We talk to the US commissioning market all day, every day. We know what good looks like because we work on nothing else. Most people we speak to, we never introduce.
Morning Sarah, we've been speaking with a senior mechanical Cx engineer, and he's given us the go-ahead to introduce him to you. Key details below, profile attached.
| Role | Senior Mechanical Cx Engineer |
| Location | Ohio, open to travel |
| Rotation | Prefers 5 on, 2 off or better |
| Experience | 7+ yrs data center Cx, hyperscale IST lead |
| Reason for looking | Current program demobilises Q4 |
| Expectation | $150k to $165k base |
If you'd like to speak with him, reply and we'll set it up this week. If not, no problem at all. We'll leave you be and keep talking to him.
Cal
Profile.pdfWe send you the ones worth meeting. A one-page agreement, fixed fees known up front, and most of the fee only payable once the hire has proven out.
One conversation, off the record. A straight read of the market for your background, and doors we can open when you're ready. Nothing shared without your say-so.
Inside Commissioning: real conversations with the people shaping mission critical delivery.
"We need three Cx engineers and we needed them two months ago."
"We made an offer and got outbid by a firm we'd never heard of."
"Fifteen resumes. Not one had set foot on a data center site."
None of these are unusual. The commissioning pool is small, demand is not, and the standard agency model makes it worse: recruiters who need your vacancy before they start looking, resumes by the dozen, terms negotiations, rebate arguments. The hiring is hard enough. The circus around it is optional.
Baseline is not a recruitment agency. Think of us closer to a sports agent. We are on the talent side of the market: in conversation with commissioning engineers, managers, and leaders every working day. When someone genuinely worth your time surfaces, we introduce them to you. You decide if you want to meet them.
No job orders. No resume volume. No agency asking what roles you have open this month.
If we have nobody worth your time, you hear nothing from us. That is the service.
The agreement fits on a single page, and signing costs you nothing. No exclusivity, no minimum volume, no obligation to interview anyone we send. It simply means that when we meet someone exceptional, you are a company we can take them to, at a price you already know.
$5,000 on the start date. The rest in two equal payments, at three months and six months, each payable only if the person is still with you on the day. If they leave before then, you owe nothing further.
No rebates. No replacement clauses. No arguments about whether someone "worked out." The trigger is a date on a calendar, not a judgment call.
One fixed fee, set by the title on your offer letter. No percentages, no negotiation, the same price for every client. You'll have the full price list with the one-page agreement, before we ever introduce anyone, so there is nothing to work out at offer stage and nothing to ask twice for.
| Fee | Fixed by title band |
| On start date | $5,000 |
| Day 90, if still employed | Half the balance |
| Day 180, if still employed | Half the balance |
Full price list shared with the agreement. Leadership and executive hires retained, scoped per role.
For commissioning leadership and executive hires, we run the full engagement: scoped, exclusive, and led by Cal start to finish.
Need someone on site next month, not next quarter? We place commissioning contractors across the US, payroll and compliance handled.
"Worth meeting" is easy to claim. Here is what sits behind it. We maintain a working picture of the US commissioning market, updated every day: the companies, the people, live roles, compensation, and who is moving where. Every introduction we make is judged against that picture, and every conversation we have feeds it.
We built it so our read is honest. Not so we can sell you a database.
Operators, contractors, consultancies and specialist Cx firms. Mapped, tiered, kept current.
Engineers, managers and CxA professionals. Where they sit, what they've delivered, how they move.
Salary, travel and benefits signals drawn from real conversations, not job-ad guesses.
Which firms are growing, which are losing people, and where demand builds next.
Most firms fish the same small pond: experienced data center Cx engineers who already field three approaches a week. We watch that pool closely. We also map the adjacent industries where commissioning fundamentals carry over.
Systems testing, integrated commissioning, quality verification, rigorous standards. The fundamentals translate. And because these people aren't being chased by every firm in the data center space, they're more reachable and often more open to a move. When the like-for-like pool is tapped out, the firms that win bring proven talent across.
An adjacent resume only helps if the move works. Before we introduce someone making the jump, we've examined which skills carry over cleanly, where the genuine gaps are, and what it takes to get them productive on a data center program. You get people who can do the work, not resumes that look adjacent on paper.
If you commission data centers for a living, your inbox is already noisy. We'd rather be the one conversation worth having, with a clear view of the market behind it.
Nothing shared without permission. Your details stay with us until you say otherwise, including the fact that we've spoken.
No noise. We won't call you about roles that don't make sense for you.
An honest read. What the market looks like for your background: demand, compensation, direction. You never start from zero.
Doors already open. We hold standing agreements with companies across US data center commissioning. When you're ready, an introduction from us goes to a named decision maker under an agreement that already exists, not into an ATS black hole.
A route in. If you commission in pharma, power or semiconductors, we'll show you where your experience fits and what it pays.
"I spent years on the internal side of hiring, watching the agency circus from the buyer's chair. Spec resumes followed by fee claims, weeks of terms negotiation, rebate arguments when a hire didn't stick. Baseline is the firm I wanted to exist back then. One that talks to the market every single day, only sends you people worth meeting, and keeps its fee at risk until the hire has proven out."
— Cal Blair, Founder
Fourteen years in recruitment across construction and technology, agency-side and in-house. Cal leads every client and candidate conversation himself, start to finish, and hosts Inside Commissioning.
Sam runs Baseline's internal projects and manages the talent intelligence system, keeping the market picture current.
Lauren works the data center commissioning market every day, tracking hiring, movers and the supply chain so the intelligence stays fresh and accurate.
Ronnie maps the people working in mission critical commissioning, and those who could move into it. Eight years in recruitment, previously with AWS.
The commissioning world is full of people with remarkable careers and hard-won opinions, and very few places where those stories get told. This is one of them. Real conversations with the engineers, managers and leaders shaping mission critical delivery.
Built a career in commissioning with something to say about where the industry is heading? Put yourself forward →
Hiring commissioning people? One short call about what worth your time looks like, one signature on a single page, and the introductions start. We'll share what we're seeing across the market while we're at it: demand, compensation, movement. No pitch, no follow-up circus.