Talent Maps / Charlotte / Data Center Engineers

Charlotte Data Center Engineer Talent Map (2026)

Charlotte has paused new data center approvals while its biggest approved campuses keep building. Here is what data center engineers and technicians earn, who employs them, where the campuses are and what stands in the way.

Staffing a data center project?

A talent map shows where a group of professionals works, what they are paid and who else is trying to hire them. This one covers the engineers and skilled technicians who design, build and run data centers in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro area, which spans both Carolinas. Pay figures come from the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey (May 2025), and market figures from Duke Energy, the City of Charlotte, company reports and local news from 2025 and 2026. Our data center recruiters update it as new data comes out. See also our North Carolina data center tracker, our Raleigh data center talent map and our Charlotte electrical, mechanical and controls engineer talent maps.

150 daysPause on new data centers that Charlotte City Council approved 11-0 in June 2026City of Charlotte, WBTV

400 MWCapacity Digital Realty’s Moores Chapel Road campus in west Charlotte could hostDCD, April 2025

300 MWPlanned at PowerHouse Charlotte in University City, with room for up to 500 MWCharlotte Business Journal

7.6 GWData center load Duke Energy has signed in electric service agreementsDuke Energy via DCD, August 2026

1,181Jobs Jabil plans at a Rowan County plant making equipment for AI data centersNC Commerce, June 2025

$103,360Median electrical engineer pay in metro CharlotteBLS, May 2025

Data center pay in Charlotte by role

BLS does not track data center engineers as a separate job, so the table below shows the occupations that design, build and run data centers. Charlotte pays its electrical engineers a median of $103,360, below the North Carolina median of $110,130 and the national median of $120,630. Network architects and information security analysts are the best-paid roles in the table, with medians above $130,000.

Role (Charlotte metro)	10th percentile	Median	90th percentile
Electrical engineers	$65,140	$103,360	$213,210
Network architects	$95,280	$134,410	$173,800
Information security analysts	$81,430	$131,440	$192,300
Construction managers	$68,960	$107,200	$175,220
Mechanical engineers	$74,530	$101,950	$157,120
Network and systems administrators	$23,700	$89,990	$136,870
HVAC mechanics and installers	$40,110	$59,840	$79,210
Electricians	$43,770	$59,080	$76,310

Annual pay. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, May 2025, via O*NET OnLine. The low 10th percentile for network and systems administrators is the figure BLS publishes. Data center employers often pay above these metro figures for critical facilities experience and on-call duty.

What the spread means in practice: the electrical engineer range is very wide, from $65,140 at the 10th percentile to $213,210 at the 90th. Experienced critical power engineers sit near the top of that range. A City of Charlotte presentation put technician pay at a typical data center at about $54,000 to $80,000, with 20 to 50 employees per site. Read our guide on how to hire data center engineers.

Who employs data center talent in Charlotte

Colocation operators

Data Center Map lists more than 40 data centers in greater Charlotte, run by operators including Flexential, TierPoint, Segra and Digital Realty.

Digital Realty runs CLT10, a three-story, 29,200 square foot, 2 MW building in Uptown. In 2025 it bought the parcels next door for a 12 MW expansion.

Hyperscale developers

PowerHouse Data Centers and American Real Estate Partners are building PowerHouse Charlotte, four buildings on 122 acres off University City Boulevard. The first building is due in spring 2027.

Digital Realty paid $160 million for 156 acres on Moores Chapel Road, and council rezoned the site in May 2025 for up to 3 million square feet.

Hyperscalers in the region

Microsoft restarted its Catawba County build in early 2026 after a pause of about 10 months, with permits worth about $909 million across four campuses. Mechanical and electrical work began on the first Lyle Creek building in September 2026.

Compass Datacenters won rezoning in Statesville in September 2025 for five 270,000 square foot buildings and about 200 jobs.

Equipment makers

Jabil plans to invest about $500 million and hire 1,181 people at a Rowan County plant for cloud and AI data center customers.

Siemens Energy is expanding large power transformer and generator production at its Charlotte plant.

Where the campuses are: Charlotte submarkets

University City and I-485

HyperscaleUnder construction

PowerHouse Charlotte at 10864 University City Boulevard, with a Duke Energy substation due in April 2027.

West Charlotte

HyperscaleApproved

Digital Realty’s Moores Chapel Road campus between I-85 and Wilkinson Boulevard. Trees are cleared, but no construction start has been announced.

Uptown

ColocationEstablished

Digital Realty’s CLT10 and its planned 12 MW expansion in First Ward, a by-right use under the city’s zoning rules.

Statesville and Iredell County

HyperscalePlanned

Compass Datacenters’ 330-acre campus on Stamey Farm Road, about 49 miles northwest of Charlotte.

Catawba County

HyperscaleOutside the metro

Microsoft’s campuses in Conover, Hickory, Maiden and Newton, just outside the Charlotte metro.

What stands in the way in 2026

Charlotte’s moratorium. Council approved a 150-day pause on new data centers on June 8, 2026. It does not affect projects that were already approved or permitted, and PowerHouse Charlotte’s first phase is exempt. The pause ends on Nov. 5 unless extended, and council has set an Oct. 12 public hearing on an extension.
Public opposition. In a city survey with more than 200 responses, 78% of residents opposed data centers. In 2025, developers withdrew a 600 MW proposal in Matthews and a campus proposal in Mooresville after local pushback.
Power. Duke Energy has 7.6 GW of data center load under contract, 5 GW of it under construction. It expects those customers to start taking power from the second half of 2027.
Water. A City of Charlotte presentation put water use at AREP’s University City data center at 1.2 million gallons a day.

The talent pipeline

UNC Charlotte. Its Energy Production and Infrastructure Center trains engineers for the power industry with partners such as Duke Energy. Its School of Energy offers ABET-accredited electromechanical and mechanical engineering technology degrees.
Central Piedmont Community College. Its engineering division offers mechanical, mechatronics and electronics engineering technology programs. More than 2,950 current UNC Charlotte undergraduates transferred from Central Piedmont, and the two schools launched a new transfer plan in September 2026.
Employer training. Compass told Statesville officials it develops job training programs with technical colleges near its data centers and will do so there.
Adjacent trades. Electrical, HVAC and networking programs supply most technicians. Electricians in metro Charlotte earn a median of $59,080 and HVAC mechanics $59,840. See our Charlotte electrical engineer talent map.

What this means if you’re hiring

Hire for approved sites first. The moratorium does not touch approved projects, so PowerHouse Charlotte and Digital Realty’s campuses can keep hiring.
Expect competition from Raleigh. Raleigh electrical engineers earn about $26,900 more at the median. Experienced critical power staff can compare offers across the state.
Pay up for network and security roles. Both have Charlotte medians above $130,000, the highest in the table.
Plan for 2027. PowerHouse Charlotte’s first building and Duke’s first new data center loads are due in 2027. Commissioning and operations hiring should start well before then.

Staffing a Charlotte data center project?

Apollo Technical has recruited engineers since 2010. Our recruiting teams place electrical, mechanical, controls and critical facilities talent on a contract, contract-to-hire and direct hire basis.

Call 919.710.8098 or see our Charlotte engineering recruiters page.

Hire data center talent

Frequently asked questions

How big is the Charlotte data center market?

Data Center Map lists more than 40 data centers in greater Charlotte. The two largest campuses in the city, PowerHouse Charlotte and Digital Realty’s Moores Chapel Road site, are planned at 300 to 500 MW and up to 400 MW. Much of the region’s hyperscale work sits outside the city, in Statesville and Catawba County.

How much do data center engineers make in Charlotte?

BLS does not track data center engineers separately. In metro Charlotte, electrical engineers earn a median of $103,360, mechanical engineers $101,950 and network architects $134,410.

Does Charlotte pay less than Raleigh for data center talent?

For electrical roles, yes. Electrical engineers earn a median of $103,360 in metro Charlotte and $130,240 in metro Raleigh. Mechanical engineer pay is close: $101,950 in Charlotte and $100,000 in Raleigh. See our Raleigh data center talent map and our US data center map.

Sources (21)