Growing data centre market seeks project managers and hybrid roles
The key issue is to identify the figure who not only has technical skills but can also oversee the different phases
Planners, project managers, electrical and thermal engineers, energy managers, ICT experts, network & security specialists, site reliability engineers, cloud specialists, security coordinators, site managers. Behind every data centre there is a concatenation of skills that the Italia system is looking for. The Data Centre Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano estimates for the three-year period 2026-2028 potential investments of over 25 billion on 83 new projects: in the previous three-year period 68% of the announcements materialised.
A data centre starts well before the construction site. It starts with the identification of suitable areas, permits and the environmental impact assessment, which take six to 18 months. This is followed by land clearances, civil design (increasingly on industrial brownfields), the plant engineering phase and finally the ICT part. For an edge (compact) plant, 12 to 24 months are needed from design to acceptance; for a hyperscaler (large-scale), double that.
The search for professionals
"The range of figures involved is wide," summarises Michele Ruta, president of MedisDIH (Mediterranean Digital Innovation Hub), "and the market is more open than it seems. Alongside hyperscalers there are edge operators, the PA and companies that are opening their own data centres and looking for professionals for individual phases. The opportunities are there, but they require a strategy that starts from the territory, starting with the South'.
The most difficult junction is that of identifying the project manager: we do not need vertical technicians, but a professional who knows how to oversee the different phases, speaking the language of both the engineer and the client. "We need profiles capable of translating a service requirement into a technological solution," says Carlotta Matteja, president of the Ida (Italian data centre association) Talents and Education Working Group. Those who know how to be this single point of contact will play a decisive role'. Umberto Babuscio, head of Rai Way's data centre department, and Alessandro Fregosi, Head of Edge datacenter sales, add: "A good It specialist is not enough. It is necessary to orchestrate an integrated system: energy, connectivity, applications and services. We need hybrid figures, capable of linking technology and industrial strategy, of dialoguing with institutions, energy operators and technology partners. It is on this terrain that the competitiveness of the system will be played out'.
On the training front, Ida has set up the Learning lab data centre with the Milan Polytechnic: an extracurricular course in five or six modules from site identification to commissioning, with training credits. Popular sessions will also be held at Bocconi and Luiss. "The aim is to explain the fundamentals of a little-known infrastructure," explains Matteja. "One of the first barriers is the English language, the key to accessing a global market. But the topic also concerns those who are already at work. "The great challenge is to evolve existing skills," says Babuscio, "even those who then work on site: most of our professionals come from broadcasting and traditional IT and must be accompanied towards completely new scenarios.
