Data Center Site Selection - Hyperscale

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, 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, with incomplete information

• Has taken a campus or BTS lease from LOI to execution

• Willing to travel ~30%

• International deal experience preferred

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required

Nice to have:

• Sale-leaseback, JV, or PPA / power-procurement work

• Existing relationships with developers, wholesale operators, brokers, or utilities

• High-density / liquid-cooling site constraints

• Network (fiber diversity, latency, MMR)

• Government incentives or economic-development agreements

• Another language

Compensation

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.

• For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $166,000 - $271,000
• For New York based hires: Estimated annual salary of $158,000 - $257,000
• For Seattle based hires: Estimated annual Salary of $158,000 - $257,000

Equity

This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare’s equity plan.

Benefits

Cloudflare offers a complete package of benefits and programs to support you and your family. Our benefits programs can help you pay health care expenses, support caregiving, build capital for the future and make life a little easier and fun! The below is a description of our benefits for employees in the United States, and benefits may vary for employees based outside the U.S.

Health & Welfare Benefits

• Medical/Rx Insurance

• Dental Insurance

• Vision Insurance

• Flexible Spending Accounts

• Commuter Spending Accounts

• Fertility & Family Forming Benefits

• On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program

• Global Travel Medical Insurance

Financial Benefits

• Short and Long Term Disability Insurance

• Life & Accident Insurance

• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan

• Employee Stock Participation Plan

Time Off

• Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave

• Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave

What Makes Cloudflare Special?

We’re not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We’re a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.

Project Galileo: Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 journalism and civil society organizations in 111 countries with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare’s enterprise customers--at no cost.

Athenian Project: In 2017, we created the Athenian Project to ensure that state and local governments have the highest level of protection and reliability for free, so that their constituents have access to election information and voter registration. Since the project, we've provided services to more than 425 local government election websites in 33 states.

1.1.1.1: We released 1.1.1.1 to help fix the foundation of the Internet by building a faster, more secure and privacy-centric public DNS resolver. This is available publicly for everyone to use - it is the first consumer-focused service Cloudflare has ever released. Here’s the deal - we don’t store client IP addresses never, ever. We will continue to abide by our privacy commitment and ensure that no user data is sold to advertisers or used to target consumers.

Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to hear from you!

Please note that applicants who progress to the offer stage of the interview process may be asked to attend an in-person interview within one of the Cloudflare Offices or Cloudflare Hubs. More details about this will be available at that stage of the interview process.

This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Please note that any offer of employment may be conditioned on your authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license.

Cloudflare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to their, or any other person's, perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. We are an AA/Veterans/Disabled Employer.

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