Applied Digital has begun site clearing and land grading for Polaris Forge 3, a roughly 300 MW high-performance computing campus west of Center, North Dakota. Oliver County is remote, lightly populated, and not a market where you post a job and wait. The talent this campus needs does not live nearby, and the hiring timeline is already running.

For commissioning engineers, look for direct experience with medium-voltage switchgear, generator paralleling, and UPS systems at hyperscale or large enterprise sites. Cx experience on campuses above 50 MW is meaningfully different from smaller projects. Data Center Facilities Operator (DCFO) and Uptime Institute ATA/ATD credentials signal operators who have been trained to a standard, not just to a single employer's SOPs. For electrical roles, a Journeyman or Master Electrician license matters more than a certification acronym. BICSI RCDD is relevant for structured cabling leads. At the technician level, prioritize candidates who have held rotating shift positions in mission-critical or heavy industrial environments, because the work pattern at a 300 MW HPC campus is closer to a power plant than to a typical office IT room.

Relocation is not optional for most commissioning and operations roles in Oliver County. Budget for full relocation assistance, not a lump-sum stipend, because asking a critical facilities engineer to fund their own move to a sparsely populated county and hope for reimbursement is a fast way to lose an accepted offer. For commissioning roles, per diem and travel packages are standard and expected; candidates working the national Cx circuit already know what a reasonable daily rate looks like. Contract-to-permanent structures work well for technicians who are uncertain about a rural location, giving both sides a trial period before a long-term commitment. Permanent direct-hire is appropriate for shift leads and critical facilities engineers who will anchor the operations team. Housing availability near Center is limited, so consider whether the campus will need to partner with Bismarck-Mandan housing resources or provide subsidized options, especially for lower-wage technician roles.

Commissioning engineers come from the national Cx circuit: people who have moved from campus to campus for the past several years and are evaluating their next stop. They are not on job boards in meaningful numbers. They are reachable through direct outreach to people currently on similar HPC or hyperscale projects. Critical facilities engineers and senior technicians are mostly employed and not actively searching; they respond to direct contact when the role, location, and compensation are clearly laid out upfront. Entry-level and mid-level technicians can be sourced from regional industrial employers, including the energy and mining contractor base around Center and Bismarck-Mandan, with a training pathway into data center operations. For construction trades, IBEW Local 714 in Bismarck is the relevant starting point, supplemented by traveling crews from national data center electrical contractors who are already active in North Dakota through Applied Digital's other campuses.

Site clearing is underway as of early September 2026. Commissioning engineers for a campus at this scale typically need to be identified six to twelve months before the systems they are commissioning come online. Operations team hiring for the first shift team should begin at least six months before energization of any production load. If Polaris Forge 3 is on a standard heavy construction schedule, the commissioning and operations recruiting clock is already running. Every month of delay in starting those searches compresses the time available to identify, screen, relocate, and onboard the people who will actually run the building.

NextDCX recruits for your toughest data center roles. Share the work, location, and experience your team needs. We run a fresh search for every role, approach people directly, and speak with every candidate before introducing them. You get people screened for the work, pay, location, and availability, ready to meet your hiring team. We also support recruiting partners. If Oliver County is on your board, send us the roles and we start now. For the buildout, see Applied Digital's Oliver County, North Dakota data center.

Comp sources: ZipRecruiter and dcgeeks 2026 salary data.