{"id":17795,"date":"2025-10-30T18:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17795"},"modified":"2025-10-30T19:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:57:13","slug":"port-washington-to-be-land-of-opportunity-for-job-seekers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=17795","title":{"rendered":"Port Washington to be land of opportunity for job-seekers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/port-washington-to-be-land-of-opportunity-for-job-seekers\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Tech school grads among those who\u2019ll benefit from data centers<\/em><\/h4>\n

Technical college graduates and small business owners will be big winners in the massive Vantage Data Centers development<\/a> soon expected to become the largest employer in Port Washington.<\/p>\n

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The four-building campus, named \u201cLighthouse,\u201d is part of OpenAI\u2019s and Oracle\u2019s Stargate Project<\/a>, a plan to invest $500 billion in building new artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States over the next four years. Construction on the Lighthouse project is slated to begin before the end of the year and expected to be complete by 2028.<\/p>\n

In an announcement last week<\/a>, data center operator Vantage said it and Oracle will provide \u201cmore than 1,000 long-term jobs and thousands more indirect jobs\u201d once the Lighthouse campus is complete. At least 300 of those are expected to come from Vantage, Port Washington officials said<\/a>, while the remaining 700 or so would come from Oracle and OpenAI. In a February letter to residents<\/a>, Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke wrote that many of the Vantage jobs \u201cpay six figures, and many do not require a four-year degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at jobs that are going to raise the standard of living for families here,\u201d president and CEO of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce Dale Kooyenga<\/a> said. \u201cThese jobs are clearly \u2026 going to be paid well above the median family income. I\u2019d say about 150% more, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technical college graduates will \u201cbe a big winner in this,\u201d Kooyenga said, as HVAC professionals, electricians and certain engineering roles will be in high demand. \u201cA lot of these jobs pay college-graduate levels but only require a technical degree,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A Vantage webpage<\/a> for the Lighthouse campus says the campus will employ workers in full-time, professional roles such as critical facilities engineers and technicians, security and operations specialists, and administrative and management positions. Vantage says the average salary will be more than $116,000 annually.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe salaries, from my understanding, are $80,000 to mid-six-figures \u2026 depending on your position,\u201d said Neitzke.<\/p>\n

Currently, Vantage has about 20 open positions located in Port Washington listed on its careers page<\/a>, though some roles can be based in either Port Washington or one of the company\u2019s other U.S. or Canada locations. Most current listings are in engineering or for management- or director-level positions. These include roles in project engineering, construction management and project management. Other listings include an employee relations manager, an environmental health and safety manager, a construction scheduler and an executive assistant.<\/p>\n

Kooyenga said additional jobs \u201cacross the educational spectrum\u201d will be listed over the next two years. Most will require at least a two-year technical degree, he said, though some positions \u2014 he mentioned security guards and custodians \u2014 will not require post-secondary education.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThey have everything there, from security to maintenance \u2026 to engineers and programmers,\u201d\u00a0said Neitzke. \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting base of new opportunities, as far as I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding is, because I went and visited the new Vantage Data Centers in Virginia, that the majority of employees who work for Vantage are going to be a highly skilled and technical workforce,\u201d Neitzke said.<\/p>\n

He said some positions will be available to technical college grads but there also will be positions for people with \u201cadvanced training, all the way to master\u2019s degrees and everywhere in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kooyenga said that Vantage is putting millions toward workforce development with \u201cvarious local partners,\u201d soon to be announced. On its Lighthouse campus page, Vantage describes \u201cpartnerships with local educational institutions and workforce development organizations \u2026 that prepare workers for high-growth careers in data center operations and emerging technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vantage has already approached schools and colleges in the region, spanning from the Green Bay area through Sheboygan to the Milwaukee area, according to Neitzke.<\/p>\n

\u201cVantage is meeting with the local public schools, the high schools. They are meeting with the technical colleges and the universities in the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He highlighted technical colleges, saying, \u201cPort Washington is sweetly positioned between three technical college networks: Milwaukee Area Technical College, Moraine Park Technical College, and Lakeshore College. \u2026 We are surrounded by really cool opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifty minutes south of Port Washington, Microsoft\u2019s 1,900-acre data center campus in Mount Pleasant<\/a>, opening early next year, partnered with Gateway Technical College<\/a> to offer a 12-credit \u201cMicrosoft Data Center Certificate.\u201d The two-semester program features courses in information technology, hardware and software support, and server technologies, preparing students for entry-level IT positions, particularly within data center operations, Gateway said. Microsoft said it plans to train more than 1,000 students in five years through the program.<\/p>\n

Thousands of construction and indirect jobs<\/h4>\n

According to an Oct. 20 fact sheet<\/a> from Port Washington officials, the Lighthouse project \u201cwill support approximately 5,800 indirect jobs across suppliers, vendors, and subcontractors.\u201d Vantage said many of these opportunities will go to small businesses.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the project\u2019s construction phase \u201cwill create 4,000 direct, good-paying jobs, the majority of which will be union positions.\u201d Vantage has said it plans to \u201cprioritize local hiring\u201d throughout the construction process.<\/p>\n

Kooyenga said Microsoft\u2019s Mount Pleasant campus provides an example of a \u201cvery similar\u201d workforce makeup, both in terms of construction and long-term roles. A Microsoft spokesperson told the Badger Institute that the project saw \u201cnearly 10,000 workers\u201d play a role in construction. The workforce included more than 3,000 construction workers on-site at its peak, including electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, structural iron and steel workers, concrete workers and earth movers, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

In August, the Badger Institute reported<\/a> that Microsoft announced it had begun hiring what is expected to be a staff of 500 specialists, as well as contractors, to operate the data center. The Microsoft spokesperson provided a list of full-time role categories, which includes positions in campus management, people management, learning and development, IT operations, mechanical and electrical engineering, security contractors, building maintenance and critical environments roles.<\/p>\n

Mount Pleasant communications director Sean Ryan said village officials welcome the Microsoft jobs. \u201cThey create more work opportunities for our current residents and can attract more people to live in Mount Pleasant, and the region as a whole, in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, Microsoft paid $35 million for 230 acres in Kenosha, where the spokesperson said the tech giant plans to build a second data center of \u201csimilar size and scale\u201d with a comparable number of employees.<\/p>\n

Claire Reid is a Milwaukee-based freelance journalist and graduate of the University of Notre Dame. She was most recently a reporter at the\u00a0Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and has published work in numerous other papers and magazines as a freelancer or intern. Claire was born and raised in Madison. She plans to continue her education in Marquette University\u2019s master of arts in Corporate Communication program in 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

Any\u202fuse or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written\u202fpermission.\u202fTo request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute Marketing Director Matt Erdman at\u202f<\/em>matt@badgerinstitute.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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