EdgeConneX is building several billion dollars of data center space in Cedar Creek, and the talent it needs is not sitting in Bastrop County waiting to be called.

The filings are serious. Four one-story buildings at 6682 FM 535, each roughly 730,000 square feet and each carrying a $700 million construction tag, add up to $2.8 billion at that address alone. A separate campus configuration includes Building AUS02, a 578,000-square-foot facility leased to CoreWeave under a county tax abatement granted in December 2024. Then there is the Pacifico Cedar Creek Campus at 382 Earl Callahan Road, a single-story facility planned at 2,614,000 square feet, with Anthropic reportedly in lease discussions. Across all of this, EdgeConneX's filings describe more than 200 permanent jobs and roughly $16 million in annual payroll. Getting those people in place requires a deliberate hiring plan, and it has to start before the first concrete is poured.

For commissioning engineers, look for demonstrated Cx work on mission-critical facilities, familiarity with ASHRAE Guideline 0 and NFPA 70E, and experience signing off on medium-voltage switchgear and UPS systems. For critical-facilities engineers and technicians, a BICSI DCDC, Uptime Institute ATD, or equivalent is a meaningful signal. OSHA 30 is table stakes for anyone in a supervisory construction role. For operations staff, hands-on experience with DCIM platforms and BMS systems matters more than any single certification. Prior military electrical or mechanical training remains one of the most reliable pipelines for entry-level technicians.

Construction and commissioning roles at Cedar Creek will require relocation packages or per diem for traveling crews. Budget per diem for commissioning engineers in the $125 to $175 per day range for multi-week engagements. For permanent operations staff, a relocation allowance in the $5,000 to $15,000 range is typical depending on distance. Contract-to-permanent structures work well for commissioning roles where you want to evaluate someone across a full systems test before committing to a long-term arrangement. For critical-facilities engineers and senior technicians, direct permanent placement is cleaner and retains people longer. Shift differentials matter in 24/7 operations environments; a 10% to 15% bump for overnight coverage is standard in this market and expected.

Electrical and mechanical construction trades come out of the Austin-area open-shop contractor network and from traveling crews that cycle through Phoenix, Northern Virginia, and Dallas. Low-voltage and data technicians are sourced regionally, though the best ones are already committed to other projects. Commissioning engineers are a national search, full stop; the pool is thin and most of the experienced people are deployed. Operations staff are recruited from existing data center operators in Texas, from military separation pipelines (Lackland, Fort Cavazos), and from candidates who have moved through hyperscale environments in the Dallas or Houston markets. LinkedIn sourcing for operations roles works only if you are approaching people directly; passive job posting does not reach the people running live facilities.

Here is the non-obvious insight for this specific location. Because Bastrop County offers greenfield space, generous tax abatements, and a quieter environment than Austin's urban core, it is already becoming a staging hub for regional data-center specialist subcontractors. These are the crews that cycle between Cedar Creek, the Taylor and Wilco chip fab corridor to the north, and San Antonio hyperscale sites to the south. That dynamic is actually good for the construction phase: experienced data-center specialty subs will find Cedar Creek attractive as a base of operations precisely because the multi-phase, multi-building scope here gives them continuous work across several years rather than a single-project engagement.

The problem shows up in operations. Bastrop County does not have a resident population of credentialed critical-facilities engineers and technicians. The people who will run these buildings long-term have to be recruited from Austin, from other Texas metros, or relocated from outside the state. The 30-to-40-minute commute from Austin is manageable but not trivial on a rotating shift schedule, and candidates will price that commute into their compensation expectations. Operators who move closer to Cedar Creek will find affordable housing compared to Austin, but they are giving up urban amenities, and your offer structure needs to acknowledge that trade-off.

EDCAUS11 and EDCAUS12 are scheduled to begin construction June 30, with completion targeted by December 31, 2028. EDCAUS13 and EDCAUS14 are set to start September 1, 2026, with completion by March 31, 2029. The Pacifico Cedar Creek Campus targets December 31, 2028. That sequencing means commissioning pressure builds in late 2027 and runs through 2029 across overlapping projects. Start commissioning searches 12 to 18 months ahead of the first energization date. Start operations hiring 6 to 9 months before a building goes live. If you wait until the steel is up, you are already behind.

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 Cedar Creek is on your board, send us the roles and we start now. For the full buildout picture, see EdgeConneX's Bastrop County data center development.

Comp sources: ZipRecruiter and dcgeeks 2026 salary data.