Talent returns home to work in Amazon Web Services data centers in Aragon

During the years of the economic crisis and until well into recovery, Spain and, also communities such as Aragon, became talent exporters to other countriesespecially from the European Union, but it was also chosen to cross the pond and set up to the United States or Canada to Find new professional horizons.

It is an export of talent that has been maintained, to a lesser or greater extent, in recent years, especially in some professions such as those linked to the health and engineering sector, mainly opting for countries such as Germany or France. The return is not always easy Because many people already form their family or value the framework they did not achieve in the Aragonese community.

However, in recent years, interest is observed to return home. The latest data from the Ministry of Labor, related to 2023, reflect that the consular casualties of Spaniards residing abroad amounted to 10,369 taking into account the European Union of the 27. The casualties of countries such as France, with 3,288, and Germany, with 2,351. There are also other points such as the United Kingdom, with 5,138, largely by Brexit and the added difficulties of this process to work there, among other countries.

These returns carry different situations, some of which, in recent years, are mostly linked to a worst march in the economy of those countries, which makes talent think about returning home. In other cases, it is simply that the first trip was made from the beginning with the desire to return. A process in which the Appearance of new job opportunities With the arrival of companies that “light the bulb” and make the decision.

This is the case of companies such as Amazon Web Services with the opening of its technological region in Spain, based in Zaragoza, which He has allowed Aragonese to leave his international experience to return home behind. In each of those returns, there are personal stories behind different, but all with the common link of wanting to return with the family without having to give up a job and a professional career.

And tell it Cynthia Peñaa Zaragoza who studied Industrial Engineering at the Higher Polytechnic Center of the University of Zaragoza That, after working at the Zaragoza 2008 Expo, he chose to go to Barcelona, to the Seat company because, with the crisis, the economic situation was not favorable for its labor insertion. And, from the city, he decided to go to Germanyspecifically to Bavaria, to work in a multinational to acquire another experience.

There he spent eight years, “but I always had in mind to return,” says Cynthia Peña, ELECONOMISTwho stressed that “I knew it was going to be temporary, but I did not know when I would be able to return. I saw in the media that Amazon Web Services opened data centers in Aragon “and opted for itdespite the fact that your professional career has not been linked to Data Centers nor to Cloud.

But, “I informed and applied to offers”, valueing their accumulated experience in other companies and, specifically, in the Team managementespecially during his passage through Audi. “A lot of preparation is needed because they are very powerful companies and you have to contribute value.”

Precisely, in the automotive sector, this type of management is complex because “there is a Timing And you have to launch the product on a certain date. The entire processes can be applied favorably in the IT sector, “he adds. International relations are also necessary because AWS is a multinational with diverse and multidisciplinary equipment.

José Joaquín Calvo and Cynthia Peña, two Zaragozanos who have returned to Aragon to work in AWS data centers.

It is an experience that has moved to AWSwhere it is responsible for the management of teams of the three current data centers in Aragon. And, the change, “it has not cost me because I felt at home. AWS has an international mentality and the teams are versatile, with diverse experience and also with local people.” Nevertheless, The selection process is “demanding because preparation is required. It is to know you as a candidate and see if you fit the company’s philosophy, “says Cynthia Peña, who clarifies that Germany and the United States” has a different culture, but they give you the media and the environment makes you adapt “, although it also influences the ability of the person to develop, regardless of the company.

At the moment, Cynthia Peña He has been in AWS for three years, with a job “stable, good and well paid. I have developed within the company “in which, professionally, it continues to be visualized in the future, which now passes through Zaragoza, where his family has and where his partner is also originally.

Family mobility within AWS

Germany is not the only country that talent to Aragon has returned to work in the Amazon Web Services data centers. Also in this region Cloudthere are Zaragozanos, but they come from USA. A destination that was set for work reasons.

This is the case of José Joaquín Calvoalso from Zaragoza, and specifically, from the Delicias neighborhood, as it likes to point out. Industrial Engineer of the Higher Polytechnic Center of the University of Zaragozabegan his professional career at the local level working in Gamesa. However, in 2003, he decided to opt for a professional career that finally led him to the United States, where he was working on Energy sector companies which starred procurement and impulse processes to new business projects.

“Was Director of Engineering and Construction in the United States“, country in which he met his wife. But, after a period there,” he wanted to return home, “but the return slowed down, passing through England to work in wind farms; Wales and London. His last destination was Manchester,” where time is hard. We wanted to leave but, in Spain, in 2012, was the economic crisis that took him back to the United States.

The idea of returning to Spain continued and the solution came from AWS’s hand. “My wife already worked in the company and it was easier to move with Amazon Web Services and, with the announcement of the data centers in Zaragoza, I conducted the interviews” for Facility manager in the center of Villanueva de Gállego.

Like Cynthia Peña, he valued all his professional career in companies in the energy and electricity sector, as well as in equipment management, their previous experience in data centers and their knowledge under construction and in the design of electrical substations.

Today already It is, with the whole family, in Zaragoza after 17 years out. “I am very happy, but I did not know when I was going to be able to return. I looked in Madrid and Barcelona because here -in relation to the Aragonese community -there was not so much work. The time was shortened with this objective of the data centers. I did not believe it,” Calvo affects.

Its integration into data centers has also been easy. “They give you training and there is a lot of similarity to companies” in which I had already worked internationally. “It has not cost me integrating,” he says. In addition, it positively values that AWS “develops by leaps and bounds and, we see for other international locations, that there are professional development and senior teams.”