Data Center Strategy & Acquisition Associate
Santa Clara California | Regular Salaried |
WHAT YOU DO AT AMD CHANGES EVERYTHINGAt AMD, our mission is to build great products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences-from AI and data centers to PCs, gaming, and embedded systems. Grounded in a culture of innovation and collaboration, we pursue bold ideas with execution excellence while remaining direct, humble, inclusive, and focused on solving the world's most important challenges. Together, we advance your career.
The RoleAMD's Corporate Development and Data Center Strategy organization is seeking an DC Strategy & Acquisition Associate to support the evaluation and execution of data center power and strategic partnership opportunities. This role is the analytical and program-management engine behind the team's opportunity pipeline, providing the research, diligence, financial analysis, reporting, and cross-functional coordination required for timely decisions and successful execution.
The Associate will help move projects from market screening and early diligence through commercial evaluation, contract negotiation, approval, and readiness tracking. The role will coordinate stakeholders across AMD and work with external data center providers, utilities, developers, cloud service providers, neoclouds, advisors, and other strategic partners.
The PersonThe ideal candidate is a highly motivated, results-driven professional with strong financial modeling, program management, and communication skills. This person is comfortable organizing complex workstreams, identifying issues early, and converting market, technical, financial, and contractual information into clear recommendations. The successful candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment, collaborates effectively across functions, and maintains close attention to detail while managing multiple priorities.
Key Responsibilities- Conduct market scans, lead qualification, and preliminary assessments of power availability, delivery timing, site readiness, counterparty capability, commercial terms, and project economics during prospecting and early diligence.
- Program-manage the data center power and partnerships pipeline, including workplans, milestones, dependencies, decision gates, risks, action items, and owners across multiple concurrent projects.
- Prepare and distribute clear project-status updates for leadership and cross-functional teams, highlighting progress, upcoming decisions, schedule changes, critical risks, mitigation plans, and required actions.
- Coordinate commercial, financial, technical, legal, credit, real estate, and operational due diligence; maintain diligence trackers, manage information requests, organize data rooms, and drive issues to resolution.
- Support contract negotiations by preparing term comparisons, issue lists, negotiation materials, economic analyses, and proposed business positions; track open points and coordinate input from Legal, Finance, Engineering, and other stakeholders through execution.
- Drive stakeholder management across AMD by establishing meeting cadences, aligning functional requirements, documenting decisions, escalating blockers, and ensuring accountable follow-through against agreed timelines.
- Maintain the opportunity tracker and executive dashboard; update aging, conversion, capacity, schedule, pipeline stage, No-Go dispositions, financial exposure, and other performance metrics; produce weekly and phase-gate reports.
- Prepare materials for decision gates, including ROFR documentation, Go or No-Go packages, selection-criteria analyses, site-readiness filters, and executive presentations.
- Research off-takers, landlords, developers, neoclouds, utilities, power-delivery timelines, partnership structures, and competitive landscapes; compile market and transaction benchmarks.
- Gather and validate financial data and build or maintain models covering project economics, NPV, ROI, TCO, cash flows, sensitivities, and scenario comparisons; prepare concise risk and opportunity summaries.
- Track readiness-phase progress, including partner deliverables, power-on forecasts, permitting and construction milestones, contractual obligations, and dependencies that may affect capacity delivery.
- Support ad hoc strategic analysis, transaction evaluation, and deck creation for executive briefings and investment or approval discussions.
Minimum Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Engineering, Real Estate, Energy, Data Analytics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Two or more years of experience in data center industry, strategy, corporate development, investment banking, consulting, program management, infrastructure, energy, commercial real estate, or another analytical role; relevant graduate-school experience and internships may be considered.
- Experience performing financial, market, or commercial analysis and developing decision-ready recommendations.
- Strong Excel and PowerPoint capabilities, including financial modeling, data synthesis, and executive-level presentation development.
- Demonstrated ability to coordinate cross-functional workstreams, manage project status, and communicate effectively with stakeholders at different levels of an organization.
Preferred Qualifications- MBA or other relevant graduate degree, or a strong undergraduate record combined with relevant internship or professional experience.
- Experience supporting due diligence, commercial negotiations, strategic partnerships, or transaction execution.
- Exposure to data centers, utilities, power markets, infrastructure, real estate, cloud services, or the GPU and AI supply chain.
- Understanding of data center power-delivery fundamentals, including utility engagement, interconnection, capacity timing, infrastructure readiness, and key commercial dependencies.
- Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or comparable data-visualization and dashboard tools.
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to maintain accurate records and manage multiple priorities under tight timelines.
- Ability to synthesize complex quantitative and qualitative information into clear insights, visuals, and concise written recommendations.
- Collaborative, proactive working style with sound judgment and the ability to build alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Why AMDThis role offers direct exposure to the power, infrastructure, commercial, and partnership decisions supporting AMD's growth in AI and data centers. The Associate will work across major strategic initiatives, develop broad transaction and industry expertise, and help build the operating discipline required to scale AMD's global data center portfolio.
