Career path: OT networking engineer moving toward hyperscale data center controls
I work in industrial networking and OT infrastructure, with experience in network design, segmentation, routing/switching, PLC/IED integration, SCADA-related architectures, industrial protocols, resiliency, and technical documentation.
I am interested in moving toward data center controls infrastructure and larger-scale networked control systems. I am not targeting traditional software engineering roles; I want to remain on the OT, controls, industrial networking, and critical-infrastructure side.
For people working in OT, industrial automation, utilities, manufacturing, or data center controls:
- Which skills are most valuable for moving into data center controls networking?
- Is it more useful to deepen expertise in industrial protocols and segmentation, or to focus more heavily on data center networking, automation, and cloud-connected infrastructure?
- Which types of companies or job titles should someone with this background target?
I am especially interested in roles involving control systems networking, critical infrastructure, OT segmentation, industrial Ethernet, and scalable operational environments.