What is it actually like to work in a data centre? From installing fibre-optic networks to joining Pulsant as an apprentice, Jessica Million one of our Data Centre Services Engineers has taken a varied route into the industry.
Working across our Scottish data centres, Jessica shares what a typical shift looks like, the skills that matter, what they enjoy about the role and why there’s no single route into a career in data centre engineering.
What's your job title and how did you get into this line of work?
I'm a Data Centre Services Engineer working within Pulsant's Scottish sites. I came into the job market unsure of the career path I wanted to take, but ended up in telecommunications, which turned out to be genuinely interesting and fulfilling work.
I got my start applying for a role as an Installation Technician for an ISP in London. I was offered an interview, and while doing my pre-interview research I found everything I read interesting, which had me excited to learn more about the role. It all went well, and I then spent a year installing fibre-optics networks.
Sometime later I relocated to Edinburgh and started looking for further opportunities in telecoms. I found a role advertised as an apprentice at Pulsant, working in their data centres – a field I knew almost nothing about, which was interesting in itself: a new area of telecoms to get involved in. I spent a year as an apprentice, being trained in all things data centre, before being offered the full Data Centre Services Engineer role, which has been great so far.
What does a usual day look like?
A usual day as a Data Centre Services Engineer is varied. We work 4 days on, 4 days off, in 12-hour shifts, across three data centre sites in Scotland.
There are day and night shifts, with day shifts starting at 7am. The morning usually kicks off with a coffee and a chat with the other engineers, going over the handover notes from the previous day and picking out what needs doing. From there we move onto whatever projects are running, and throughout the day tickets come in that need attention. All our sites have kitchens stocked with the basics, so lunch – or a snack break when needed – is sorted there.
What fills the day depends a lot on happenstance, the site you’re in, and the day of the week. We get fewer client tickets over the weekend, for example, which gives more time for internal projects such as decommissions, audits and site clean-ups.
What sort of tasks fill up your time?
The core of the job is cable runs, maintaining backup services (swapping tapes and drives), performing security checks on site, and migrating clients to new network connections, alongside actioning client tickets as they come in.
What’s it like being in a data centre?
I didn’t quite know what to expect coming in, beyond pictures I’d seen online or in films. They’re fascinating environments, almost like a living, breathing organism that needs constant maintenance. It was strange being in one for the first time – they’re loud, and our air-cooling systems mean there are different currents of air moving about you as you walk the floor. There are all sorts of status lights flashing from devices, too, like an underwhelming light show.
What struck me was how much goes into keeping a site functional and secure. Every layer of the electrical supply and cooling systems has redundancy built in, so there’s no single point of failure.
What skills matter most for this role that people might not expect?
Strong communication and documentation skills matter more than people would think. Data centres are complex environments, and a single ticket can sometimes have a long history, worked on by several people over different shifts before it lands with you. Communication skills are just as important as technical knowledge.
What’s the most satisfying part of the job for you?
I appreciate the variety and the opportunities for learning that this role gives me. Everything you do is tangible. There’s also a ton of room to grow - access to old bits of kit we have allows us to practise any networking-adjacent skills we’d like, plus Udemy access is offered through the company.
What advice would you give someone wanting to get into data centre engineering?
Based on the people I’ve worked with, there are many different routes into data centre engineering, and different specialisations to go with them. Some roles want a jack-of-all-trades, but in Pulsant’s Scottish sites we tend to split people into two teams – Data Centre Services and Mechanical & Electrical. People come into this field from being electricians, straight from university, from prior work in telecoms, from other IT fields, or through apprenticeships (like I did). I’d recommend anyone interested to give this field a try – it’s interesting, exciting, and a brilliant way to keep developing your technical knowledge in whichever avenue you please.
There’s no one way to build a career in data centres. Whether you come from telecoms, IT, engineering, university or an apprenticeship, there are opportunities to learn, develop and find your path in an industry that keeps the digital world running.
Interested in joining our team? Explore careers at Pulsant and discover how you can build your skills and grow with us.