APAC hiring outlook: Japan, Malaysia and the depth problem

Japan and Malaysia are two of the most active data center markets in APAC, but hiring in both markets presents a similar challenge: the volume of development is growing faster than the pool of people who have already delivered data centers at scale. We see this particularly across development, design, engineering, construction and project management.

There are experienced data center professionals in both markets. The difficulty comes when several developers, operators, hyperscalers, consultants and contractors are looking for the same profiles at the same time. For some positions, insisting on direct data center experience can reduce the available market very quickly.

The adjacent-industry opportunity

One solution is to look more seriously at industries that have been solving similar engineering and construction problems for years.

Semiconductor facilities are an obvious example. Semiconductor fabs are technically complex, capital-intensive projects involving substantial power requirements, cooling, clean environments, specialist MEP systems, demanding commissioning processes and extremely high expectations around reliability.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing and laboratory facilities can provide another talent pool. These projects often require sophisticated mechanical and electrical systems, controlled environments, strict standards and coordination between multiple engineering disciplines.

There are also relevant people within advanced manufacturing, battery facilities and other mission-critical industrial projects. They may not have "data center" written throughout their CV, but many of the underlying capabilities transfer.

This requires looking beyond job titles. Someone who has spent 15 years delivering semiconductor facilities may initially look less relevant than someone with five years of direct data center experience. Once you get into what they have actually delivered, the picture can change considerably.

What size projects have they managed? How complex were the electrical and mechanical systems? Have they managed EPCs and consultants? Have they worked through commissioning? How strong are they commercially? Can they operate in an international organization? Have they delivered projects where delays or failures carry significant consequences?

Those questions can tell you much more than whether their previous employer happened to operate data centers.

The transition also depends on the position. Certain roles require deep knowledge of data center-specific design and operations. Others have much greater potential for bringing in people from adjacent industries.

Japan makes this particularly important

Japan already has a relatively constrained senior talent market, with language requirements narrowing it further for many positions.

Companies entering or expanding in Japan are often competing for professionals who combine technical capability, local market knowledge, English and Japanese communication skills, and experience working within international organizations.

That combination is difficult to find. Expanding the search into semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and other technically demanding industries can materially increase the talent pool.

Malaysia has a different version of the same problem

Malaysia has developed into one of APAC's major data center growth markets, particularly around Johor. The challenge is the speed at which the market has expanded. A large amount of capacity is being developed simultaneously, while the pool of professionals who have already delivered multiple hyperscale projects locally is naturally much smaller. That creates competition for the same experienced project, construction, engineering and commissioning professionals.

Over time, today's projects will create a much deeper Malaysian data center talent pool. Companies hiring today cannot wait several years for that experience to develop.

Hiring for transferable capability

This requires some flexibility from hiring managers. Companies can identify which capabilities genuinely require previous data center experience and which can be learned. A team might retain deep data center expertise in a few critical positions while bringing semiconductor, pharmaceutical or advanced-manufacturing experience into other parts of the organization. That also gives companies access to people who may bring different approaches to design, quality, commissioning and project delivery.

As APAC's data center market continues to expand, I expect adjacent-industry hiring to become increasingly important. There simply aren't enough people who have already built exactly what the industry plans to build next.

At Prosidon, we work across the data center talent market in APAC, including Japan and Malaysia, and regularly assess candidates from both direct competitors and adjacent technical industries.