It is often assumed that once a data center is built, the hard work is done. In reality, operations can be the most complex and unforgiving phase. These are environments where uptime is absolute, safety is paramount, and compliance is non-negotiable.

At Dubai-based lifecycle management firm, AVAR, every aspect of data center management is handled in‑house – from testing and commissioning to live operations, physical security, soft services, and AI‑enhanced operations and maintenance. This vertical integration demands an equally rigorous focus on human capital and financial governance.

In high-stakes, mission-critical environments like these, attention naturally gravitates toward the engineers and technicians on the ground. These roles are absolutely indispensable, and every resilient facility requires a broader ecosystem of managed services, operational excellence, governance, and corporate functions – the administrative backbone that keeps performance consistent and risk controlled.

Who is steering this ship?

During the late 2010s, hyperscale cloud demand surged across the MENA region, with dozens of new data centers rising across the Gulf. Everyone was building. The question was: who was going to operate them?

Behind AVAR’s growth are leaders like Marie-Michel Jreige Alchalouhy, group HR manager, who shapes and executes people strategy across the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey – regions that have seen colossal growth in recent years, far beyond what was once thought possible, transforming entire urban canyons into level playing fields.

But these are rocky waters. The industry is unpredictable and advances in chip density come in waves, making growth without clear direction simply drift. Data center services require responsible functions like HR and Finance at the helm of their ship – setting the course and pace.

Technical teams power the engines, but strategy determines the destination, speed of scale, and the level of risk. The real question today is not just who operates the infrastructure, but who steers the journey.

“In the data center world, there is zero margin for error. Mistakes are not recoverable – they can be the end. This reality defines how HR operates at AVAR. Our responsibility is to ensure that the right people are hired, positioned, developed, and retained, because operational excellence in data centers starts and ends with people,” says Alchalouhy.

Within this context, HR and Finance are risk-critical. While HR mitigates people risk, Finance extends far beyond reporting and compliance, as Lea-Maria Antoun, group finance manager at AVAR, explains:

“In the data center industry, which is both complex and capital-heavy, Finance plays a big part in guiding smart decisions. My focus is on helping set the right investment priorities, keeping financial discipline as we expand, and building a structure that supports sustainable growth with good governance along the way.”

Supporting AVAR’s expansion plans and long-term vision sits at the heart of these functions. Operational excellence begins long before a switch is flipped – and depends on far more than infrastructure alone.

One of the company’s key initiatives is the integration of workforce planning with financial forecasting. By directly linking headcount strategy to cost modeling and growth projections, growth is backed by the right people and at the right cost structure. As a result, HR and Finance accountability is embedded in operational outcomes rather than confined to functional silos.

This partnership underpins AVAR’s growth trajectory, as Alchalouhy notes:

“In less than two years, we have evolved from a startup into a scale-up operating across six-plus countries. Achieving this in the data center industry is extremely rare and would not have been possible without all verticals and HR and Finance working in close strategic alignment.”

The convergence of HR and Finance

For any company to succeed, the right team must be supported by the right financial strategy. This is where HR and Finance converge.

HR is responsible for building a workforce strategy that attracts, develops, and retains the right talent, while Finance ensures that talent investment is aligned with business objectives and long-term sustainability. Together, they shape how a company grows, manages risks, and stays competitive in such a demanding industry.

At AVAR, this alignment is particularly critical, as Alchalouhy explains:

“Not everyone can operate in our field. Our workforce – whether technicians on the ground, engineers, managers, or back-office support teams – are highly specialized professionals. Every role directly or indirectly impacts operations. Finance complements this by ensuring that the cost of this specialization is sustainable and aligned with long-term asset performance.”

Workforce

In responsibility-heavy environments, the HR function is essential in ensuring the safety of those in physical roles and the accountability of everyone involved in managing those roles and the data center as a whole. If a technical professional lacks the competence or understanding required for critical infrastructure, it places not only their own safety at risk, but also that of others and the integrity of operations. Hiring decisions, role placement, training, and ongoing development therefore carry direct operational weight.

Today, HR accountability is directly linked to operational integrity. Hiring the wrong individual, misplacing talent, or failing to prepare teams properly can have immediate and serious repercussions. Workforce readiness, technical competence, safety culture, and long-term retention of specialized talent are therefore determinants of uptime and risk exposure.

Investment

Financial discipline ensures that this specialization is supported by the right structures – hiring models, localization strategies, shift planning, and succession frameworks – all viewed through the lens of operational risk.

“In a fast-moving industry like ours, that balance helps us stay agile without losing control. It means we can invest in the right talent and initiatives while managing resources efficiently,” says Antoun.

On a tactical level, HR drives growth by designing scalable workforce models, rapidly building highly specialized teams, and ensuring compliance across multiple jurisdictions. Finance ensures that this expansion remains disciplined, controlled, and sustainable.

The seas of modern computing

Modern computing is becoming increasingly complex and capital-intensive. Tides change quickly, pressure systems build without warning, and new currents form as technology accelerates. Chips are denser, heat loads harder to manage, racks increasingly compact, and networks more layered. Data centers themselves are outgrowing their original design assumptions. So, how do HR and Finance adapt to these conditions?

According to our leaders at AVAR, both functions have moved from reacting to the weather to reading it.

“We are expected to plan ahead and anticipate future needs. For Finance, that means getting involved early in investment planning, analyzing costs over the full lifecycle, and running different scenarios to prepare for the future,” says Antoun.

Core disciplines such as careful budgeting, sustainable funding structures, and rigorous financial controls remain essential. Yet, real-world projects are rarely linear and frequently encounter crosswinds. Supply chain delays, land acquisition hurdles, political sensitivities, community expectations, technical complexity, and sheer scale can each derail progress if not handled with foresight and agility.

Repeatability is nearly impossible, making sustained investment in people a critical anchor for successful delivery.

HR’s evolution reflects this shift. Where it was once measured primarily on hiring speed and headcount targets, the maturation of the data center industry has moved accountability from process-driven metrics to outcome-driven impact. As Alchalouhy explains:

“We are no longer simply filling roles; we are developing capabilities. The demand for highly specialized skills has increased, and HR must anticipate future needs linked to automation, preventive maintenance, sustainability, and energy efficiency.”

Today, transparency, measurable impact, and shared responsibility between HR and Finance ensure that technological advancement is matched by organizational resilience.

Keeping humans onboard

Technology in data centers is evolving faster than the talent market. Environments are becoming more complex, automated, and critical, while truly qualified professionals remain scarce. At this stage, it is unrealistic to expect HR to simply source ready-made talent externally.

One of the biggest shifts in the industry, as computing matures and AI workloads become commonplace, is that traditional technical infrastructure is outgrowing the original foundations of data centers. Operations are moving toward prefabricated processes and AI-driven preventive maintenance. While some may wonder whether this diminishes the role of the technical workforce, Alchalouhy argues that it represents a shift in mindset – from reaction to anticipation.

The role of HR is evolving in response, redefining positions, investing in upskilling, and embedding a culture of planning and accountability.

“Performance is no longer measured by how quickly issues are fixed, but by how effectively they are prevented,” explains Alchalouhy.

Even as technology advances, the technician remains central. Engineers and site teams are increasingly tasked with managing newer, denser, and more complex systems – often lacking prior experience with these technologies. At the same time, the convergence of sectors – power, cooling, networking, and utilities – is diversifying role requirements, making HR’s hiring decisions more important than ever.

Automation is part of this shift. It can act as a virtual project manager, coordinating tasks through online systems, dispatching work to technicians, and handling repetitive admin jobs. This reduces manual effort, allowing technical teams to focus on core operational responsibilities rather than setup or reporting overhead.

In this context, automation does not replace technicians but augments them, amplifying effectiveness, enabling more streamlined operations, and ultimately, quicker deployment.

Setting a course from cradle to retirement

The concept of ‘cradle to cradle’ lifecycle management is pretty new to data centers, yet AVAR applies this approach to HR and Finance across the employee and investment lifecycle.

“Just as data centers are managed from design to repurposing, AVAR applies a lifecycle mindset to people. From onboarding to development, performance, and succession, HR ensures continuity, knowledge retention, and long-term value,” says Alchalouhy.

Through this approach, workforce planning is more about charting sustainable pathways than just filling gaps, essentially fostering future leaders.

For Finance, the principle is similar but with a focus on planning investments that deliver value across their full lifecycle.

“Having this shared mindset helps us balance immediate performance with long-term sustainability, i.e., managing people and capital proactively, not reactively,” says Antoun.

Amid the global skilled workforce shortage in the data center industry, this long-term view is especially critical. Instead of relying solely on external hiring, AVAR has established its own internal academy, as Alchalouhy explains:

“The academy operates like a technical school, where individuals are developed in-house to meet AVAR’s operational standards, values, and zero-error mindset. Learning is not theoretical – participants go through live, on-site exercises, simulations, and practical assessments in real operating environments.”

“Only those who successfully complete this journey and meet strict technical and behavioral criteria ‘graduate.’ At that point, they are not just trained, they are full-time employees. Through this model, AVAR acts as an incubator of highly specialized data center talent.”

AVAR develops talent internally through structured learning, live on-site exercises, and rigorous assessments, optimizing resources, reducing dependency on scarce talent, and embedding innovation directly into how the workforce is built and sustained.

Sustainability is woven into every department, and all employees undergo in‑house training on energy‑efficient practices, reinforcing a culture where environmental responsibility is operationalized, not outsourced.

On top of the academy, Antoun notes that internal sessions led by departments such as Operations help bring teams together and foster understanding of how individual roles connect across the business. This has created resilient teams that fully grasp the critical impact of their work on safety, uptime, and client trust.

Through initiatives like these, companies can emphasize continuous learning – seeking individuals who not only hold the right certifications but also demonstrate a desire to keep growing, and guiding their development from onboarding to retirement.

Talent without borders

Navigating global operations in a localized way is not a skill that comes automatically – it must be nurtured. It requires balancing the bigger picture while empowering strong, capable teams on the ground.

Governance, controls, and clear reporting lines provide the instruments to enable streamlined operations across regions while respecting local realities. Antoun explains:

“HR and Finance sit right at the crossroads of people, capital, and risk. For this reason, governance becomes a foundation, not a limitation.”

HR safeguards workforce compliance, certifications, and consistency across jurisdictions, while Finance ensures transparency, discipline, and financial control. Together, they help organizations steer between risk and opportunity.

This alignment gives stakeholders confidence that people are invested in wisely, resources are managed responsibly, and decisions support sustainable growth. The output is highly specialized teams who deliver reliable performance, protect uptime, safety, and service quality.

“When people’s capability, operational performance, and financial outcomes are aligned, credibility follows naturally, with clients, partners, employees, and investors alike,” says Alchalouhy. Antoun adds:

“And in a sector where women are still underrepresented, we’re proud that both the HR and Finance managers at AVAR are women. We focus on bringing in capable people who are eager to learn, grow, and deliver exceptional work.”

In this environment, HR and Finance are not traditional back-office functions – they serve as the compass of the organization. Anchored in accountability and technical excellence, they help ensure that in a zero-error industry, organizations can move forward with a clear direction.

For more information, please visit avarglobal.com.