Turner & Townsend is seeking an Associate Director, Program Manager to lead pre-lease technical due diligence for a confidential hyperscale data center client. You will work hand in hand with the client leads to assess candidate sites and give the deal team the technical, cost, and schedule facts behind each go or no-go decision.
This is a program and risk management role. You will own diligence on a portfolio of live deals, direct internal specialists, third-party consultants, and client partners to close out the work, and judge quickly what matters and what does not. Deals run on short exclusivity windows and the information is rarely complete. We are looking for people who take the initiative, stay organized in a chaotic environment, and get things done.
Construction and on-site experience is welcome, but this is not a delivery or construction role. The preferred background is data center development.
Two positions are available with an immediate start. San Francisco is preferred. Other locations and remote will be considered for the right candidate.
Responsibilities
- Site due diligence: Lead technical diligence on candidate sites, covering power, land, utilities, entitlements, environmental, geotechnical, and civil constraints. Define what each deal needs investigated and in what order, then confirm the findings answer the questions the transaction team is asking.
- Cost review: Direct the review of developer budgets, long lead equipment pricing, and reimbursable cost exhibits. Dedicated cost specialists perform the analysis; you set its scope, challenge what comes back, and determine what it means for the deal.
- Schedule review: Direct the review of developer schedules, covering critical path, sequencing, long lead equipment, and utility milestones. Dedicated schedule specialists perform the analysis; you decide where the dates are genuinely at risk and what it takes to hold them.
- Risk management: Own the risk picture for each site. Grade every finding as it surfaces, assign an owner and a next step, quantify cost and schedule exposure where the evidence allows, and drive mitigation to closure.
- Evidence discipline: Distinguish what a developer has stated from what has been secured, and never communicate more confidence than the evidence supports.
- Escalation: Raise serious findings the same day they surface, with an impact and a recommended option attached. Deals do not slow down; decisions get made with eyes open.
- Transaction support: Act as the single point of contact for the client through the deal cycle. Summarize findings for decision makers and provide the technical input behind term sheet and lease negotiation.
- Third-party management: Scope, direct, and hold accountable the external consultants supporting diligence, including civil, environmental, geotechnical, MEP, cost, and schedule. Review deliverables for quality before they reach the client.
- Stakeholder management: Run the day-to-day interface across internal teams, developer counterparties, and client groups spanning design, energy, supply chain, legal, and delivery. Chase input, resolve conflicts, and keep decisions moving.
- Reporting and governance: Serve as the single source of truth on diligence status, open items, decisions, and outstanding risk for every site in your portfolio.
- Handover: At lease execution, produce the record of what was found, what was assumed, and what was knowingly accepted as open risk, and hand the site to the delivery team without gaps.
- Continuous improvement: Build the repeatable diligence approach, checklists, and templates that let the program scale as deal volume grows.
SOX control responsibilities may be part of this role, which are to be adhered to where applicable.
Project/Program Specifications:
- Market sector experience: Data center development, mission critical facilities, or complex technical and hyperscale buildings.
- Project/program specific responsibilities: Pre-lease site due diligence, cost and schedule review, and risk management across a portfolio of concurrent sites.
- Software specific requirements: MS Suite and Google Workspace. General technological proficiency expected.
- Travel: Minimal, approximately two days per month.
What this role is not
- It is not a delivery or construction management role. You will not be running a site.
- It is not a hands-on estimating or planning role. You need to be able to challenge that work, not reproduce it.
- It is not a coordination role. Support is in place for the administrative machinery; you are the expert judgment.
- Minimum 10 years of relevant experience. A degree is not required.
- Data center development experience preferred, including analyzing development opportunities, evaluating leasing opportunities, or taking sites through diligence and entitlement.
- We will also consider mission critical, hyperscale, or complex technical facility experience, and backgrounds in site due diligence, pre-lease investigation, or land development, where the experience transfers.
- A working understanding of what a data center is and how one gets built, including power, cooling, and the long lead equipment that sets the schedule.
- Enough command of cost and schedule to interrogate a developer submission and identify where a critical path is soft.
- A thorough knowledge of program and risk management methods and best practices.
- Proven ability to run several deals at once, set priorities with incomplete information, and make quick judgment calls that hold up.
- A self starter who takes the initiative, adapts fast, and figures things out without waiting for a playbook.
- The technical skills to read, understand, and communicate contract requirements including construction drawings and specifications, and to interpret construction methods.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to brief senior stakeholders in a few sentences.
- Technologically proficient, including MS Suite and Google Workspace. Comfort building and running your own tracking tools is an advantage.
- Be able to understand and follow site HSSE policies.
The salary range for this full-time role is $170K-$200K per year. Ranges are determined by role and level and represent a good faith effort to provide a fair and equitable salary. This range is a reflection of base salary only, not of a total compensation package. Please note Turner & Townsend reserves the right to pay more or less than the posted range, depending on candidate’s experience and qualifications.
Qualified candidates with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with LA County ordinance and CA law.
Turner & Townsend is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.
Equal Employment Opportunity Posters If you’d like to view a copy of the company’s affirmative action plan, please email [email protected]. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request a reasonable accommodation as part of the employment selection process, please contact the Human Resources Department at 713-457-9400 or [email protected].
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