The Opportunity
Montera is seeking a VP, Deputy General Counsel (Real Estate & Development) to lead the legal work for land acquisition, entitlement, and construction across Montera's data center portfolio and to help build the legal department as the company scales. Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, this position is one of three planned functional roles, each ultimately responsible for a distinct area of the business (Job Level M7 - VP or SVP).
The role owns acquisition, site control, entitlements, construction and EPC contracts, condominium structures, and ground-lease financeability. It is responsible for ensuring that risk Montera accepts in a customer lease passes through to the related construction, land, and financing documents. The role also supports financing and board matters and helps establish the templates, playbooks, outside-counsel panel, and systems the legal function requires. It requires deep real estate, development, and construction experience together with broad generalist judgment developed in close partnership with a business. It partners with Development, Design & Construction, Delivery, Procurement, Finance, and Commercial, and requires regular travel to sites, jurisdictions, lenders, and counterparties.
What You'll Do
• Exercise delegated authority from the Chief Legal Officer across real estate, development, and construction matters, and represent the Legal function directly with the business, counterparties, lenders, and local authorities.
• Own land acquisition and site control - purchase and option agreements, ground leases, title, survey, easements and access rights, and diligence and option periods structured to preserve time to secure power and entitlements.
• Direct zoning, annexation, entitlement, and permitting strategy in partnership with land-use counsel - permitting contingencies, conditions of approval, environmental conditions, and water rights.
• Lead negotiation of design, construction, and EPC contracts - delay liquidated damages, contractor liability caps, performance guarantees, warranties, insurance, collateral assignment, and lender step-in rights.
• Flow down delivery dates, delay credits, and technical requirements from data center leases into the construction and procurement contracts, so that schedule and liability risk pass through to the responsible counterparties.
• Support data center lease negotiation and post-signature compliance in partnership with the CLO and the Energy DGC (delivery obligations, force majeure, delay credits, tenant termination rights), and structure condominium, parcelization, and platting arrangements on multi-tenant campuses (shared-infrastructure cost allocation, association governance, and alignment with each tenant's lease).
• Support project financing and lender diligence - ground-lease financeability, leasehold-mortgagee protections, SNDAs, estoppels, and lender acceptability of condominium structures - and prepare Board materials and resolutions, supporting sponsor governance and consent processes across real estate and construction matters.
• Build the legal department in partnership with the CLO - templates and playbooks, matter intake, contract lifecycle management, the outside-counsel panel (including land-use and construction firms, run to budget), and the obligations and change-of-control registers; define, recruit, and mentor the roles added as the function scales; provide training to the business; and establish the standards for responsive, commercially practical legal support.
Requirements
What You Bring
Required
• J.D. from an accredited law school; admitted to practice and in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar, and able to register as in-house counsel where required in the state of residence.
• 15-20 years of relevant legal experience at a law firm, a developer, owner or operator, or in-house. Candidates with 10+ years and exceptional depth will be considered.
• Deep real estate and development experience, with end-to-end ownership of land acquisitions, ground leases, and entitlement matters as the responsible attorney.
• Substantial construction and EPC contracting experience on large, capital-intensive projects, including risk allocation, delay remedies, and lender requirements.
• Working knowledge of project and real estate finance, lender diligence, and leasehold financing protections.
• Demonstrated negotiation ability across a broad range of agreement types, with a track record of taking on unfamiliar subject matter and reaching a defensible answer quickly.
• Sound judgment on when to bring in outside counsel and when to decide, with the discipline to run firms to scope and budget.
• Exceptional drafting, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills, and comfort operating with autonomy in a fast-moving, founder-led environment.
Preferred
• Data center, industrial, or other mission-critical development experience.
• Condominium, parcelization, or multi-tenant campus structuring experience.
• Experience with hyperscale leasing from either side of the table.
• Experience with land-use and entitlement processes in Texas or Arizona.
• Experience building legal-department infrastructure, including templates, playbooks, and outside-counsel panel management.
• A mix of law-firm training and in-house operating experience.
Work Environment & Physical Demands
• Travel Requirements: this role requires travel approximately 20-30% of the time for meetings, conferences, site visits, customer or partner engagements, and internal team activities. Travel may include domestic and, as needed, international destinations. Periodic visits to Montera's main office or other designated locations may also be required for onboarding, training, planning sessions, or team meetings.
Benefits
At Montera, you'll have the autonomy to do great work and the benefits to thrive personally and professionally.
