Development Manager, Site Selection & Predevelopment

NorthPoint Development

$90K — $120K *
Real Estate & Construction
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Real Estate, or related field
  • 5+ years experience in land entitlement, site selection, or predevelopment, with data center or industrial focus
  • Strong knowledge of power/utility infrastructure - transmission, substations, interconnection processes
  • Deep understanding of land entitlement processes including zoning and due diligence
  • Skill in building and analyzing financial models and proformas
  • Strong project management capabilities with multitasking ability
  • Excellent communication skills for internal and public presentations

Responsibilities

  • Lead site selection and market evaluation for data center opportunities
  • Evaluate sites for feasibility, including environmental and geotechnical studies
  • Assess power availability and capacity for site selection
  • Build repeatable frameworks for site evaluation across markets
  • Develop entitlement strategies in coordination with governmental authorities
  • Coordinate power strategy with utilities and consultants
  • Maintain schedules and budgets tracking project milestones

Benefits

  • Engaging work environment in a central Kansas City location
  • Opportunities for professional development and skill enhancement
  • Involvement in high-impact projects within the data center industry
  • Collaboration with cross-functional teams and stakeholders
  • Travel allowance for site evaluations and business needs
Full Job Description
*This is an in-person role in the Kansas City office

What You'll Do

Site Selection & Strategy
  • Lead site selection and market evaluation strategy, identifying and screening land opportunities that meet data center power, fiber, and infrastructure requirements
  • Evaluate sites for feasibility through test fits, title/survey review, environmental reports, geotechnical studies, and identification of development constraints
  • Assess power availability, capacity, and timeline as a primary site selection driver - including utility coordination, substation and transmission access, and interconnection queue positioning
  • Build and refine repeatable site evaluation frameworks and scoring criteria to compare opportunities across markets

Entitlement, Power, and Business Strategy
  • Develop and support the entitlement strategy for each site, including zoning approach, platting, and the permitting pathway with the relevant authorities
  • Build and support the power strategy for each site, coordinating with utilities and power consultants to understand capacity, cost, and timeline to energization
  • Represent the company in public hearings before planning commissions, city councils, and other governmental bodies as needed
  • Maintain detailed predevelopment schedules and budgets, tracking entitlement and power milestones against project timelines
  • Build and maintain detailed proformas for prospective and active sites, including land acquisition costs, predevelopment budgets, and return assumptions

End-User & Flexibility Planning
  • Maintain a working understanding of data center end-user requirements (hyperscale, colocation, enterprise) - including power density, redundancy, expansion capacity, and connectivity needs - and how they evolve
  • Evaluate sites and building/land plans for the flexibility to accommodate a range of unknown future user requirements, avoiding decisions that foreclose optionality

Who You Are
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Real Estate, or a related field
  • 5+ years of experience in land entitlement, site selection, or predevelopment, ideally with data center, industrial, or utility-scale infrastructure experience
  • Working knowledge of power/utility infrastructure - transmission, substations, interconnection processes - is strongly preferred
  • Deep understanding of the land entitlement process, including zoning, subdivision, due diligence, and infrastructure coordination
  • Comfort building and interrogating financial models and proformas
  • Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple sites/markets simultaneously and prioritize under shifting deadlines
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including comfort presenting to public bodies and internal stakeholders
  • Energetic, resourceful, and able to operate with ambiguity - many decisions will be made before end-user requirements are fully known
  • Ability to travel as required to support site evaluation and business needs

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