BENGALURU: India’s AI data-center boom is creating an unexpected winner: engineers from mechanical, electrical and industrial backgrounds. As companies race to build out energy-intensive AI infrastructure, roles for mechanical, electrical and cooling engineers – long overshadowed by software jobs – are back in demand, commanding huge salaries and opening up a new career path for industrial talent.Companies are actively hiring across the entire AI infrastructure chain. These include colocation players such as Equinix, STT GDC India, Yotta, CtrlS and NTT; hyperscalers including AWS, Google and Microsoft; and engineering and cooling majors such as L&T, Tata Projects, Schneider Electric, Vertiv, Siemens, Honeywell and Johnson Controls. For India’s engineers, the AI boom is increasingly becoming a story of physical infrastructure, driven by substations, cooling plants and power systems as well as code.The rapid expansion of India’s data-center industry is driving the hiring surge. According to Avendus Capital, operational data-center capacity is expected to grow from about 1.6GW in 2025 to 5GW by 2030. More than 3GW of capacity is already in development, requiring approximately $25 billion of investment, while AI-specific capacity is expected to quadruple.Exclusive hiring data shared with TOI by executive search firm Ishva Consulting shows emerging specialized roles in AI data centres, including AI infrastructure architects, liquid cooling specialists, power procurement heads and grid resiliency managers.Salaries are attractive. AI infrastructure architects earn between Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.5 crore annually, while greenfield site heads can earn up to Rs 1.8 crore. Heads of critical facilities and specialist cooling teams are earning Rs 50 lakh to more than Rs 1 crore per year. Engineers with seven to 12 years of experience are earning Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, while entry-level cooling and critical-facility engineers start at Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh annually.The biggest rush of appointments is taking place in cooling. Companies are actively recruiting data-center cooling engineers, HVAC design engineers, critical facility engineers, commissioning engineers and liquid cooling specialists, while BMS and controls engineers are also seeing strong demand as facilities become increasingly automated.
