Director of Site Selection, Data Centers

The San Francisco Compute Company • San Francisco, CA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

We're building the company which will de-risk the largest infrastructure build-out in history.
When people finance GPU clusters, the datacenters housing them, and the infrastructure powering them, they need "offtake" - meaning someone has signed a contract to lease the cluster for a period of time before its even built.
Financing a GPU cluster is inherently risky, since margins are thin and volumes are huge. Lenders don't want to take on the risk that cluster developers can't repay their loan, and cluster developers really don't want to risk not selling their cluster. As a result, risk is offloaded to the customer using fixed-price long-term contracts.
If you don't mitigate this customer risk, there's a bubble. This isn't SaaS anymore - application layer companies sign multi-year contracts for computer and inference, but sell to customers on monthly subscriptions. If you mess up a purchase, it's game over: a minor shift in your revenue growth rate might mean the difference between profit or bankruptcy. But what if companies could exit their contract by selling it back to the market?
Otherwise, as AI scales, compute only becomes available to folks who can effectively take on that risk. A 2-person startup in a San Francisco Victorian can't realistically sign a 5-year take or pay contract on $100m supercomputers. But they may be able to buy the month of liquidity that someone else sold back.
So that's what we make: a liquid market for GPU offtake.
About the Role:
SF Compute’s Development Team is actively deploying large GPU clusters into colocation facilities and greenfield builds. The Director of Site Selection will oversee the origination of sites ranging from existing colocation facilities to brownfield/greenfield opportunities.
This role will be an integral part of project delivery in collaboration with other members of the SF Compute Development Team. This role is based at SF Compute’s headquarters in San Francisco with some travel required. All applicants are required to submit a portfolio of prior data center projects or transactions.

Requirements

• You have 8+ years of experience in real estate or site selection with a focus on data centers or large-scale industrial projects
• You have a strong ability to assess the viability of sites for data center development, including evaluating utility and behind-the-meter power solutions, reviewing title documents, land surveys, geotechnical reports, and environmental studies, and understanding permitting requirements and their implications for construction schedules
• You have a proven track record of closing large and complex colocation or land transactions, from first engagement through executed agreement
• You maintain strong relationships with colocation providers, brokers, landowners, and developers and have a demonstrated ability to identify and pursue the right opportunities
• You have experience collaborating with finance teams to evaluate multi-year infrastructure investments and understand the financial implications of site decisions
• You are comfortable being the public face of a company — at community meetings, with local agencies, and alongside elected officials — and you know how to build trust with external stakeholders
• You have a customer-centric mindset, a strong sense of ownership, and a proactive approach to problem-solving
• You excel at communication and relationship management across diverse internal and external stakeholders

Nice To Haves

• You have experience with power origination, utility interconnection processes, and behind-the-meter energy solutions at gigawatt scale
• You have led community engagement efforts including public hearings, local government relations, and economic development negotiations
• You have familiarity with ground lease structures, CRE finance, and industrial real estate transactions
• You have built a site selection pipeline or origination process from scratch
• You understand the technical requirements of high-density AI infrastructure well enough to evaluate whether a site can support the power and cooling demands of hyperscale clientele

Benefits

• Generous equity grant
• Team members are offered a competitive salary along with equity in the company
• Visa Sponsorships
• Yes, we sponsor visas and work permits
• Retirement matching
• We match 401(k) plans up to 4%
• Medical, dental & vision
• We offer competitive medical, dental, vision insurance for employees and dependents and cover 100% of premiums
• Time off
• We offer unlimited paid time off as well as 10+ observed holidays
• Parental leave
• We offer biological, adoptive, and foster parents paid time off to spend quality time with family
• Daily lunch
• We cover lunch daily for employees
• Unlimited office book budget
• You can buy as many books for the office as you want

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed