zones without being on-site
Many remote-capable roles work best when aligned with similar time zones rather than physical proximity. Cloud operations, monitoring, automation, and reliability engineering can support multiple facilities during extended hours without requiring constant travel or physical presence.
In practice, this enables near-continuous support while relying on local teams or managed service providers only when physical intervention is required.
Skills and Certifications that Enable Remote Work
What makes these roles viable remotely is not the absence of hardware knowledge, but the ability to abstract it through software and systems.
Common requirements include:
- Strong cloud and infrastructure fundamentals
- Experience with automation and infrastructure-as-code
- Familiarity with observability and reliability practices
- Understanding how physical constraints influence system design
Relevant certifications often include cloud architect and DevOps credentials, networking certifications, and reliability-focused training.
How Inclusion Cloud helps you hire hard-to-find data center talent
At Inclusion Cloud, we help companies across the data center ecosystem staff with remote roles around data centers.
We are based in Dallas, one of the fastest-growing data center hubs in the U.S., and focus on staffing remote and nearshore roles around the data center. That includes cloud, platform, networking, automation, and reliability teams aligned with U.S. time zones.
If you’re hiring for hard-to-find roles that sit at the intersection of data centers, cloud, and AI, we’d be happy to talk.