When most people search for a job in the data center industry, they start with the obvious companies.

Amazon. Google. Microsoft. Meta. Equinix.

But some of the jobs being created by the data center boom aren't at data centers at all.

Modine is hiring up to 300 production assemblers at its Franklin, Wisconsin facility to build Airedale cooling systems used in data centers.

The starting wage is $23 an hour, with an additional $1 an hour for second shift. Employees are eligible for health insurance and other benefits beginning on day one.

At 40 hours a week, $23 an hour works out to about $47,840 a year before overtime. A full year on second shift would add roughly another $2,080.

And according to the requirements reported with the hiring announcement, a college degree isn't required.

Because a data center can't operate without cooling.

Servers generate enormous amounts of heat, making thermal management one of the essential systems behind data center operations. Modine's Airedale business manufactures cooling equipment specifically for this market.

The company's Franklin facility opened in September 2025 and encompasses approximately 153,000 square feet. Now Modine says continued growth in its data center cooling business is driving the need for hundreds of additional workers.

The company put it plainly in its hiring announcement:

Read Modine’s Hiring Announcement

This is the part of the industry that job seekers can easily miss.

Every new data center requires an enormous supply chain before the facility ever goes live.

There are companies manufacturing:

Cooling systems. Generators. Switchgear. UPS systems. Electrical equipment. Controls. Racks. Pumps. Transformers.

Those companies need assemblers, technicians, electricians, engineers, welders, machinists, logistics workers, field-service personnel and other skilled workers.

Many of those jobs won't contain the words “data center” in the title.

Someone searching only for “data center technician” could therefore miss an entire category of employment being created by the same construction boom.

That's what makes the Modine hiring push particularly interesting.

A production assembler isn't the same thing as a data center technician, and taking one of these jobs doesn't guarantee a future position operating a data center.

But it represents something DCCN will be watching closely: entry points into the data center ecosystem that don't require someone to already have data center experience.

For someone coming from manufacturing, mechanical work, assembly or another hands-on environment, the supply chain may offer another way to build experience with equipment serving mission-critical facilities.

It also changes how you should search.

Instead of searching only for “data center jobs,” try terms connected to the infrastructure itself:

critical cooling • thermal management • mission critical • UPS • switchgear • power systems • generator technician • controls • commissioning • critical infrastructure

And pay attention to the companies supplying the hyperscalers and colocation operators, not just the companies whose names are on the buildings.

The Modine announcement isn't notable simply because one Wisconsin company needs 300 people.

It's evidence of where the data center buildout creates employment.

Some jobs will be inside the facilities.

Others will be at the manufacturers building the equipment that goes inside them.

And if you're trying to break into this industry, searching only for jobs with “data center” in the title may be making your job search much smaller than the actual opportunity.

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Forward them this issue.

Especially if they work in electrical, HVAC, utilities, controls, construction, commissioning, engineering or critical facilities.

DCCN is building a career network for the people powering the data center industry.