Development Manager, Site Selection & Predevelopment

NorthPoint Development

$95K — $115K *
Real Estate & Construction
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Real Estate, or related field
  • 5+ years of experience in land entitlement, site selection, or predevelopment, particularly in data center or utility-scale infrastructure
  • Strong working knowledge of power and utility infrastructure including transmission and substations
  • Deep understanding of land entitlement processes including zoning and infrastructure coordination
  • Proficient in building and evaluating financial models and proformas
  • Exceptional project management skills to handle multiple sites simultaneously
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills for presentations to stakeholders

Responsibilities

  • Lead site selection and market evaluation strategy for data center opportunities
  • Evaluate site feasibility through reviews of surveys, environmental reports, and development constraints
  • Assess power availability and capacity as crucial factors in site selection
  • Develop and support the entitlement strategy for each site, ensuring compliance with zoning and permitting
  • Coordinate with utilities to build power strategies, understanding costs and energization timelines
  • Represent the company in public hearings and discussions with planning commissions and councils
  • Maintain detailed schedules and budgets tracking predevelopment and power milestones

Benefits

  • In-person collaboration in the Kansas City office
  • Ample opportunities for career growth and learning in a rapidly evolving field
  • Engagement with decision-making processes in public forums
  • Dynamic work environment supporting innovative site selection strategies
  • Chance to work on impactful projects that shape infrastructure in key markets
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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