Development Manager (Data Center)

Description

Who We Are

Our purpose at CloudHQ is to provide flexible, efficient, and resilient data center solutions to businesses of all sizes. Our growing organization was founded by the pioneer of data center REITs. CloudHQ has state-of-the-art data center sites located in two Northern Virginia locations, as well as London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, and Sao Paulo, and we anticipate exponential growth over the next several years both in the US and abroad.

What The Role Entails:

The Data Center Development Manager will lead and be accountable for the execution and delivery of CloudHQ data center development projects across the full preconstruction lifecycle — from campus planning through entitlement, design, and transition to CloudHQ’s Construction and team. This role is responsible for driving projects forward with urgency, maintaining alignment across stakeholders, and ensuring successful delivery against schedule, budget, operational, and customer objectives.

Working closely with customers, utility providers, architects, engineers, contractors, local jurisdictions, and CloudHQ’s internal Construction and Operations teams, this role requires a results-driven professional with a strong sense of ownership and bias for action. The successful candidate will proactively identify and mitigate risks, drive timely decisions, and maintain forward momentum across multiple concurrent projects in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

Requirements

What You Will Get To Do:

Project Management

· Lead and maintain end-to-end accountability for data center development projects from campus planning through entitlement, design, permitting, and handoff to Construction.

· Drive campus planning, design, and permitting activities across multiple simultaneous projects while maintaining alignment with CloudHQ standards, customer requirements, and business objectives.

· Develop and actively manage project budgets, schedules, and key development milestones to enable successful project execution and delivery. Drive internal and external teams to meet critical milestones and proactively adjust in response to changing priorities, risks, or constraints.

· Lead procurement for external consultants, including preparation of RFPs, evaluation of proposals, contract negotiations, and consultant selection.

· Maintain clear ownership and accountability and drive timely decision-making for project outcomes while coordinating across diverse cross-functional teams and external partners.

· Lead and maintain accountability for the design process and development of construction documents, including specifications, ensuring coordinated and high-quality deliverables.

· Drive utilities planning and coordination to support project timelines.

Stakeholder Coordination

· Lead coordination across architects, engineers, contractors, trade partners, equipment vendors, utility providers, municipalities, customers, and internal stakeholders to align execution and drive project outcomes.

· Partner with customers to translate technical and operational requirements into actionable development and design solutions while balancing scope, schedule, cost, and operational objectives.

· Collaborate closely with Construction and Operations teams to ensure projects are executable, maintainable, scalable, and aligned with operational best practices and lifecycle cost considerations.

· Communicate project constraints, risks, decisions, and impacts clearly and proactively to leadership and key stakeholders.

· Represent CloudHQ in meetings with municipalities, utility providers, neighborhood groups, customers, and external project teams.

· Lead issue resolution efforts between CloudHQ and external partners, driving accountability and timely closure of critical action items.

· Attend and lead project meetings, including OAC and coordination meetings, ensuring alignment, execution discipline, and follow-through across all parties.

Strategic Leadership & Continuous Improvement

· Prepare and present development business plans, project updates, risk assessments, and strategic recommendations to leadership.

· Identify opportunities to improve development, entitlement, permitting, and project delivery processes to enhance scalability, efficiency, and consistency across the portfolio.

· Develop creative solutions and innovations to improve project execution, stakeholder coordination, and team performance.

· Identify lessons learned and integrate process improvements and best practices into future projects.

· Contribute to the evolution of CloudHQ’s development standards, delivery strategies, and long-term planning initiatives.

Education:

· Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate Development, Construction Management, Engineering, Project Management or related discipline.

Experience:

· 3-5+ years’ experience in real estate development, project management, construction management, and/or design management, preferably within data centers, mission-critical facilities, or other complex commercial / high-tech environments.

· Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary project teams and managing external consultants, contractors and stakeholders through complex development and delivery.

Required Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:

· Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, able to drive high-stakes technical outcomes with urgency and sound commercial and technical judgment.

· Demonstrated ability to proactively identify, escalate, and mitigate technical, commercial, and schedule risks before they impact project delivery.

· High sense of ownership and accountability, with a track record of driving complex initiatives to closure on aggressive timelines.

· Strong communicator and influencer, able to align cross-functional stakeholders and push issues to resolution without unnecessary delay.

· Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent projects in a fast-paced, high-growth environment while maintaining forward momentum.

· Strategic thinker with a continuous improvement mindset, balancing rapid execution with long-term business objectives.

· Flexible and committed, with the ability and willingness to work extended hours when required to meet critical deadlines

· All candidates chosen for consideration must submit to and pass background check

· All employees hired must sign and adhere to CloudHQ’s Code of Conduct, and Employee Confidentiality Agreement

Location: Site-based in Ashburn, VA

Travel: Ability to travel to data center sites, client meetings, trainings or conferences as requested and required.