Principal, Power Systems & Data Centers - Impact Consulting

Rocky Mountain Institute•Remote - Colorado, CO

6d•$139,823 - $172,332•Remote

About The Position

RMI is seeking a Principal, Power Systems & Data Centers to build and lead RMI’s cross-program strategy and advisory work focused on the rapidly growing data center sector. The growth of AI and digital infrastructure is creating significant challenges and opportunities across electricity systems, generation and transmission, buildings, industrial materials, water, backup power, site selection, permitting, finance, and community engagement. Addressing these issues requires expertise that spans traditional organizational and sector boundaries. RMI has deep capabilities across many of these areas, distributed across its Electricity, Buildings, Industries, Intelligence, Climate Finance, Third Derivative, US Program, and other sector and geography teams. The Principal will serve as an integrating leader across these capabilities — establishing RMI’s institutional theory of change for data centers, translating that strategy into differentiated market offerings, developing relationships and opportunities with priority external partners and clients, and leading complex cross-program engagements. The position will sit within RMI’s Impact Consulting - Delivery Excellence Team and work horizontally across the Institute. The successful candidate will combine meaningful data center industry expertise with strong strategic judgment, commercial orientation, consulting and delivery capabilities, and the ability to influence and mobilize teams across organizational boundaries.

Requirements

10+ years of relevant professional experience, with substantial experience in data centers, digital infrastructure, energy infrastructure, or a closely related sector.
Demonstrated understanding of the data center ecosystem and meaningful experience with several of the following: Hyperscale or colocation development, Power availability and procurement, Utility engagement and interconnection, Site selection, Data center design and construction, Sustainability and decarbonization, Permitting and regulatory issues, Water and cooling, Backup generation, Infrastructure investment.
Proven experience developing and executing strategy in an ambiguous, rapidly evolving market.
Experience leading complex, senior-client-facing consulting, advisory, or strategic engagements.
Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems, develop hypotheses, synthesize complex analysis, and translate technical information into actionable executive recommendations.
Experience developing new offerings, shaping client opportunities, and contributing to business development, proposals, or commercial pursuits.
Strong project and team leadership skills, including experience managing multidisciplinary workstreams, timelines, budgets, scope, and stakeholder expectations.
Demonstrated ability to personally develop and shape high-quality analytical and client-facing deliverables.
Ability to influence senior decision-makers and mobilize teams without direct reporting authority.
Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and facilitation skills.
Ability to bridge technical expertise and senior-level business decision-making across diverse stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

15+ years of professional experience with increasing strategic, commercial, and operational responsibility.
Graduate degree in engineering, business, economics, public policy, energy, sustainability, or a related field.
Direct experience working for or advising hyperscalers, colocation providers, data center developers, utilities serving large-load customers, or digital infrastructure investors.
Experience in strategy or management consulting focused on data centers, energy, infrastructure, technology, or sustainability.
Experience with data center development, site selection, energy procurement, infrastructure strategy, or investment.
Demonstrated success building new market offerings or business lines.
Strong existing network across the data center, energy, utility, technology, or infrastructure ecosystem.
Experience leading large, multidisciplinary initiatives involving stakeholders across multiple organizations or sectors.
Combination of industry operating experience and consulting/advisory experience.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain RMI’s institutional theory of change for data centers, defining how rapid digital infrastructure growth affects the energy transition and where RMI can have the greatest impact.
Identify the most important system-level barriers, leverage points, and interventions needed to align data center growth with clean energy deployment, grid reliability, affordability, decarbonization, and community outcomes.
Establish a clear view of where RMI should play based on its technical expertise, market influence, analytical capabilities, convening power, and external relationships.
Integrate perspectives from Electricity, Buildings, Industries, Intelligence, Climate Finance, Third Derivative, Transportation, policy, and other relevant teams into a coherent RMI data center strategy.
Identify priority stakeholders whose decisions RMI should seek to influence, including hyperscalers, colocation providers, developers, utilities, regulators, policymakers, investors, and communities.
Define strategic and reputational guardrails for RMI’s data center work, including where RMI should — and should not — pursue commercial engagements.
Monitor changing technology, market, policy, infrastructure, and investment conditions and adapt RMI’s strategy accordingly.
Represent RMI as a senior thought leader on the intersection of data center growth, energy infrastructure, and the clean energy transition.
Develop and execute RMI’s data center go-to-market strategy, translating the institutional theory of change into a focused set of commercial and partnership opportunities.
Define priority client segments, buyers, pain points, and decisions where RMI has a differentiated right to win.
Develop and market-test a portfolio of commercial offering hypotheses with external stakeholders and prospective clients.
Identify and cultivate relationships with hyperscalers, colocation providers, developers, utilities, infrastructure investors, technology providers, and other priority stakeholders.
Conduct senior-level market and client conversations to understand emerging needs and translate those needs into actionable opportunities for RMI.
Partner closely with RMI’s Corporate Engagement team and program leaders to develop priority account strategies and a qualified pipeline of opportunities.
Shape concept notes, proposals, scopes of work, staffing plans, delivery approaches, and commercial models.
Apply disciplined go/no-go and right-to-win criteria to prospective engagements.
Support senior client discussions and negotiations through contract execution.
Serve as the accountable engagement leader for large, strategically important data center projects spanning multiple RMI programs and capabilities.
Translate complex and ambiguous client questions into structured workstreams, hypotheses, analytical approaches, and decision-oriented outputs.
Assemble and lead multidisciplinary teams drawing on expertise from across RMI.
Define clear roles, responsibilities, and decision rights between the central Impact Consulting team and program-based subject-matter experts.
Maintain accountability for project scope, timeline, budget, quality, and client expectations.
Synthesize technical inputs from multiple disciplines into clear, integrated, executive-level recommendations.
Guide the production of rigorous, decision-grade presentations, reports, analyses, and other client deliverables.
Lead executive client meetings, workshops, working sessions, and presentations.
Identify project risks early and take corrective action before issues become client escalations.
Identify and shape follow-on opportunities where additional work creates genuine mission and client value.
Ensure lessons from delivery inform subsequent offerings, scopes, pricing, methodologies, and strategic priorities.
Create the connective tissue required for RMI to operate as an integrated data center platform rather than a collection of independent technical teams.
Build strong relationships with relevant Principals, Senior Principals, Managing Directors, and subject-matter experts across the Institute.
Develop and maintain a clear view of RMI’s relevant capabilities, experts, analytical assets, datasets, relationships, and existing data center work.
Identify capability gaps that may require new analysis, external expertise, partnerships, data, or investment.
Develop repeatable approaches for staffing and governing multidisciplinary data center engagements.
Identify methodologies, analytical modules, frameworks, datasets, and deliverables that can be reused across clients and engagements.
Convert recurring client needs into repeatable advisory offerings where appropriate.
Capture and institutionalize knowledge from client engagements and external market interactions.
Mentor and coach RMI staff working on data center and Impact Consulting engagements.
Contribute to RMI’s broader leadership community and the continued development of the Institute’s Impact Consulting capabilities.