Special report · November 3, 2026

Travel work on America's AI buildout

Building data centers and chip plants takes crews who follow the work from one project to the next, and employers often describe that travel in their job postings. On November 3, 2026 we read the travel wording in all 6,081 openings at the 126 employers we track. In 771 of them, the work means travel at least half the time, moving between job sites, or per diem pay, which this report calls road work. Another 1,093 mention some travel, often a stay at another site for training, and 193 offer relocation help without describing any travel.

Dallas–Fort Worth44
Phoenix metro26
Greater Memphis22
Kansas City region21
Wasatch Front21
Tulsa region21

Key plan The map places the 481 road-work openings that name a metro at the location given in the posting, which may be a project site or the office a crew travels from. Another 290 are listed as national or remote. Larger circles stand for more openings.

Quantities

Openings read	6,081
Road work	771	13%
Some travel	1,093	18%
Relocation help only	193	3%
Employers	126

Travel by trade and employer

How each trade’s openings describe travel

Road work
Some travel
Relocation help

Commissioning 50% 111 of 221
Fiber & low voltage 27% 28 of 105
Construction leadership 21% 354 of 1,686
Safety 19% 48 of 247
Electrical 16% 111 of 690
Controls & BMS 13% 25 of 191
Mechanical & HVAC 11% 66 of 616
Project controls 7% 27 of 362
Facilities & fab operations 2% 33 of 1,621

Each bar divides a trade’s openings by what the postings say about travel. The figures give the road-work share, then the number of road-work openings out of the trade’s total. A posting can name more than one trade, so it may count in several rows.

Keynotes · our reading

Commissioning has the highest share of road work, 50% of its openings (111 of 221). Commissioning teams test a building’s power, cooling and controls before it opens, so their work moves to the next project once a building is handed over.
Among kinds of employer, chip-equipment makers lead at 41%, because their field engineers install and service tools inside customers’ plants. Builders (23%) and specialty contractors (22%) follow, while data-center owners and operators, who mostly hire staff for a single site, are at 8%.
Facilities & fab operations, the people who run and maintain a site once it is in service, have the lowest share at 2%. Their postings more often mention some travel (19%), usually to train at an established site before a new one opens.

Data centers and chip plants

Data centers14% 727 of 5,017
Chip plants4% 44 of 1,064

Road work makes up 14% of data center openings and 4% of chip plant openings, most of which chipmakers post for their own fabs.

By kind of employer

Chip-equipment makers 41% 39 of 95
Builders 23% 264 of 1,126
Specialty contractors & services 22% 214 of 976
Engineers, designers & owner's reps 12% 57 of 466
Data-center owners & operators 8% 189 of 2,464
Chipmakers <1% 3 of 934

Employers with the most road work

The 16 employers whose postings describe the most road work

Employer schedule

Road work

Some travel

Share is the road-work share of the employer’s openings
Mark	Employer	Kind	Openings	Road work	Share	Some travel	Relocation
C-01	STO Building Group	Builder	122	83	68%	4	4
C-02	Vertiv	Specialty contractor	390	60	15%	119	1
C-03	Amazon Web Services	Owner and operator	696	39	6%	382	0
C-04	Turner Construction	Builder	42	37	88%	0	0
C-05	Mortenson	Builder	70	35	50%	1	0
C-06	QTS Data Centers	Owner and operator	151	35	23%	25	0
C-07	KLA	Chip-equipment maker	55	27	49%	2	4
C-08	WSP	Engineer or owner's rep	59	22	37%	5	0
C-09	xAI (SpaceXSI)	Owner and operator	132	22	17%	33	13
C-10	Clayco	Builder	36	21	58%	1	4
C-11	Ryan Companies	Builder	75	19	25%	8	0
C-12	Oracle	Owner and operator	352	17	5%	35	41
C-13	Salute	Specialty contractor	94	17	18%	0	20
C-14	EverOn Data Center Services	Builder	74	15	20%	3	0
C-15	Turner & Townsend	Engineer or owner's rep	209	15	7%	4	7
C-16	IES Communications	Specialty contractor	40	14	35%	5	0

Keynotes · our reading

Turner Construction has the highest share on this schedule, with 37 of its 42 openings involving road work. These are superintendents, engineers and project leaders whose postings name the travel in the job title.
Amazon Web Services posts the most openings here, 696 in all, and 39 of them involve road work. Many more of its postings, 382, mention some travel, and 326 of those tie it to training, usually a stay at an established data center while a new one is finished.
Six of the 16 employers on this schedule are builders, which staff each project with people who move on when it is finished.

Each employer’s name links to its page on AI Factory Trades, which lists all of its current openings. The job search can also be limited to postings that mention travel or relocation.

Pay in travel postings

Posted rates in road-work postings and postings with no travel

Road work
No travel
Each bar spans the middle half of the posted rates, and the tick marks the median

Hourly rates

All openingsRoad work $42 70 rates, 10 employers
No travel $38 391 rates, 35 employers
Data centersRoad work $42 43 rates, 9 employers
No travel $40 264 rates, 26 employers
Chip plantsRoad work $42 27 rates, 1 employer
No travel $31 127 rates, 9 employers

Salaries

All openingsRoad work $138,400 125 rates, 18 employers
No travel $148,100 890 rates, 38 employers

No chip-plant road-work posting publishes a salary.

Pay by trade

Median posted rate, for trades with at least ten rates on each side
Trade	Pay	Road work	No travel	Difference
Mechanical & HVAC	Hourly	$5711 rates, 3 employers	$5138 rates, 9 employers	+12%
Facilities & fab operations	Hourly	$3211 rates, 3 employers	$39243 rates, 22 employers	−18%
Commissioning	Salary	$138,40042 rates, 8 employers	$150,50024 rates, 9 employers	−8%
Construction leadership	Salary	$160,00043 rates, 13 employers	$155,000178 rates, 22 employers	+3%
Electrical	Salary	$168,40012 rates, 6 employers	$147,50076 rates, 14 employers	+14%

Keynotes · our reading

Road-work postings publish a rate less often than postings that describe no travel, 25% of them against 32%. The comparisons on this sheet rest on the 195 road-work postings that do, set against 1,281 with no travel.
For hourly work, the middle road-work rate is $42 an hour, above the $38 for jobs with no travel. At chip plants it is $42 against $31, and every road-work rate there comes from KLA. At data centers it is $42 against $40.
Salaried road work has a middle of $138,400, below the $148,100 for salaried jobs with no travel. A few large employers set much of each figure: Amazon Web Services posts 33 of the 125 road-work salaries, and Oracle 244 of the 890 with no travel.
Only 70 of the 771 road-work openings say how travel costs are met. Per diem appears in 67 of them, travel pay, a travel allowance or mileage in 10, and housing in 3, and some name more than one.

Postings that publish a rate

Road work	195 of 771	25%
No travel	1,281 of 4,024	32%

Travel costs named in road work

Per diem	67
Travel pay or mileage	10
Housing	3
Any of these	70 of 771	9%

Data centers and chip plants

The two sectors side by side

Road work
Some travel
Relocation help

Data centers

Openings read	5,017
Road work	727	14%
Some travel	988	20%
Tied to training	345
Relocation help only	172	3%

Who posts the road work

Builders24% 264 of 1,115
Specialty contractors & services22% 212 of 957
Engineers, designers & owner's reps12% 57 of 461
Data-center owners & operators8% 189 of 2,464
Other employers25% 5 of 20

Most road work

STO Building Group	83 of 122	68%
Vertiv	60 of 390	15%
Amazon Web Services	39 of 696	6%
Turner Construction	37 of 42	88%
Mortenson	35 of 70	50%

Chip plants

Openings read	1,064
Road work	44	4%
Some travel	105	10%
Tied to training	34
Relocation help only	21	2%

Who posts the road work

Chip-equipment makers41% 39 of 95
Chipmakers<1% 3 of 934
Other employers6% 2 of 35

Most road work

KLA	27 of 55	49%
ASM	12 of 40	30%
LotusWorks	2 of 19	11%
TSMC	2 of 74	3%
Microchip Technology	1 of 30	3%

How we read the postings

Openings: Active postings on the career sites of the 126 employers we track, read on November 3, 2026. Staffing-agency ads and power and grid jobs are left out. A posting that names more than one trade counts in each.
Road work: The posting states travel half the time or more, describes moving between job or customer sites, has a travelling job title, or names per diem or housing.
Some travel: A stated share under half, or wording such as travel as needed. It is tied to training when the word appears within a dozen words of the travel.
Relocation help: Help with a one-time move, in a posting that describes no travel.
Not read as travel: Commute-distance requirements such as “able to travel over 50 miles or commute”, and numbers that measure miles, hours, years or weight.
Pay: Hourly or yearly dollar rates as each employer posted them, taking the middle of each range. Rates are not converted between hourly and yearly, and posted pay is not a wage benchmark for a market.

Quantities

BBy kind of employer

Hourly rates

Salaries

EPay by trade

FData centers

Who posts the road work

Most road work

GChip plants

Who posts the road work

Most road work

How we read the postings

By kind of employer

Pay by trade

Data centers

Chip plants