Director of Land Acquisition

Target Hospitality • The Woodlands, TX

8d • Onsite

About The Position

Target Hospitality is seeking a seasoned, entrepreneurial Director of Land Acquisition to build and execute the company’s land banking and strategic land positioning strategy in support of AI infrastructure, power generation, and data center development. This role sources, evaluates, and secures land in rural and remote markets — frequently where ownership is fragmented, sparsely recorded, or opaque — and converts raw ground into controlled, entitled, buildable positions ahead of announced demand. This is a field-based role for someone who operates with fervor and urgency. Sites are identified, walked, and tied up on compressed timelines, often ahead of a client’s formal site selection process. The successful candidate will travel extensively and on short notice, work to deadlines driven by client award schedules and utility interconnection queues, and make sound judgment calls with incomplete information. The ideal candidate is a career land professional with deep title, leasehold, and surface experience, an instinct for off-market assembly, and enough civil and construction fluency to know what a parcel can realistically support before an engineer confirms it.

Requirements

• Minimum 10 years of dedicated land experience, including land acquisition, land management, right-of-way, or oil and gas and energy land work. Career land professionals strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success in low-population, low-liquidity markets where ownership records are sparse or opaque, listings are nonexistent, and deals are made in person.
• Proven history of assembling land positions directly with landowners, without listings or broker representation.
• Working knowledge of site development, earthwork, and utility infrastructure, and of the legal aspects of land, including easements, access, setbacks, plats, deed restrictions, covenants, and severed estates.
• Hands-on record securing zoning changes, conditional use permits, platting, and development permits at the county and municipal level.
• GIS and mapping platforms including ArcGIS, LandVision, and county GIS; title plant and courthouse research; and Excel-based acquisition budgeting.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred; equivalent land experience will be considered.
• Valid driver’s license required.
• Must be able to pass a background check, driver license check, and urinalysis.

Nice To Haves

• RPL or CPL certification through the AAPL, or an active real estate license. Not required for candidates with a strong land record.
• Experience supporting data center, power generation, transmission, renewables, midstream, mining, or other large industrial projects.
• Familiarity with groundwater conservation districts, water rights, and severed surface and mineral estates in target states.
• Prior experience assembling positions in advance of announced client demand or under confidentiality.

Responsibilities

• Safety — Accountable and responsible for maintaining a safety culture, following all SOPs, JSAs, and policies and procedures as set out by Target Hospitality.
• Off-market sourcing — Identify, approach, and secure control of parcels ahead of the market, working directly with landowners, ranchers, family trusts, estates, and heirs in markets with no MLS presence and little to no commercial broker coverage.
• Strategic land banking — Build and manage a rolling inventory of optioned and owned positions aligned to announced and anticipated AI infrastructure, power generation, transmission, and data center build-outs.
• Ownership research — Resolve fragmented, unrecorded, heirship, and severed surface and mineral estates; run chain of title, work appraisal district and courthouse records, and establish who actually controls the ground.
• Market intelligence — Track transmission capacity, substation and interconnection queues, water availability, fiber routes, and announced projects to position the company ahead of demand.
• Local network — Build durable relationships with county officials, appraisal districts, abstractors, title companies, surveyors, utility planners, and landowning families across target counties.
• Site suitability screening — Evaluate topography, drainage, soils, access, and constructability constraints against both horizontal scope (earthwork, pads, roads, utility corridors) and vertical scope (foundations, modular set, building envelope).
• Infrastructure diligence — Assess water availability and water rights, wastewater and disposal options, power service and interconnection capacity, and telecom, and identify which constraint governs the site.
• Environmental and regulatory review — Manage Phase I and Phase II ESAs, wetlands and waters delineations, threatened and endangered species review, cultural resources, and floodplain constraints.
• Title and survey — Order and review title commitments, exceptions, easements, rights-of-way, encroachments, and ALTA surveys; drive curative work to clear defects and confirm legal and physical access.
• Entitlements, zoning, and planning — Secure conditional and special use permits, variances, rezonings, plats, and development permits; own the hearing calendar and build the administrative record.
• Deal structuring — Negotiate letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, options, rights of first refusal, surface use agreements, ground leases, and easement and right-of-way agreements.
• Multi-party negotiation — Lead negotiations across landowners, co-tenants, lessees, adjacent operators, and mineral owners where the surface and mineral estates are severed.
• Underwriting support — Build acquisition budgets and land basis assumptions, and support project pro formas, DCF, and ROIC analysis with defensible land cost and carry inputs.
• Closing and position control — Manage escrow, curative, funding, and recording through close, and maintain a current register of all owned, optioned, and leased ground.
• Local relationships — Represent the company with county commissioners, planning and zoning boards, groundwater conservation districts, school districts, and landowner groups.
• Public hearings — Present at public meetings and build local support in advance of entitlement decisions.
• Coordination — Work with Community and External Affairs to align messaging, community benefit, and local hiring commitments with the land strategy.
• Internal partnership — Partner with Commercial, Development, Construction, Legal, Finance, and Operations to move controlled positions into execution without loss of information.
• Executive presentations — Present land investment packages, position summaries, and capital requests to executive leadership and the Board.
• Additional duties — Additional duties may be assigned by a manager.

Benefits

• Health Coverage — Medical, vision, and dental insurance to keep you and your family covered.
• Flexible Spending — HSA and FSA options to help you save on healthcare costs.
• Employee Assistance Program — Confidential support for life’s everyday challenges, big and small.
• Pet Insurance — VPI pet insurance to help care for your four-legged family members too.
• Retirement Savings — 401(k) plan with company match to help you plan for the future.
• Easy Enrollment — Online enrollment portal makes signing up for benefits fast and simple.
• Competitive Pay — Compensation that reflects your skills and hard work.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director