India’s Data Centre Boom is Creating Jobs Beyond Technology Roles: Report

India’s expanding data centre capacity is creating employment demand beyond traditional technology roles, with data centre-related positions accounting for 1.3% of job postings in August, up from 1.0% a year ago, according to a report by Indeed Hiring Lab, the economic research arm of job site Indeed.

AI adoption is driving demand for larger data centre infrastructure across India, creating jobs beyond software development. While software roles accounted for 28% of data centre postings in FY26, demand also spanned management, engineering, sales, and project management, reflecting the sector’s broader employment needs.

India’s data centre boom is creating new jobs across both technical and non-technical roles. 

“Data centres are complex, large-scale operations that require workers across engineering, project management, business operations and actions. As investment matures, this broader employment impact is likely to become increasingly visible in the labour market,” Callam Pickering, Senior Economist, APAC at Indeed, said in a statement.

The broader Indian job market also showed signs of strengthening in August. Job postings on Indeed increased 0.2% during the month and were 7.4% higher than a year earlier, while remaining 85% above pre-pandemic levels. However, Indeed's data primarily captures formal-sector recruitment and is therefore not representative of India's entire labour market, where informal employment remains significant.

Recent hiring growth has also been concentrated outside technology. Job postings increased in almost 80% of occupations over the past three months, led by childcare at 27%, nursing at 23%, pharmacy at 20%, and physicians and surgeons at 17%. Dental roles and medical technicians also recorded strong growth, at 16% and 14%, respectively.

Technology hiring, meanwhile, has weakened in recent months. Postings for IT infrastructure, operations and support fell 20%, while software development declined 19%, data and analytics fell 14%, and IT systems and solutions declined 7.6%. 

Despite the slowdown, technology-related postings remain above pre-pandemic levels, although the sector has been weaker than the broader national hiring trend.