- The data center workforce is largely comprised of bespoke specialist shops focused on one phase of data center construction or operation
- That's a problem for an industry trying to rapidly scale
- Overwatch is seeking to consolidate these smaller shops under its umbrella as a general contractor
As the number of data centers in the U.S. grows, so does the number of workers on the ground building and running those facilities. Census Bureau data shows the data center labor pool grew from 306,000 in 201 to 501,000 in 2023. There’s just one problem: that workforce is wildly fragmented.
Kirk Offel is CEO of Overwatch Mission Critical, a data center consultancy formed in 2023 specifically to tackle the talent issue. Offel told Fierce that a huge part of the problem is that many contracting companies out there only specialize in one of the five stages of the data center lifecycle. These stages include development, design, delivery (construction), commissioning and operation.
Offel argued while these specialty shops many have been successful in the early days of data centers, they’re now “untenable because they’re not scalable.”
What Offel is trying to do with Overwatch is bring all those puzzle pieces together to offer clients their pick of workers across nine different demand domains covering everything from inquiry to invoice.
“As the wholesalers are aggregating themselves, as you’re seeing big eats small, the labor force will have to do the same,” Offel said. “What we’re going to do is we’ll stabilize the labor force.”
The idea is that by bringing a variety of specialists under one roof, Overwatch can not only provide more stable income for the employees but also offer data center customers the talent they need using an as-a-service model. All of its employees will be trained and EPI certified.
For anyone familiar with federal government contractors, it’s a bit like that. The employee stays with the same company but is farmed out on different contracts. When one contract ends, they hop on another and then another.
Already Overwatch has scooped up two smaller firms, including Talent War Group at the end of 2024. Offel said it has its sights set on even more deals once it secures funding to complete those transactions.
When might that be? “To get in the frame of mergers and acquisitions, we had to go out and find a financial sponsor,” he concluded. “I expect other capital that we bring in will come on within the next 45 days.”