Vantage aims to hire ‘a lot of people very quickly’

Vantage Data Centers is hosting a two-day job fair this week as it ramps up construction of its Lighthouse Campus in Port Washington and prepares to open the data center in the coming years.

Amy Garner, vice president of workforce, planning and strategy for Vantage North America, said Tuesday that the company and its contractors are looking for workers both in the long and short term.

“We absolutely are looking to fill positions,” she said. “We’ve got to hire a lot of people very quickly. Our intent is to hire locally first. We are sourcing local talent.”

Those positions range from construction manager to project engineer and human resources employees to interns, Garner said, as well as design managers, critical facilities engineers and support specialists. 

She also noted that Vantage is partnering with the Big Step program to provide apprenticeships for students interested in various aspects of the project.

Vantage alone is seeking to fill 40 positions right now, she said, and its contractors are also seeking workers, although she wasn’t sure of the numbers.

Mark Freeman, vice president of global marketing for Vantage, said there are about 700 workers on the project right now — a number that will increase to as many as 4,000 as work continues.

Once the data center campus is completed, he said, Vantage expects to have 300 long-term employees at the site with salaries of about $116,000 annually while Oracle and Open AI, which will operate the data centers, will bring on about 700 jobs.

In addition to Vantage, companies at the job fair will include Oracle, Gurtz Electric, HJ Martin, McCarthy Building Companies, Michels Corp., Turner Construction Co. and Big Step.

Garner said the focus of the job fair is filling jobs needed during the next eight months, as well as training people for positions further out.

“We’re excited to meet members of the community in every capacity — people looking for jobs in the future, people looking for jobs today,” she said.

“There are plenty of chances to learn about skill-building opportunities.”

She added that the intent is not that people simply come in and drop off a resume but that they talk to representatives of the various companies about the positions that are available and the opportunities at hand.

“We want to have genuine conversations with people,” she said.

Garner added that Vantage typically fills positions within 30 days.

“You might be working at Vantage or one of our partners within a matter of six to eight weeks,” she said. “It may not even be that long.”

If needed, she said, Vantage may hold additional job fairs in the future.

The job fair will be held at Port Washington High School from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, March 27, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 28.

Those planning to attend are asked to register in advance at https://tinyurl.com/yc89p3p7, although that is not required.