Land and Data Center Development
About the Team
OpenAI’s Compute organization builds the infrastructure that powers frontier AI training and inference. This work brings together commercial, technical, strategy, and operations teams to secure and develop the sites and capacity needed for large-scale compute deployment.
We partner across real estate, power, engineering, legal, finance, and delivery to connect infrastructure needs with viable development opportunities and executable commercial agreements.
About the Role
We’re looking for a commercial real estate (CRE) development professional to help secure land and data-center capacity for OpenAI’s compute infrastructure. This is a combined role spanning land acquisition and development, data-center leasing, and real estate acquisitions. The ideal candidate is particularly strong in land and can also contribute across data-center transactions.
You’ll source and evaluate opportunities, structure and negotiate agreements, and coordinate commercial and technical diligence. Working with legal, finance, engineering, and development partners, you’ll connect transaction decisions with infrastructure requirements and carry opportunities through agreement execution and handoff.
Responsibilities
- Lead sourcing, evaluation, and commercial execution of land acquisition opportunities for data-center development.
- Support data-center leasing and real estate acquisitions, working across land and data-center transactions as priorities require.
- Build relationships with landowners, brokers, developers, and data-center counterparties to source opportunities.
- Structure and negotiate land acquisition, site-control, and data-center lease agreements with legal and business partners.
- Coordinate diligence with legal, finance, engineering, and development partners, translating site constraints and readiness risks into commercial decisions.
- Evaluate deal economics and present clear recommendations on costs, terms, tradeoffs, and next steps.
- Manage the transaction pipeline, keep stakeholders aligned, and resolve issues that affect decisions and execution.
- Drive transactions through agreement execution and coordinate clear handoffs to the teams responsible for development and delivery.
Qualifications
- Strong commercial real estate development experience, with depth in land acquisition, site control, and development feasibility.
- A record of sourcing, structuring, and negotiating complex real estate agreements.
- Ability to work across land transactions and data-center leasing, with sound judgment about their different commercial and development requirements.
- Sound commercial judgment and the ability to assess deal economics, identify risks, and make practical recommendations.
- Experience working across legal, finance, engineering, and operations teams to move transactions forward.
- Clear communication and strong ownership of complex negotiations, competing priorities, and uncertain timelines.