Data Center Site Selection - Hyperscale

Cloudflare · Hybrid

About Us At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Internet properties for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you’re the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you’ll fit right in. Available Locations: San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, or New York About the Role The Data Center Strategy team needs a site-selection manager who has closed NNN and wholesale leases at MW scale. You find the site, underwrite it, and get the paper signed. The binding constraint is usually power: available MW, interconnection, substation work, and when the site actually energizes. You also have to be right about land or campus control, fiber, water, flood and seismic, permitting, and latency onto Cloudflare’s network. The commercial work is NNN paper and the structures next to it: modified gross, FRI, wholesale dedicated-room, powered shell, build-to-suit, sale-leaseback, joint venture. Base rent, OpEx and tax passthroughs, escalators, work letters, landlord delivery, PUE treatment, delay credits, SLAs, ramp, expansion options, ROFR, exit and renewal. You build the pipeline (developers, brokers, wholesale operators, power developers, utilities), run technical diligence, and take a TCO / cost-per-MW / NPV pack to leadership for the capital ask. Several of these will be live at once, across markets. Legal, capacity planning, network strategy, energy, security, operations, and finance all sit in the process. You own it through execution. What you get to do in this role: Build and run a pipeline of MW-scale sites: developers, landlords, wholesale operators, power developers, utilities Lead technical diligence: power availability and energization, electrical topology and redundancy, rack density and cooling (including liquid), fiber diversity, PUE, geotech, permitting, commissioning evidence, network latency Run the deal from long list through RFP, site visit, LOI, lease or powered-shell, work letter, and signature (campuses, dedicated buildings, dedicated halls, core expansions, BTS) Negotiate NNN / triple-net and the structures next to it (modified gross, FRI, wholesale dedicated-room, powered shell, BTS, sale-leaseback, JV): $/kW-month, NRC/MRC, escalators, PUE, delay credits, SLAs, ramp, expansion rights, ROFR, exit and renewal Keep landlord scope and Cloudflare scope explicit, including power to dedicated PDU and tenant fit-out Build the TCO / cost-per-MW / NPV case and take the capital ask to leadership Work with legal, operations, capacity planning, network strategy, energy, and security on requirements and delivery dates Run QBRs with campus landlords. Represent Cloudflare with landlord executives and at industry events. Put MW, rent, passthroughs, NRC, and unit cost into the annual data center budget. Check rent and NNN recovery invoices against the lease. Travel as needed (expect ~30%) Other duties as assigned Skills/Experience: 10+ years selecting or leasing hyperscale or wholesale data centers, or planning MW-scale infrastructure, at a cloud, internet, content, or colocation company Closed NNN / triple-net leases as tenant or buy-side advisor, or the wholesale equivalents (modified gross, FRI, dedicated-hall, powered shell). Colo order forms and rack-level MRC do not count. Can underwrite $/kW-month or $/MW, escalators, OpEx passthrough, tenant improvement / work letters, TCO, and lease NPV, and take that pack to leadership Has led technical diligence on candidate sites (power, electrical topology, cooling, fiber, PUE, commissioning), not only commercial terms Knows how utility interconnection and substation timelines actually work Can run several site processes at once, across time zones,