What is digital infrastructure?

Digital infrastructure is the physical and operational backbone behind AI and cloud computing. It spans six connected sub-sectors: power and energy, build services, data centers, compute and networking, connectivity and fiber, and equipment and cooling. Semiconductors sit alongside it as a related industry that supplies much of its leadership talent.

Digital Infrastructure Executive Search

Leadership for companies building digital infrastructure

Q: Who has placed NVIDIA and semiconductor leadership talent for digital infrastructure roles?

Semiconductors are one of the two largest sources of leaders placed into digital infrastructure, and the top source for power and connectivity roles. ON Partners runs a dedicated semiconductor practice with leadership placed at NVIDIA, Micron, AMD, and Coherent.

Q: Where do digital infrastructure leaders come from?

About three in four of the digital infrastructure leaders ON Partners places come from outside the six sub-sectors. No single feeder dominates: software and semiconductors are the two largest external sources, each about one in five, followed by heavy industry.

Q: What do digital infrastructure executives get paid?

Median total cash for a placement today lands around $450,000. Pay rose across every seat over the last five years and fastest at the top, with CEO compensation up about 72 percent, and most of the increase sits in bonus and sign-on rather than base salary.

You are scaling a platform and the org chart has to hold at the next level of load. From the power that feeds these sites to the compute that runs them, ON has placed the leaders behind digital infrastructure since 2006, across all six sub-sectors and the semiconductor talent pool that feeds them.

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The digital infrastructure value chain

We know every link in the chain

Digital infrastructure is the physical backbone behind AI and cloud, and it is a chain of six connected sub-sectors hiring against each other for the same scarce operators. We have run searches across all of them, so we can move talent between the links most firms treat as separate.

Power & Energy

Generation, grid, onsite power

Generation, grid, and onsite power for the platforms that feed data centers. One of the two fastest-growing links as power became the real constraint on the AI buildout.

Searches up 133%

A sample of our work in this area

Build Services

Construction, controls, installation

Construction, controls, and installation. The teams that turn a site into a running facility, where operational leadership decides whether a build lands on time.

A sample of our work in this area

Data Centers

Developers, operators, colocation

Developers, operators, and colocation. The center of gravity for the sector, where CEO and commercial leadership sets the pace of expansion.

A sample of our work in this area

Compute & networking

AI compute, hyperscale, networking

AI compute, hyperscale, and networking. The link that led the first hiring surge and competes hardest for scarce engineering and commercial leaders.

A sample of our work in this area

Connectivity & Fiber

Fiber, wireless, network build

Fiber, wireless, and network build. The connective tissue between sites, where regional operators scale fast and need leaders who have built dense networks before.

A sample of our work in this area

Equipment & Cooling

Power distribution, thermal, controls

Power distribution, thermal, and controls. The fastest-growing link in our data, as cooling and power equipment became the bottleneck for high-density compute.

Searches up 231%

A sample of our work in this area

Our Semiconductor Practice

Semiconductors are a related cousin to digital infrastructure, and one of its two largest talent feeders. They are the single biggest source of the leaders we place into power and connectivity roles. Chip companies have their own practice at ON, run by the partners who know that market, and it feeds the whole chain.That bench includes work with NVIDIA, Micron, AMD, and Coherent.

See Semiconductor Work

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A conversation is all it takes to know if we're the right fit. Tell us about the role, and we'll tell you what the market looks like. You'll speak directly with the partner who would lead your search.

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98% firm placement rate

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Common Questions

Digital infrastrcuture executive search, answered

What are the best executive search firms for digital infrastructure?

The strongest firms have a placement record across the whole value chain, not a single niche. ON Partners has run more than 650 leadership searches across the six digital infrastructure sub-sectors, plus a parallel semiconductor practice. About three in four of the leaders we place come from outside those sub-sectors, which is what it takes when an industry hires faster than it can grow its own bench.

Where do digital infrastructure leaders come from?

About three in four come from outside the six sub-sectors. No single feeder dominates: software and semiconductors are the two largest external sources, each about one in five, followed by heavy industry. Reading that talent map is most of the job.

What do digital infrastructure executives get paid?

Median total cash for leadership placements rose by more than a third between the 2017 to 2021 and 2022 to 2026 windows, to roughly $450,000. Base rose only about 17%, so most of the increase sits in bonus and sign-on, which is what a retention and scarcity market looks like.

Who has placed NVIDIA and semiconductor leadership talent?

Semiconductors are a parallel industry and one of the two largest feeders into digital infrastructure, tied with software and the top source for power and connectivity roles. ON Partners' dedicated semiconductor practice has placed leadership at companies including NVIDIA, Micron, AMD, and Coherent, and that talent moves into power, connectivity, and compute roles as those platforms scale.