​Inside The Liquid Cooling Landscape: The Skills Your Team Now Need

AI-heavy workloads are pushing data centers into territory their existing cooling strategies were never designed for.

Rack densities are climbing fast, and operators are discovering that traditional air-cooled environments can’t keep up. That’s why liquid cooling adoption is accelerating across hyperscale, enterprise, and colocation sites. It's now estimated that 19% of all data centers in the US are using liquid cooling systems.

But why is a recruitment company talking about this you ask?

Moving to liquid cooling is as much a talent problem, as it is a technical one.

Choosing a vendor is one step.

Building a team that can design, deploy, and operate these systems is an entirely different game. Of the data centers that are interested in liquid cooling systems, 31% are worried about lack of technical expertise causing them issues.

This piece breaks down the main liquid cooling categories and more importantly the skills and job roles operators now need to avoid expensive mistakes during adoption.

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What’s Changing?

Liquid cooling is growing because:

• GPU and CPU power consumption keeps rising

• Densities are increasing across AI pods and HPC clusters

• Operators want efficiency gains without constructing new facilities

• Sustainability targets are tightening

Teams that have spent most of their careers managing air-cooled environments are now being asked to run systems with fluid loops, heat exchangers, dielectric liquids, and rack-level cooling infrastructure.

This shift exposes a clear talent gap. Companies need new skills, and fast.

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The Liquid Cooling Categories and the Talent Required for Each

1. Direct-to-Chip (D2C) Cooling

Vendors: CoolIT Systems, Asetek, Nexalus

D2C is often the first step for operators upgrading existing rooms. It’s precise, modular, and integrates well with traditional racks.

Skills and Roles Now in Demand:

•Mechanical engineers with cold-plate + loop design experience

• Server engineers familiar with liquid-ready OEM configurations

• Commissioning specialists trained in leak detection, loop balancing, and flow testing

• Technicians who can maintain and troubleshoot rack-level liquid systems

Companies frequently underestimate how much hands-on expertise is required here.

2. Immersion Cooling

Vendors: GRC, Submer, Iceotope

Immersion supports the highest densities and is becoming a go-to for AI clusters.

Skills and Roles Needed:

• Immersion fluid operations specialists

• Engineers who understand thermal profiles, fluid behavior, and materials compatibility

• Project managers experienced in non-standard rack layouts

• Operations teams trained in safe fluid handling and monitoring

This is the category with the biggest shortage of experienced talent.

​3. Rear-Door Heat Exchangers (RDHx)

Vendors: Schneider Electric, Rittal, Vertiv

RDHx is the most practical path for enterprises or colos that want liquid cooling without reconfiguring entire rooms.

Skills and Roles Needed:

• Facilities engineers who understand rack-level water circuits

• Controls engineers who can integrate RDHx monitoring into DCIM

• Mechanical–electrical coordination specialists

• Operators trained to tune heat removal at rack level rather than room level

These aren’t skills you pick up casually, and companies need people who’ve done this before.

​4. End-to-End Integrators

Vendors: Dell, HPE, Lenovo, STULZ, Munters, Eaton

These companies offer validated, liquid-ready solutions designed to reduce integration complexity.

Skills and Roles Needed:

• Infrastructure architects who can evaluate and configure end-to-end systems

• Deployment engineers who understand both IT and mechanical plant interfaces

• Reliability engineers who can design for long-term operational stability

• Programme managers who’ve delivered high-density deployments at scale

The biggest risk here is over-relying on vendors. Companies need internal capability, not vendor dependency.

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The Skills Gap No One Planned For

The same problem keeps appearing, most operators don’t have teams built for liquid cooling yet.

Common pain points when hiring are:

• Hiring air-cooling specialists and expecting them to “figure it out”

• Relying entirely on vendor field teams, leaving no internal expertise

• Underestimating commissioning complexity

• Lacking people who understand both server architecture and mechanical cooling

• No internal owner for liquid system monitoring and maintenance

• Struggling to scale because no one can replicate the first deployment

This is exactly where talent strategy becomes a competitive advantage.

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The Roles Becoming Critical

Companies adopting liquid cooling successfully are now hiring for:

• Liquid Cooling Deployment Engineers

• Thermal Systems Engineers

• High-Density Operations Managers

• Mechanical–IT Integration Specialists

• Immersion Cooling Technicians

• Controls & Monitoring Engineers

• AI Cluster Operations Specialists

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Why the Right Talent Decides Whether Liquid Cooling Works

Strong technical decisions still fail without strong teams. Getting the right people in early:

• Cuts commissioning overruns

• Reduces the risk of operational issues post-handover

• Prevents thermal throttling on GPU racks

• Ensures systems are maintained correctly after vendors step away

• Supports sustainable growth as density increases

• Ensures future expansions don’t require full redesigns

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The companies that succeed with liquid cooling are the ones that build capability before the pressure hits.

Liquid cooling is a shift in workforce capability.

As adoption grows, the organisations that invest in specialised talent now will deliver faster, scale more reliably, and avoid the operational headaches that come from treating liquid cooling as “just another upgrade.”

For operators preparing to deploy high-density or AI-ready environments, this is the moment to assess the skills you already have, identify the gaps, and build a team that’s ready for the next phase of data center performance.

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