Site Selection & Colocation Manager – Data Centers

Nebius Group; United States; Remote; USD 100,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Career growth and learning

Flexibility and ownership

Collaborative and innovative culture

Opportunity to work on impactful AI **

International environment and talented

teams

Job summary

Nebius is seeking a Site Selection & Colocation Manager to lead end-to-end site selection and market analysis for new data center facilities. The role spans environmental due diligence, vendor management, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure sites meet operational and business requirements.

You’ll work from Amsterdam or remotely within the EU, coordinating with engineering, legal, finance, and network planning teams to drive scalable data center strategies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate, Engineering, Business, Geography, or related field.
• 5–8+ years of experience in site selection, real estate development, colocation management, or data center infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of data center power, cooling, and network requirements.
• Experience in evaluating colocation providers and negotiating leases/SLAs.
• Analytical skills in market research, cost modeling, and risk assessment.
• Ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects across regions.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end site selection process for new data center facilities.
• Conduct market assessments, including power availability, fiber connectivity, land suitability, regulatory requirements, and risk factors.
• Build and maintain market intelligence on emerging data center regions, supply trends, energy markets, and colocation pricing.
• Evaluate and shortlist candidate sites through comparative analysis, scoring models, and feasibility studies.
• Coordinate environmental, geotechnical, hydrological, and seismic assessments.
• Assess infrastructure availability (power, water, fiber) and future scalability.
• Evaluate construction constraints, climate conditions, logistics access, and permitting feasibility.
• Work with engineering teams to ensure sites meet mechanical, electrical, and network resilience requirements.
• Identify colocation providers and evaluate facilities based on technical specifications, SLA requirements, and cost structure.
• Lead RFPs, negotiations, and contract execution with colocation and connectivity partners.
• Manage colocation lifecycle: renewals, expansions, migrations, and optimization of space/power allocations.
• Monitor vendor performance against SLA, uptime, compliance, and efficiency metrics.
• Work with data center design and construction teams to validate site feasibility and development timelines.
• Partner with legal on contract terms, property acquisition, lease terms, and regulatory compliance.
• Support finance with CapEx/OpEx modeling, ROI calculations, and business case development.
• Coordinate with public authorities, utilities, and permitting agencies as needed.
• Evaluate risks related to natural hazards, geopolitical risk, security, environmental constraints, and utility reliability.
• Ensure compliance with local regulations, zoning laws, and corporate standards.
• Maintain documentation for audits, reporting, and internal approvals.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Market analysis

Risk assessment

Project management

Data center power/ cooling know‑how

Contract & SLA evaluation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate, Engineering, Business, Geography, or related field

Job description

About Nebius:

Nebius is leading a new era in cloud infrastructure for the global AI economy. We are building a full-stack AI cloud platform that supports developers and enterprises from data and model training through to production deployment, without the cost and complexity of building large in-house AI/ML infrastructure.

Built by engineers, for engineers. From large-scale GPU orchestration to inference optimization, we own the hard problems across compute, storage, networking and applied AI.

Listed on Nasdaq (NBIS) and headquartered in Amsterdam, we have a global footprint with R&D hubs across Europe, the UK, North America and Israel. Our team of 1,500+ includes hundreds of engineers with deep expertise across hardware, software and AI R&D.

The role

The Site Selection & Colocation Manager is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and securing optimal locations for new data center developments and colocation expansions. This role combines real estate strategy, technical due diligence, market analysis, and vendor management to support the company's global data center growth. The manager will collaborate closely with engineering, construction, finance, legal, and network planning teams to ensure that selected sites meet operational, technical, and business requirements.

You’re welcome to work in our office in Amsterdam or Remote in the EU.

Your responsibilities will include:

Site Selection & Market Analysis

• Lead the end-to-end site selection process for new data center facilities.
• Conduct market assessments, including power availability, fiber connectivity, land suitability, regulatory requirements, and risk factors.
• Build and maintain market intelligence on emerging data center regions, supply trends, energy markets, and colocation pricing.
• Evaluate and shortlist candidate sites through comparative analysis, scoring models, and feasibility studies.

Technical & Environmental Due Diligence

• Coordinate environmental, geotechnical, hydrological, and seismic assessments.
• Assess infrastructure availability (power, water, fiber) and future scalability.
• Evaluate construction constraints, climate conditions, logistics access, and permitting feasibility.
• Work with engineering teams to ensure sites meet mechanical, electrical, and network resilience requirements.

Colocation Strategy & Vendor Management

• Identify colocation providers and evaluate facilities based on technical specifications, SLA requirements, and cost structure.
• Lead RFPs, negotiations, and contract execution with colocation and connectivity partners.
• Manage colocation lifecycle: renewals, expansions, migrations, and optimization of space/power allocations.
• Monitor vendor performance against SLA, uptime, compliance, and efficiency metrics.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work with data center design and construction teams to validate site feasibility and development timelines.
• Partner with legal on contract terms, property acquisition, lease terms, and regulatory compliance.
• Support finance with CapEx/OpEx modeling, ROI calculations, and business case development.
• Coordinate with public authorities, utilities, and permitting agencies as needed.

Risk Assessment & Compliance

• Evaluate risks related to natural hazards, geopolitical risk, security, environmental constraints, and utility reliability.
• Ensure compliance with local regulations, zoning laws, and corporate standards.
• Maintain documentation for audits, reporting, and internal approvals.

We expect you to have:

• Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate, Engineering, Business, Geography, or related field.
• 5-8+ years of experience in site selection, real estate development, colocation management, or data center infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of data center power, cooling, and network requirements.
• Experience in evaluating colocation providers and negotiating leases/SLAs.
• Analytical skills in market research, cost modeling, and risk assessment.
• Ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects across regions.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.

It will be an added bonus if you have:

• Experience with hyperscale or large-scale data center development.
• Knowledge of utility procurement (power, water), renewable energy markets, and substation planning.
• Familiarity with geospatial tools (GIS), risk modeling, or data center capacity planning.
• Understanding of permitting processes and environmental regulations.

Benefits & Perks:

• Competitive compensation
• Career growth and learning opportunities
• Flexibility and ownership
• Collaborative and innovative culture
• Opportunity to work on impactful AI projects
• International environment and talented teams

What's it like to work at Nebius:

Fast moving- Bold thinking- Constant growth- Meaningful impact- Trust and real ownership- Opportunity to shape the future of AI

Equal Opportunity Statement:

Nebius is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace and to providing equal employment opportunities in all aspects of employment. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the country in which they apply and will be required to provide proof of employment eligibility as a condition of hire.

If you need accommodations during the application process, please let us know.