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Commissioning and mission-critical hires for engineering consultancies

Kernavique helps engineering and commissioning consultancies hire the people who carry their data center work: commissioning managers and CxA leads, mission-critical electrical and mechanical engineers, and the practice leads who run them. We fill these roles as permanent hires, map a hub before you open an office there and benchmark pay against the ranges named employers publish.

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Exploded isometric drawing of a data center: roof with cooling units, service trays with lime pipework, steel frame, server racks and raised floor.

Engineering consultancies

What you are up against

  • You win the work before you have the team

    A consultancy can take on only as much data center work as its commissioning and mission-critical engineers can deliver. New programs arrive with client start dates, and the people to deliver them have to be found after the award.

  • Commissioning agents are among the hardest hires

    Turner & Townsend research reported by Data Center Knowledge (July 22, 2026) named commissioning agents and engineers among the hardest critical roles to fill. Your clients, their contractors and other consultancies are trying to hire the same people.

  • Scope sets the pay

    Published base ranges from live commissioning ads we read on October 11, 2026 run from $93,000 (Cumming, Commissioning Manager, Dallas) to $200,000 (Ramboll, Program Manager, Mission Critical Commissioning). Program-level roles sit at the top and site-level managers at the bottom, so a specification that blurs the two will miss on pay.

  • A new hub needs a local lead

    Atlanta has overtaken Northern Virginia as the most active construction market, according to CBRE’s North America Data Center Trends H1 2026 (August 27, 2026). Opening an office where your clients are building takes a lead who already knows the local owners, contractors and engineers.

How we help

  • Commissioning engineers and managers across mechanical, electrical and CxA, and mission-critical MEP engineers, hired permanently.

  • Practice leads, heads of mission-critical and regional directors who can win data center work as well as deliver it.

  • Several hires for one new program, filled in sequence against one plan, starting with the lead so they can shape the rest.

  • Before you open in a new hub: who holds the roles you need there, which firms employ them and what would move them.

  • Pay for commissioning and mission-critical roles in each hub, tied to named employers and dated ads, so offers rest on evidence.

Questions buyers ask

We have won more data center work than our team can deliver. Where do we start?
With a brief call on the roles the new work needs and their order. A single role is an engineering search; several roles become a team build, filled in sequence. We agree the shortlist timing with you at the brief call, based on the role and the market.
Will you approach people at our clients?
Not if you tell us not to. At the brief we agree which companies are off limits, including your clients and partners, and write that into the specification.
Do you fill commissioning authority (CxA) roles?
Yes. Commissioning leads and managers across mechanical, electrical and CxA are core to our Search practice. Tell us which systems and stages the role covers, because that changes who we approach.
Can you help us open an office in a new hub?
Yes. Market mapping shows who holds the roles you need there and what would move them. Leadership search then finds the person to run the office.
Where do your pay figures come from?
From ranges published in live job ads, each recorded with the employer, the exact title, the location, the pay basis and the date we read it. If we cannot trace a figure, we do not use it.

Terms on this page

MEP
Mechanical, electrical and plumbing: the building-services trades and engineering in a data center.
CxA
Commissioning authority, also called a commissioning agent: the party that checks a building’s systems are installed and perform as designed. ACG also issues a credential of the same name.
H1
The first half of the year, January to June.

Sources

  1. 01

    CBRE, North America Data Center Trends H1 2026 (press release)

    Dated Aug 27, 2026. Read Oct 11, 2026. cbre.com

  2. 02

    Turner & Townsend, Growth of AI infrastructure driving job creation in global construction market (press release)

    Dated Jul 8, 2026. Read Oct 11, 2026. turnerandtownsend.com

  3. 03

    Data Center Knowledge, AI data center boom strains global construction capacity (reporting Turner & Townsend research)

    Dated Jul 22, 2026. Read Oct 11, 2026. datacenterknowledge.com

Start with a 30-minute call.

Tell us about the program and the people it needs. We write the brief back to you, so you can check we have understood it.