Data Center Development Manager

Company: IronHorn Enterprises

Location: East Syracuse, NY preferred; remote candidates considered

Department: Development

Employment Type: Full-time or part-time

Position Overview: IronHorn is seeking an experienced Data Center Development Manager to identify, evaluate, and advance data center development opportunities. This position requires direct experience throughout the entire data center development life cycle, from site selection and feasibility through entitlements, design, construction, commissioning, and operational handoff. The ideal candidate understands what makes a site viable for data center use and can translate that assessment into a practical development plan. This includes evaluating power availability, utility infrastructure, zoning, environmental constraints, market demand, project costs, and delivery timelines. Experience presenting projects at town, planning board, and zoning board meetings is required. This role also supports colocation leasing and sales, helping attract customers seeking space, power, cooling, and connectivity through rack, cage, and private suite offerings. Responsibilities include evaluating customer requirements, developing leasing opportunities, and coordinating with internal teams and operating partners to align customer commitments with facility capabilities and delivery schedules. This position will work closely with IronHorn’s development leadership and our Acquisitions, Legal, Finance, Construction, and Leasing teams, as well as utilities, municipalities, engineers, consultants, and prospective operators or customers. Full-time and part-time arrangements will be considered. An on-site presence in East Syracuse is preferred; remote candidates will be considered, travel may be required for site visits, public meetings, customer meetings, and project coordination.

Site Selection and Feasibility: Identify and evaluate potential data center sites based on location, market demand, infrastructure, development constraints, and long-term suitability. Lead site feasibility studies addressing power capacity and delivery timelines, utility service, fiber connectivity, water and cooling requirements, access, topography, and environmental conditions. Coordinate due diligence, including surveys, title review, geotechnical studies, environmental assessments, and preliminary engineering. Assess a site’s suitability for colocation development, including customer demand, available capacity, expansion potential, and phased occupancy. Develop clear recommendations on whether to pursue a site, outlining key risks, costs, timelines, and conditions necessary for development. Support site acquisition negotiations and coordinate due diligence milestones with the Acquisitions and Legal teams.

Entitlements and Municipal Coordination: Manage zoning reviews, entitlement strategies, land-use approvals, permitting, and related municipal processes. Coordinate applications, presentations, supporting studies, and responses to municipal or community questions. Work with local officials, land-use counsel, engineers, and consultants to address project requirements and approval conditions. Anticipate and address concerns related to noise, water use, traffic, visual impacts, and other site-specific issues.

Power and Infrastructure Planning: Work directly with electric utilities and other infrastructure providers to confirm service requirements, capacity, upgrade needs, and delivery schedules. Coordinate power studies, service applications, and infrastructure planning with technical consultants and utility representatives. Evaluate how utility costs, infrastructure improvements, and service timelines affect project feasibility and phasing. Coordinate with technical teams to assess whether planned power, cooling, connectivity, and redundancy can accommodate prospective colocation customers. Track critical infrastructure dependencies and communicate risks that could affect project execution.

Development Execution: Manage development schedules, budgets, milestones, and consultant deliverables from initial evaluation through project completion. Coordinate site planning and design with architects, civil engineers, electrical and mechanical engineers, and other specialists. Partner with IronHorn’s Construction team on preconstruction planning, budgeting, procurement, construction sequencing, and project delivery. Incorporate colocation customer requirements into facility layouts, rack and cage configurations, private suites, and phased buildout plans. Support commissioning, completion of approval requirements, and turnover to the operator, customer, or facilities team. Identify project risks early, recommend solutions, and keep internal stakeholders informed of progress and decisions needed.

Colocation Leasing and Sales: Identify and pursue customers seeking data center space, power, cooling, and connectivity through individual racks, dedicated cages, or private suites. Build relationships with enterprise customers, technology companies, service providers, brokers, and other sources of colocation demand. Assess customer requirements, including power capacity and density, cooling needs, connectivity, security, redundancy, deployment timelines, and future expansion. Work with the Leasing and Finance teams to develop pricing, proposals, and business terms that reflect customer needs, facility capacity, operating costs, and return objectives. Coordinate site tours, customer presentations, proposals, and responses to requests for information or proposals. Support negotiations of colocation agreements, renewals, and expansions in coordination with Legal, Leasing, and operating partners. Ensure proposed service commitments and delivery dates are reviewed by the appropriate technical and operations teams before agreements are finalized. Maintain an active prospect pipeline and track anticipated occupancy, contracted power capacity, revenue, and customer deployment schedules. Coordinate customer onboarding and handoff to construction and operations teams to support timely installation and service commencement.

Financial Analysis and Development Strategy: Work with Finance and Acquisitions to develop project budgets, feasibility models, and investment recommendations. Evaluate land, infrastructure, utility, entitlement, and construction costs against projected project value and returns. Incorporate colocation pricing, occupancy, power utilization, operating expenses, and lease-up assumptions into project evaluations. Assess how prospective customer commitments influence development phasing, infrastructure investment, and expansion decisions. Support discussions with prospective customers, operators, investors, and development partners. Prepare concise project summaries and presentations for leadership review.

Qualifications: Direct experience in data center development is required, with involvement across the full development life cycle. Demonstrated experience conducting or managing data center site feasibility studies and due diligence. Experience presenting projects and participating in town, planning board, and zoning board meetings. Strong understanding of data center site requirements, including power availability, utility infrastructure, fiber connectivity, cooling considerations, and redundancy. Working knowledge of colocation business models, customer requirements, pricing structures, and rack, cage, and private suite offerings. Experience in colocation leasing, sales, business development, or customer negotiations is strongly preferred. Experience navigating zoning, entitlements, permitting, and municipal approvals. Ability to evaluate development budgets, schedules, financial assumptions, and project risks. Experience coordinating utilities, engineers, consultants, contractors, legal counsel, and internal stakeholders. Strong communication, negotiation, organization, and project management skills. Ability to manage multiple opportunities, take ownership of deliverables, and move projects forward with limited supervision. Willingness to travel for site evaluations, municipal meetings, customer meetings, and project needs. A degree in real estate, engineering, construction management, urban planning, business, or a related field is preferred.

Benefits: Benefits are available for full-time employment only and include medical, dental, and vision coverage; disability insurance; life and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance; Paid Time Off; and a retirement plan with a 3% company match.

Why Join: IronHornHelp shape IronHorn’s data center development and colocation efforts while working directly with senior leadership and an experienced, in-house real estate team. This position offers the opportunity to influence site selection, guide development strategy, build customer relationships, and carry projects from initial concept through delivery in an organization where initiative and dependable execution matter. IronHorn Enterprises is an Equal Opportunity Employer and values diversity at all levels of the organization.