As the U.S. experiences a surge in data center development, industry leaders and local officials increasingly highlight the projects’ role as job creators. Beyond the big-dollar investments, these facilities are creating career opportunities for skilled tradespeople, engineers, and technicians — particularly in states like Maryland, where data centers are reshaping the construction workforce.
A recent Maryland Tech Council report found that every 275 square feet of new data center space supports one construction job. The study underscored how the industry could help offset recent declines in local construction employment. Still, the report left open a key question: What kinds of jobs are these projects actually creating?
The answer can be seen on the ground in Frederick County, where union halls, trade groups, and engineering firms are working overtime to meet demand.
“Business wants to obviously build bigger, better, and faster, but you run into those hard technical problems of, ‘we don’t have enough water to cool this,’” said Nicholas Peloso, a design engineer with data center experience at Amazon.
For Peter Turley, a journeyman electrician with IBEW Local 24, the data center boom has been life-changing. After years of residential and commercial work, he joined Local 24 through a job posting that led him to a Rowan Digital Infrastructure site in Frederick County.
“They’re doing a good amount of recruiting for the union based on these jobs, which are union jobs or scale jobs, if you will, so they need heavy manpower,” Turley said.
On site, Turley installs cable trays, lighting, and the electrical wiring that powers the massive server halls. His hourly pay jumped from $35 an hour as an independent electrician to $59.50 an hour on the Frederick project, adjusted to match the higher IBEW Local 26 rate in the DC metro.
Although he hopes to explore data center maintenance work in the future, Turley plans to stay in construction for now:
“I would like to do that at some point, but at the moment, I’ll probably just stay on the construction side since there is so much work.”
Nicholas Peloso, a former Amazon physical security engineer, has helped design security systems for data centers across Northern Virginia. He explained that design engineers cover a range of disciplines — from electrical and mechanical to plumbing and security — and often remain on site through construction to ensure plans are executed properly.
Peloso stressed the tension between the fast pace of tech companies and the slower realities of infrastructure projects:
“In tech, turnover can be a good thing because it’s an influx of new blood, new ideas, and it keeps people on their toes. In engineering, especially as it relates to infrastructure, you don’t necessarily want to turn people over too quickly when it takes a year to a year and a half for a project.”
He added that retaining institutional knowledge of local building codes and technical challenges is essential. But companies often push the limits of what sites can handle.
“We don’t have enough power to run this, but the business will tend to kind of hand down a rule by edict.”
For Blaine Boone, a member of Local 24, working as a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) technician has meant stability and career growth. Initially trained in Northern Virginia, Boone now works closer to home in Frederick County.
“There are people from all over the country that go down there, because there’s so much work,” Boone said. “There’s not enough people to do those jobs.”
Boone’s role is critical: verifying that backup systems engage when utilities fail, and ensuring that data centers never lose power.
Data center construction offers high-paying opportunities, attracts union workers from across regions, and builds long-term skills for tradespeople. Yet challenges persist: workforce shortages, training needs, and the physical limits of power and cooling infrastructure.
For Maryland and other states, the data center surge presents both an economic opportunity and a test. Can communities supply the skilled labor, stable infrastructure, and regulatory support these projects require?
For now, the cranes, crews, and cables in Frederick County suggest one answer: the demand — and the jobs — are only growing.
Originally reported by Maria Eberhart in Technical. Ly.
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