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Development Director
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Site Strategy & Development Director
Location: UK or Netherlands | Regular European Travel
Salary: Competitive salary & Package
About the Opportunity
An exciting opportunity has arisen with a high-growth Data Centre developer expanding its European footprint and investing heavily in the next generation of scalable, AI-ready infrastructure.
The business is developing a significant pipeline of future Data Centre opportunities across Europe and is looking to appoint a Site Strategy & Development Director to play a pivotal role in shaping where and how that growth happens. Reporting directly to the CEO, this is a senior position with genuine influence over market entry, site selection, power strategy, land acquisition, development feasibility, and investment decisions. This is an opportunity to join the business at an important stage of its growth, with the successful candidate having significant visibility at Leadership and Board level and the autonomy to build the market intelligence and site origination function from the ground up.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and execute the company's European site strategy and market expansion plans, identifying priority markets based on customer demand, power availability, grid constraints, connectivity, land availability, regulation, and speed-to-market.
- Build and lead a centralized market intelligence function, including a GIS-based mapping tool and structured approach to identifying and qualifying future Data Centre opportunities.
- Build and maintain a pipeline of land, power, and infrastructure opportunities capable of supporting scalable, resilient, and AI-ready Data Centre developments.
- Lead site feasibility assessments and technical, commercial, environmental, and regulatory due diligence.
- Assess grid capacity, connection routes, power delivery timelines, redundancy, energy costs, and long-term expansion potential, working closely with utilities, grid operators, and energy partners.
- Lead negotiations around land options, acquisitions, development agreements, easements, and strategic partnerships.
- Develop site-level financial assessments covering land, grid connections, enabling works, permitting, development timelines, and overall cost.
- Prepare compelling investment cases, CEO briefings, and Board-level recommendations, clearly outlining strategic rationale, risk, return, and execution pathway.
- Own the end-to-end early-stage development process, progressing sites from initial identification through acquisition and ultimately to ready-to-build and handover into design and construction.
- Coordinate internal Engineering, Operations, Design & Construction, Commercial, Legal, Finance, and ESG teams to ensure critical development workstreams remain aligned.
- Manage early-stage risks covering power, land, planning, permitting, environmental constraints, water, access, utilities, legal title, and commercial assumptions.
- Build strong relationships with landowners, developers, utilities, authorities, municipalities, regulators, advisors, customers, and strategic partners across European markets.
- Provide regular reporting to the CEO and Leadership Team on market priorities, pipeline development, power availability, acquisition progress, permitting, and investment readiness.
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Experience & Competencies
- 5–10+ years' relevant experience within Data Centre site selection, infrastructure development, real estate development, energy strategy, utilities, commercial development, or technical real estate.
- Proven track record of identifying, evaluating, and securing sites for Data Centre, mission-critical, energy-intensive, or large-scale infrastructure developments.
- Strong understanding of power availability, grid connections, utility negotiations, renewable energy, and infrastructure delivery risk.
- Experience with land acquisition, zoning, permitting, environmental due diligence, entitlements, and local authority engagement across European markets.
- Strong commercial and financial understanding, including development cost modelling, total cost of ownership, lease-versus-own analysis, and investment approval processes.
- Ability to interpret technical, power, planning, and commercial information and turn it into clear recommendations for senior leadership and investment decisions.
- Strong negotiation, stakeholder management, and relationship-building skills.
- Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional development programs and bring multiple stakeholders together around strategic decisions.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to operate effectively within a fast-paced, international, and high-growth environment.
- European language skills would be advantageous, particularly for engagement with local authorities, utilities, and landowners.
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Location & Travel
UK or Netherlands based, with regular travel to Amsterdam, prospective development sites, target European markets, utility meetings, local authorities, and strategic partners.
Contact
For more information please contact: sadie.martin@clear-er.com
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