Data center commissioning pay by hub, October 2026

How we read the ads

This piece sorts published pay for data center commissioning engineers, leads and managers by hub, with one director-level ad for reference. Every ad was live when we read it on October 11, 2026. Each employer name in the tables links to its ad.

A range goes in a hub’s table only if the ad names a location in that metro and the range is set for that location. AWS states base salary city by city, so its ads qualify. Crusoe’s ads name Dallas as the only location. Equinix sets its range by office.

That rule leaves 15 ads from three employers across six hubs. It is a small sample of live ads, not a salary survey, and Columbus and Phoenix have one ad each. “Base” means the ad says the range is base salary. Where an ad does not say, we write “Not stated”.

Our earlier piece on what a commissioning manager costs covers consultancy ads. This one covers ads from data center owners and operators.

Northern Virginia

CBRE counted 2,420.2 MW of data center capacity under construction in Northern Virginia in the first half of 2026 (CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H1 2026, August 27, 2026).

All three are AWS roles in Herndon. The area manager, who runs a team of commissioning engineers, and the senior mechanical specialist carry almost the same range.

Atlanta

CBRE counted 2,882 MW under construction in Atlanta in the first half of 2026 (CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H1 2026, August 27, 2026). That made it North America’s most active construction market for the first time, ahead of Northern Virginia.

The second ad lists the same range for each of its five cities.

Columbus

CBRE’s H1 2026 report does not cover Columbus, but Cushman & Wakefield counted 2,043 MW under construction there in the first half of 2026 (Cushman & Wakefield, Americas Data Center Update H1 2026, September 14, 2026).

Only one ad qualifies. AWS lists it as posted on April 23, 2026, and it was still open on October 11, 2026.

Phoenix

CBRE counted 248.0 MW of wholesale and colocation capacity under construction in Phoenix in the first half of 2026 (CBRE, Phoenix Data Center Market, August 27, 2026).

Only one ad qualifies here too, for a site in Avondale, in the Phoenix metro.

Dallas–Fort Worth

CBRE counted 767.7 MW under construction in Dallas–Fort Worth in the first half of 2026 (CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H1 2026, August 27, 2026).

Crusoe lists Dallas as the location on all four of its ads, but its build sites are elsewhere in Texas, so Dallas may be the reporting base rather than the site. Its ads say pay “will be paid in the range of up to” the stated figures, plus bonus, and do not say whether the range is base.

Chicago

CBRE counted 706.8 MW under construction in Chicago in the first half of 2026 (CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H1 2026, August 27, 2026).

Both ranges are the ones Equinix sets for its Chicago office. Equinix says they reflect base pay only and exclude bonus, equity and benefits. Both ads were first posted in May 2026.

What the hubs show

For engineers, the employer sets the band more than the hub does. AWS publishes $116,800.00 to $160,000.00 base for commissioning engineers in Atlanta, Avondale and Dallas, and the same for its Columbus lead. The Herndon engineer ad starts lower, at $96,600.00, with the same top. The ads do not state a job level, so we would not read that as a Northern Virginia discount.

Level drives the spread inside a hub. Dallas–Fort Worth has the widest spread, from $90,000 at the bottom of Crusoe’s Commissioning Engineer II range to $215,000 at the top of its Senior Staff Commissioning Engineer, Electrical range. That is one employer in one city across four levels.

Manager evidence is thin. Only Northern Virginia and Chicago have manager ranges set for the hub, and they come from different employers. AWS’s Herndon area manager runs $136,000.00 to $184,000.00 base. Equinix’s Chicago senior manager runs $150,000 to $224,000 base, and its Chicago director $195,000 to $293,000 base, the highest range here.

Compare on the same basis. AWS and Equinix publish base salary. Crusoe does not say, and adds a bonus.

National ranges, kept separate

Microsoft’s Commissioning Manager ads for Phoenix, Columbus and Chicago each publish $119,800 to $234,700 a year. Each ad describes it as the typical base pay range for the role across the US. A national range says nothing about pay in one hub, so it is not in the tables. Meta and Google also publish US-wide ranges, and none of their hub ads that we read was a commissioning role.

In practice

If you are hiring a commissioning engineer in Atlanta, Columbus, Phoenix or Dallas, AWS’s $116,800.00 to $160,000.00 base is the clearest published marker. In Dallas, Crusoe’s staff-level ads reach $165,000, plus bonus. For a manager, published bases run from $136,000.00 in Herndon to $224,000 in Chicago.

Set the level before you compare hubs, and compare base with base. The commissioning manager role page sets out what the role covers. Our Compensation Benchmarking work applies the same evidence to a specific site and scope.

What we left out

Consultancy ads. The six ads in our earlier piece, including roles in Dallas, Arlington, Chicago and Phoenix, are not repeated here.

Ranges not set for a hub. Ads that list a hub among several locations but publish one range for all of them, or for remote work, stay out of the tables, as do the national ranges above.

Equinix lines for other hubs. The two Equinix ads also list Ashburn, Atlanta and Carrollton. We recorded only the Chicago pay line, so they appear only under Chicago.

Austin–San Antonio. AWS commissioning engineer ads list Austin among several cities, but we did not record a separate Austin pay line to quote, and the only other commissioning ad there carries a national range. There is no Austin table.

Other roles and sources. Operations, construction and design roles are out of scope, even where the ad sets a hub range. So are hourly contract figures, third-party salary guides and any figure we could not tie to a live ad with a link.