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Inside Data Centre Podcast
Who are the people powering the world’s data centers?
Inside Data Centre Podcast is a podcast about the global data center industry, focused on the careers, companies, and conversations shaping modern digital infrastructure. Hosted by Andy Davis, the podcast features interviews with data center professionals, investors, operators, vendors, and industry leaders from around the world. Each episode explores how people enter the data center sector, how their careers develop, and the challenges facing data centers as demand for cloud, AI, and connectivity continues to accelerate. Covering hyperscale, colocation, operations, sustainability, and skills, Inside Data Centre Podcast is essential listening for anyone working in, or looking to work in, the data center industry.
Inside Data Centre Podcast
Powered by People: How can we manage the exponential growth of the Data Center sector?
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In the first episode of our internal 'Powered by People' series', Andy Davis is joined by Josie Hughes, Director of Marketing at DataX Connect, for the first in a new internal mini-series.
Together, they explore the people behind the industry's rapid growth, discussing the talent trends, workforce challenges, and career opportunities shaping the data centre sector today.
Key topics:
- Where today's data centre talent is coming from
- Why career development matters just as much as salary
- What really influences people to change jobs
- The growing impact of relocation and international mobility
- How regional differences are shaping hiring strategies
- What employers need to do to attract and retain the best people
Tune in for an insightful conversation on the trends influencing the future of data centre talent and what they mean for professionals and employers alike.
Take part in the 2026 Data Centre Salary Survey - Closes 20th July 2026.
The Inside Data Centre Podcast is recorded in partnership with DataX Connect, a specialist data centre recruitment company based in the UK. They operate on a global scale to place passionate individuals at the heart of leading data centre companies.
To learn more about Andy Davis and the rest of the DataX team, click here: DataX Connect
The data centre industry is moving faster than ever, and behind the scenes some seriously smart people are making it all happen. Welcome to the Inside Data Centre Podcast, where we dive into the stories, insights and innovations driving real change across the industry. From hyperscale campuses to game-changing technologies, we're talking to the people shaping the future of digital infrastructure. Whether you live and breathe data centres or just want to understand what's powering our connected world, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Inside Data Centre Podcast. This is the first in a mini-series we're doing internally. So talking a bit about DataX and what we're up to at the moment. Today I'm joined by Josie Hughes. No. Our I don't know what your job title is actually.
SPEAKER_00I've got some stupid job titles.
SPEAKER_02We'll call you head of marketing today. But Josie's responsible alongside Laura for marketing within the business. A big project we're doing at the moment is our salary survey. So we wanted to have a chat about what it is, why we do it, but also the wider impact it has on the on the industry and what we're hoping to find out. So, first question what is a salary survey?
SPEAKER_00Essentially, it's a huge piece of primary research that we do, um, where we go out and ask the industry different questions around their salary, but also their benefits, the industries they were in before, um and trying to get that kind of comprehensive data that helps clients um and candidates know kind of what they're worth and uh helps solve some of the problems like where are we going to get the talent from.
SPEAKER_02I always think salary survey is a bit of a loose.
SPEAKER_00It is, definitely.
SPEAKER_02It's a lot more than just money.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess.
SPEAKER_02And I think a lot of the a lot of the data we found out over the years has been more around the why behind like retention, attraction, staying in your role, whatever it might be. I think this the the salary survey gives a bit of an insight into a lot more than the just the remuneration, which is sometimes where you find a lot of customers and candidates are sat, they're in that money conversation. Whereas actually, when you get our jobs to get behind that, and when you get behind it, there's a lot of different reasons why they can't hire, why they're really good at hiring, why candidates are looking, and hopefully we can shed a bit of light on that.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. I think the why this year is like we're really focusing on three different things. So obviously, a problem is finding the talent. So the number one thing we're trying to solve is like where are they? So this year, really focusing on things like uh what industry do they work in before the data center industry. Um, and then second is like how do we attract them, which is salary and benefits, as well as you know, not just benefits, but what else are they going to get? And then the third one is how do I keep them? So retention is definitely a big part of it now, and it's become like a huge part of the data set as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's I think it's massively important for the industry as well. When I'm talking to people in the industry, the the challenges that come up, it was always people and power, now communities in the mix as well. But so I can't say the P's anymore, I have to say two P's and a C. Um, but people is a massive challenge. I think um executions become like the biggest topic people are talking about how we can deliver the capacity that's needed, and behind that is people. So when I'm talking, I was at lunch with CEO last week, and uh, a lot of the conversations are around we can't take that work on because we don't have enough people, and then you've got conversations with customers around we why can't we find them? Where do you find these people? And a lot of that comes down to looking at different industries, different attributes, etc. So there's so many different challenges in the industry at the moment around people, geography, like we talked about as well, trying to find people in remote locations in Finland, for example. Like, how do we do it? Where do we get them from? There's so much more to it now than when the industry first started to kind of compound about 10 years ago, it was it wasn't that difficult to find people. Now it's really hard. They know what the industry is now and they want to work in it, but there's such a demand that it's it's very competitive. So yeah, there's I think there's loads of reasons why we do it, and hopefully it it helps people make decisions.
SPEAKER_00I think uh also from a marketing point of view, it's like it's really we obviously do it as well to attract candidates. So once we get the data, it's like trying to find those candidates in those hard-to-find locations. And what I always like is um obviously a lot of people just want people with data center experience, but there isn't enough talent. So the question this year is really going to be around like where did you work before? And then we can use that so we could say go out to people who work as like project managers in maritime and say, Do you know you could get 60% more if you came and worked in data centres? Um, and often you see things like people saying, We are out there. Like we actually had comments on some of some of our posts going, we are out there, you just won't let us in for people who don't have experience.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's been a massive problem for the industry for a while. Like, yeah, it was always that period of Andy, we need people with five to ten years data centre experience, and I'll have those conversations with people saying, Well, there aren't many people with five to ten years data centre experience, so you can try and find them, but but it is difficult. And then you've got the flip of that, which is candidates saying, I'd love to work in the industry, but no one's given me the opportunity. Yeah, I think out of necessity, they've now been given the opportunity. It's still um we can do so so much better to draw people in from other industries, but yeah, the industry is sort of changing at the moment, so looking at other sectors I think will be really interesting to see where they're coming from. And also, I think the years of experience is also really interesting. So when a customer's saying to us we need five years experience, and we can say, Well, our data shows that only 80 or 80% of the people in that role only have two years experience. Yeah, you're already eliminating that talent pool. So, how long they've been in the industry is I think it's gonna be a lot shorter this year. I think the findings will be most people are one, two, three years rather than five to ten years.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. What was the um thing that shocked you the most last year out of the results?
SPEAKER_02I think how long it took to put it all together, it's probably which is probably a you and Laura problem wasn't it. Um I think not shocked me, but the most interesting point I found was around uh the retention questions, like what and it was career development, it was all but what would keep you in your role or what would attract you to a new role was more the development opportunities. So I've spoken to a few customers about it in the 12-month period, saying that for retention, if you want people to stay in your role, you've got to be really talking to them about their development. It doesn't mean and development doesn't mean progression either. I think some people think, you know, if I'm a project manager and I love being a project manager, I don't want to become a project director. Yeah, I just want personal development in my role. So I think that was in that was interesting. Um I think there was a few other stats. Obviously, there's always been a challenge around diversity in the industry. I think there's a challenge of diversity in every STEM sector, though. So I don't think that's a a data center challenge. There's obviously loads we can do and loads that is being done to make it a more inclusive sector, which is great. So hopefully those stats will will change. Um, and I guess the other point that I always find interesting is that a lot of people have done very well very quickly. Yeah. So you know, they're under 30 and they're in director roles or whatever it might, the opportunities are there in this sector.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think all right, on the gender side, that it didn't shock me at all, the figures. But um it's and there's so many good partnerships and groups out there, and like women in data centres and critical careers. I think data centre as an industry is good at trying to solve the problem compared to some other industries. Mine was definitely the shocking um thing about pay rises don't equal attention. So you had like there was a third of people that said they had a pay rise but still wanted to move jobs, which again is probably down to development, like you said.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I think the everyone gets paid well in this industry. We're lucky, like people do get paid well in the sector. It's it's it's competitive from a salary piece now. Um, but I also think organisations have realized that we can't just keep paying people more to attract or retain. There is a level, there is a limit of what's what's deemed acceptable. I think new geographies have impacted that a bit where they're trying to attract people into a country, you've then got to look at relocation. Yeah, so it's it's the money is still there as a challenge, but I do believe that um there's a level playing field now along where they said no, I'm not paying you anymore. For this role, this is what we're playing, but um largely not always okay, which is probably why the other things are so important, like the other benefits.
SPEAKER_00So, like um, we got asked by clients to add in about like rotations and and shift patterns, and it's like all those additional things around the doing the actual job that are becoming more and more important.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I did a poll the other day on LinkedIn, isn't it? I said, What's most important to you in your role around was it career development, work-life balance, money, something else? Because you can only have four in LinkedIn, so polls are always very limited. Um, but work-life balance was the top one, like 40% of I think there's about a thousand votes, so it's not a bad poll. Um, and I think again, that's become like as the mark the markets become so busy, like burnout is real in this industry. Um, so people are more aware now of like I can't travel all the time, I I can't be away from my family all the time, I'm not working 20 hours a day on sites. Um, so that's becoming more of a focus. But the the challenge with that is that that will goes back to having more people. Yeah. So to ensure people have a better work life balance normally increases your hiring because you need to spread the you know, spread the risk a little bit. Um, but then so it's catch 22.
SPEAKER_00And if people want to be close to home, again, that makes talent attraction in some of these regions so difficult.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I spoke to a customer the other day. I think what you're seeing now is more people prepared to relocate.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um with families. Yeah, out of England, can't blame, can't blame them for that one. Um, move move from Ireland, move from Europe. In Europe, it's a bit more uh normal to relocate, but you've also seen people from the say Iberia that's become much busier, people have moved back. So you had Spanish and Portuguese citizens that were working in Germany, for example, they can now move home. So you're seeing that as always a positive. Yeah, but they're getting work-life balance because the industry is so busy. The flip of it is a lot of the talent pool is still from the main hub geographies like UK, Ireland, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, uh, Oslo, etc., because that's where the market was.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now the market's spread and it needs experience for some roles. It's it's a balance between trying to draw them in from the with the skills to hiring locally. But if there's no one local that's got your the skills you need, um it's it is difficult, I think.
SPEAKER_00Do you think um the industry does enough in terms of relocation packages? Like there's more we could do to help people relocate.
SPEAKER_02I think it some do, some don't. I guess it's um I the the conversation I had the other day was around the um the demographic of who would relocate. I'm saying like you know, my children are similar to yours, and they're at school age, they're where they're like starting secondary or ending juniors, and that's a big shift to relocate. Yeah, I'd I'd love to live somewhere else, but you kind of look at it and you think kids would hate me forever. So you've got that that demographic's difficult. But I do think more people are now prepared to relocate with younger children and family, they're looking at it as a family move. Whereas previously it was more, you know, the one of the one of the parents would relocate, yeah, the rest would stay at home. Yeah, whereas now I think they are looking at it as a family because some companies are doing a really good job to support them. Yeah, and also if you look at it from a construction perspective, um, the clients can now get repeat work in location. So rather than saying if you want to relocate for 12 months for this project, and it's like not moving my whole family for 12 months, they say, look, we've got this project for 18 months, then we've got the next phase for another 18 months.
SPEAKER_00It's a longer term decision.
SPEAKER_02And you think, well, if it's three to five years, I can do it. Yeah, it makes sense. Um, so some companies do a lot, others don't do a lot, but I think you can apply that to everything in the industry.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's like one of our main themes this year is geographies. So we obviously decided, and that's what you get asked all the time by clients, is like more information on specific regions like Iberia and yeah. Um so again, hopefully we'll have more detail dug into those different regions.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and a lot of those conversations now come from the top of the chain as well. Like I was speaking to funds, and they'll say, Andy, we wanna we're gonna look at starting a platform or buying a platform or investing in a platform in this geography. What's the people? It's a pe are there people there. No, if it's in the Nordics, no, there's not people there. Like that's the reality of this that they're big areas with low populations, but there are skills there. So then you look at so if you're gonna build in North Norway, you say, well, there's a big oil and gas industry in South Norway, so can we move people from there to there, or you have to look at relocating from internationally? But the decisions are the people decisions are now not just at the boardroom in the supply chain, they're at the investment.
SPEAKER_00Being made right at the beginning.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like we do. We invest based on people, so it's become much more of a important decision, and geography is a big part of that. Like you can't in in Spain, for example, it's a new region larger, you've got Madrid and Barcelona existing hubs, you've now got like Zaragoza as a region. There isn't anyone there of experience, obviously, because there's no data centers, yeah. So it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00But people want to go there, but do you?
SPEAKER_02But people will relocate there. So can you draw people from Madrid from Barcelona to that, or can you draw people from other European regions to go there? So it's definitely geography is a big challenge. It applies in the US as well. So we do a lot of the work in the states, and you're moving out from Virginia's always being the historic hub. You now look at Texas is boom, so Texas is a big market, but you're now looking at different central states like Ohio or you know, um Chicago. Can people relocate there? And the US is very different challenges to Europe. Like US are more happy to work away, less inclined to relocate. They're more like, oh yeah, I'll go, I'll go anywhere for a week. Yeah, and then I'll come back at a weekend and then I'll go away. I don't get any holiday anyway, yeah, like 15 days a year. So they're not as um difficult to hire into different regions, but to relocate again in the States is a new state, it's like a new country to some people. So it's a massive decision. So yeah, different different challenges in different geographies, which again hopefully will show a bit of data on that.
SPEAKER_00What are you expecting to come out on the results? So, like last year we talked about it, it was like gender, young people being in uh more senior careers. Um, what kind of things are you expecting this year?
SPEAKER_02I don't like doing predictions. I always say on me and Ben Baudieri when we do our podcast, like don't do any more predictions because we always get them wrong.
SPEAKER_01Um hold you to it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. I think I might spell I do think, as I said, I think we're life balance is is definitely something that'll come out of it. I think um burnout potentially, like actually the real challenges around the stresses of the industry. Um I think I think money-wise, I don't think we'll see a lot of I think salaries have definitely increased, yeah, but I don't think we'll see massive variances in in the data. Um geographies will be interesting from are there any regions that are getting paid more, less, or have different challenges to others? Yeah. So I don't have necessarily any expectations, but I think we'll see differences to last year's data. Yeah. I don't think we're gonna just look at it and go, oh, this is the same as 12 months ago. I think the industry's grown so much in that period that it's gonna have different challenges. And I also think that the the challenges are really heavy in the supply chain now with building and executing these data centres. So that'll increase the stress on the individuals within it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You? Anything?
SPEAKER_00Um again, don't think I think it'll the thing that'll probably stay the same as that salary isn't everything. Um really interesting the geo geographical differences for sure. But I think like you, I think it'd be work-life balance, um, and like benefits and the kind of other stuff around the job that will come out. And I'm interested to see the new questions that we put in, like what industries are they in before? I think that'll be really interesting because we can break them down by job title as well. Um, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think the industry would be really eye-opening for customers because a lot of the questions you get asked are like where where can we look, Andy? What what industries can we look at? And I always think that's very geographic specific as well. So if you understand like the the economy behind a country, you can work out what industries they're good at. Where do they make their money? Like Norway's an obvious oil and gas, right? Got the biggest investment fund in the world, make loads of money in oil and gas. So if there's loads of people in that industry, can we attract them? And then you look at power regions that have you know big power industries, big infrastructure industries. You can find it out, but it does take a bit of research, and I think this will highlight where they are. Definitely. So if you see there's more people from infrastructure in Spain, it's because they've got a bigger infrastructure market and not a real big energy, renewable energy in Spain. There's loads of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Obvious, obvious target. So hopefully we'll that will back up in the data. Definitely. Or otherwise, I've been telling customers of the wrong thing for the last few years. Um the last question I had was like, what do you think is the biggest people challenge in the industry today?
SPEAKER_00Um, I feel like obviously the the most obvious one is attraction, um, and that's constantly what we're trying to do, is think of new ways to attract people. But I do think the more and more I talk to people, especially kind of HR and talent people, it is about this retention case. I think so many people move, and we the survey really showed that last year. I think it's um what can we do to keep people once you've got someone good and all the stuff you talked about, like there's more projects in one location now. Um, and looking at things like their shift patterns, how you reduce burnout. Um, yeah, hopefully the data can put some light on that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think yeah, similar really. I think execution is the biggest problem, biggest challenge. Um, just building fast enough is a lot of the the pressures in that area at the moment in the industry, but that does come the same thing as retention. How can we find enough people to do it? Where do we find them? Um, so I think a lot of those challenges will that will be that will be shown in the data. Um, I think people still high on the boardroom agenda. That's right, and I don't see that really changing. Uh, I always laugh when we talk to clients about retention, they say, Yeah, but your job's higher. I'm like, yeah, but you know, you've got to keep them, isn't it? Like our job's to make it easier for you to attract people, and the best way to attract people is if you've got a really good retention. So if you focus on that and people want to work for you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and they'll become advocates and they'll tell the you know people to come and work for them as well. So exactly.
SPEAKER_02Data role models out there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's it. So where's it out? It comes out in September, but the date is out now.
SPEAKER_00Data collection, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We need your data.
SPEAKER_00Definitely, please fill in. Um, yeah, finishes data collection finishes at the end of July. Then we have a good month of like data analysis, putting all the different reports together, um, splicing it by kind of regions and everything. And then yeah, big launch early September.
SPEAKER_02We'll put the link in the show notes on every platform that this goes on. Thank you very much. Good luck.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. That's it for this episode of the Inside Data Centre Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. This show is brought to you by Data X and Data Exec, the recruitment partners powering global talent across the data centre and digital infrastructure world. If you enjoyed today's conversations, don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe. It really helps us grow the podcast community. Stay tuned for more stories, insights, and conversations of the people shaping the future of our industry.