Search · Market mapping
Market mapping before a data center or AI platform search
Market mapping is a Kernavique Search engagement that shows who holds the role you need, where they are and what would move them, before any search starts. We identify the employers with comparable teams, the people in those roles and the reasons they would or would not consider a move. It is for consultancies, contractors and operators opening a new hub, or testing whether a role can be filled at all.
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Market mapping
What you get
An employer map
The operators, contractors and consultancies with comparable teams in the hub, and how those teams are organized.
Named people
Who holds comparable roles, with their current role and the project work that makes them relevant.
What would move them
The pay, scope, location and timing that matter to the people mapped, from conversations rather than guesses.
A recommendation
Whether the role can be filled in that hub, at what level, and whether to search, relocate someone or use engineers on contract.
How it runs
- ScopeOn the brief call we agree the role, the hubs and the employers to cover.
- MapWe research the employers and the people, and talk to people in the market about what would move them.
- ReportA written map and a recommendation, which can become the starting point of a search.
When it fits
- You are opening a new hub and do not know who employs the people you need there.
- A role has been open for months and you need to know whether it can be filled at all.
- You want to see the field before choosing between an external search and an internal move.
Who it is for
- Engineering and commissioning consultancies
- MEP and general contractors
- Colocation and hyperscale operators
Questions buyers ask
- How is market mapping different from Market Intelligence?
- Market Intelligence, in Advisory, describes a market with sourced data. Market mapping names who holds the role you need and what would move them, and is built as the first step toward a search.
- Does a map commit us to a search?
- No. The map and the recommendation are yours. If you decide to search, with us or without us, the map is its starting point.
- Do the people on the map learn about our role?
- Not unless you agree it. We agree with you at the brief what can be said about your company, and talk to people about the market and their plans within those limits.
- Which markets can you map?
- For data center roles, the five hubs of Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Columbus, Phoenix and Dallas–Fort Worth, plus Chicago and Austin–San Antonio. For AI platform roles, the whole country. The hubs are moving: CBRE’s North America Data Center Trends H1 2026 (August 27, 2026) reported that Atlanta has overtaken Northern Virginia as the most active construction market.
Terms on this page
- MEP
- Mechanical, electrical and plumbing: the building-services trades and engineering in a data center.
- H1
- The first half of the year, January to June.
Sources
- 01
CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H1 2026 (press release)
Dated Aug 27, 2026. Read Oct 11, 2026. cbre.com
Related services
- SearchLeadership searchA dedicated, committed search for directors, practice leads, heads of mission-critical and heads of AI platform, run by Kernavique from brief to start.
- AdvisoryMarket IntelligenceHub reports, hiring-market reads and custom research questions on AI infrastructure people, answered with sourced, dated data.
- AdvisoryCompensation BenchmarkingWhat commissioning leads, mission-critical engineers and platform engineers cost in the main US data center hubs, each figure tied to a dated job ad.