How to become a Critical Facilities Technician
Runs and maintains a data centre’s power and cooling plant on a shift, including planned transfers, bypasses and isolations, without supervision.
There’s a page for this role in , with its licences and local details.
What the role does
Operates and maintains the site’s plant alone on a shift, including planned transfers, bypasses and isolations.
What a shift looks like
Shifts on a roster, days and nights, often twelve hours. Rounds, alarms, planned maintenance under permits and method statements, contractors to escort and check, and switching to a written plan.
What employers call it
- Critical Environment Technician (hyperscale, colocation and wholesale)
- Data Center Engineering Operations Technician II (hyperscale)
- Data Center Facilities Technician (hyperscale)
- Data Center Facilities Technician, Electrical (hyperscale)
- Data Center Facilities Technician, Mechanical (hyperscale)
- Data Center Facilities Technician, Generators (hyperscale)
- Critical Facilities Engineer (colocation and wholesale)
- Site Engineer II (colocation and wholesale)
- Critical Operations Technician II (colocation and wholesale)
- Critical Environments Operator II (colocation and wholesale)
- Critical Environments Operator III (colocation and wholesale)
- DCO Facilities Technician II (colocation and wholesale)
- Critical Facilities Operating Engineer (FM and service contractor)
- Building Engineer (FM and service contractor)
- Critical Facility Technician (FM and service contractor)
- DC Facilities Engineer (cloud and AI compute)
- Data Center Facilities Engineer (cloud and AI compute)
- Engineering Operations Technician (hyperscale)
- Service Technician (colocation and wholesale)
- Data Centre Technician (colocation and wholesale)
- Critical Operations Technician (colocation and wholesale)
- Shift Technician (FM and service contractor)
- Shift Technician, Electrical (FM and service contractor)
- Facilities Shift Engineer (FM and service contractor)
- DC Shift Engineer (colocation and wholesale)
- data centre technician (any employer)
- shift technician (colocation and wholesale)
- electrical technician (any employer)
- mechanical technician (any employer)
- building electrician (FM and service contractor)
- data centre operations specialist (colocation and wholesale)
- M&E operations engineer, data centre (colocation and wholesale)
- power electrical engineer, data centre infrastructure (colocation and wholesale)
- electrical (M&E) engineer, data centre (colocation and wholesale)
- data centre infrastructure operations staff (colocation and wholesale)
Skills
The level the role needs in each, on FacilityVR’s five levels from Aware to Authority.
Site safety
- Assess risk and plan safe work Independent
- Electrical safety awareness Independent
- Work under a permit to work Independent
Safe isolation
- Isolate and lock out a single energy source Independent
- Isolate mechanical and stored energy Independent
- Prove dead before touching Independent
- Remove isolations and restore plant Independent
- Isolate plant with several energy sources Assisted
Emergency response
- Rescue from a live electrical incident Independent
- Recognise and report a suspected cyber incident Assisted
Procedures and documents
- Carry out a method of procedure (MOP) Independent
- Complete work orders and maintenance records Independent
- Keep the shift log and hand over Independent
- Follow an emergency operating procedure (EOP) Assisted
- Work within change management Assisted
LV distribution
- Connect rack power and busway Independent
- Trace the power path and its redundancy Independent
- Operate LV switchboards and breakers Assisted
- Survey electrical plant with a thermal imager Assisted
- Work on in-rack DC busbars and power shelves Assisted
Power transfer and generation
- Check the generator fuel system Independent
- Prime and behind-the-meter power Assisted
- Respond to a utility failure Assisted
- Start, load-test and stop a generator Assisted
- Transfer and retransfer at an ATS by hand Assisted
UPS and batteries
- Inspect and test batteries Assisted
- Put a UPS into bypass and return it Assisted
- Respond to a UPS alarm Assisted
Cooling plant
- Operate air handlers and respond to their faults Independent
- Psychrometrics and the thermal envelope Independent
- Operate chilled water pumps and valves Assisted
- Respond to rising temperatures Assisted
- Start, stop and change over chillers Assisted
Monitoring and response
- Escalate to the right people Independent
- Keep incident tickets Independent
- Triage DCIM and BMS alarms Independent
- Read trends and capacity Assisted
BMS and fire
- Respond to a fire alarm Independent
- Fire system cause and effect Assisted
- Operate the BMS Assisted
Physical access and security
- Escort visitors and contractors Independent
- Work under the two-person rule Independent
Commissioning
- Work in a site that is part live and part under construction Independent
- Run functional performance tests Assisted
- Take part in integrated systems testing Assisted
Liquid cooling
- Connect and disconnect a rack’s liquid loop Independent, desirable
- Liquid-cooled IT and its loops Independent, desirable
- Maintain filtration Independent, desirable
- Operate and monitor a CDU Independent, desirable
- Respond to a coolant leak or a CDU failure Independent, desirable
- Sample and test coolant Independent, desirable
Licences and credentials
Licences depend on the country you work in, and sometimes the state. The role’s page for Australia lists them there.
Ways in and ways on
From outside the industry
- From ex-military technical trades to Critical Facilities Technician
- From licensed electrician to Critical Facilities Technician
From another data centre role
- From Critical Facilities Operator, typically 18 months
- From Senior Data Centre Technician
- From Facilities and IT Technician
Where it leads
- Senior Critical Facilities Technician, typically 2 years
- Senior Technician, Electrical, typically 2 years
- Senior Technician, Mechanical and Cooling, typically 2 years
- Senior Technician, Controls and BMS, typically 2 years
- Facilities and IT Technician (a sideways move)
Jobs open now
None right now. See every open job.
Questions about data centre careers? Ask about data centre careers
Sources and licences
Occupation codes: 7412 Electrical mechanics and fitters.
- Critical Facilities reference framework © Facility Labs. (CC BY 4.0)
- ISCO-08, International Labour Organization, as published in ESCO v1.2.1. This service uses the ESCO classification of the European Commission. (Commission Decision 2011/833/EU on the reuse of Commission documents)