Vice President/Senior Vice President - Data Center Site Selection

Macdonald & Company; United States; On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Macdonald & Company is partnering with a well-funded real estate investment firm to hire a Vice President or Senior Vice President who will start a powered land platform for data centers from scratch across the United States.

The role will define strategy, markets, and relationships that enable the platform, including power availability, site control, and data center demand, before any construction begins.

Qualifications

• Direct experience in data center site selection, powered land, site acquisition, or utility engagement.
• Early-stage development experience is a plus.
• Ability to operate with significant autonomy and limited existing infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Find and assess powered land and early-stage data center sites across the US.
• Target markets with sufficient power capacity for future development.
• Build relationships with utilities, landowners, brokers, developers, and consultants.
• Structure and negotiate land deals: acquisitions, options, and other tools that lock in site control while power and approvals move forward.
• Run utility engagement: power availability, capacity, timing, infrastructure needs, and steps to get service to a site.
• Underwrite capital requirements, risk, and return on each opportunity.
• Manage early due diligence, entitlements, and engineering work to de-risk a site.
• Build the exit: sell approved, de-risked sites to data center developers, operators, and other buyers.
• Bring opportunities and recommendations to senior leadership and take part in capital decisions.
• Set up processes and market intelligence to turn this into a standing business line.

Skills

Negotiation

Relationship building

Financial underwriting

Autonomy

Utility engagement

Job description

Macdonald & Company is working with a well-funded real estate investment firm to hire a Vice President or Senior Vice President who will start a powered land platform for data centers from scratch.

The firm has capital to deploy and no existing team in this space. The hire will define the strategy, choose the markets, and build the relationships that make the platform work.

This is a land and power role, not a construction role. The mandate sits where power availability, site control, and data center demand meet, before a shovel goes in the ground.

Responsibilities:

• Find and assess powered land and early-stage data center sites across the US.
• Target markets where the firm can secure meaningful power capacity for future development.
• Build relationships with utilities, landowners, brokers, developers, and consultants.
• Structure and negotiate land deals: acquisitions, options, and other tools that lock in site control while power and approvals move forward.
• Run utility engagement: power availability, capacity, timing, infrastructure needs, and the steps required to get service to a site.
• Underwrite capital requirements, risk, and return on each opportunity.
• Manage early due diligence, entitlements, and engineering work that de-risks a site.
• Build the exit: sell approved, de-risked sites to data center developers, operators, and other buyers.
• Bring opportunities and recommendations to senior leadership and take part in capital decisions.
• Set up the processes and market intelligence that turn this into a standing business line.

Qualifications

• Direct experience in data center site selection, powered land, site acquisition, or utility engagement.
• Early-stage development experience is a plus.
• Strong negotiation, relationship-building, and financial underwriting skills.
• Comfortable operating with significant autonomy and limited existing infrastructure.