Principal – Data Center Development

What You’ll Do:

You’ll join a new team built on CoreWeave’s bias for action, ownership, and strong team culture. We solve problems quickly, learn and improve as we go, and operate with positive intent, flexibility, and patience. Teamwork and clear communication matter as much as execution — we win together.

About the Role:

The Principal, Data Center Development, is the single execution owner responsible for advancing data center sites from site control to day one operations.  This role owns development diligence, development budgeting, risk management, and readiness gating for self-development and JV projects, ensuring projects are fully de-risked before commitments are made.

This is a hands-on, execution-oriented role that bridges site selection, power, sustainability, design, legal, government/tax/incentives, finance, and construction to deliver development-ready projects at scale. You can expect to travel up to 25-30% in this role.

Development Ownership

• Own the full Development lifecycle from site selection through turnover to Operations
• Serve as the single accountable owner for the development budget, schedule, and risk
• Lead development readiness reviews and go / no-go recommendations to leadership
• Lead Development weekly site calls for executive-level updates, including all internal stakeholders. 

Diligence & Risk Management

• Lead and integrate all development workstreams end-to-end
• Consolidate diligence outputs into a clear risk profile and decision narrative
• Maintain assumptions logs, risk registers, and mitigation strategies

Development Budgeting

• Build, own, and manage the integrated owner’s development budget in coordination with Development Teams, Capital Partners, and internal stakeholders, including:
•  Land and site costs
•  Hard costs
• Soft costs
• Carry costs
• Contingency and risk allowances
• Integrate Construction, internal Design,  and third-party inputs while retaining full Development ownership of all budgets and on-time payments.

Power, Sustainability & Infrastructure Coordination

• Partner with internal power and sustainability teams to confirm executable power paths, infrastructure scope, and environmental requirements
• Ensure power, sustainability, and infrastructure assumptions are fully integrated into development cost and schedule

Cross-Functional Execution

• Act as the development interface to Site Selection, Power, Sustainability, Legal, Government/Tax/Incentives, Finance, Commercial,  Design, and Construction
• Prevent scope, cost, and schedule drift across internal teams and external partners

Development → Operations Handoff

• Own development handoff standards and readiness criteria
• Ensure projects enter all phases fully defined, decision-complete, and de-risked

Who You Are:

• 12+ years of experience in data center, industrial, or infrastructure development and/or construction
• Demonstrated experience conducting comprehensive site due diligence, including land use analysis, environmental assessments, and infrastructure feasibility studies.
• Proficiency in developing and managing project budgets during the pre-GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) phase, including cost estimation and contingency planning.
• Proven ability to lead coordination with power and utility providers to ensure alignment between site requirements and utility delivery timelines.
• Professional experience executing projects within self-development frameworks or Joint Venture (JV) partnership structures.
• Comprehensive understanding of the distinct roles, responsibilities, and accountability structures across the development and construction lifecycles, with a proven ability to manage formal project transitions.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise sound judgment and maintain operational momentum in high-growth environments, including the capacity to act effectively when faced with ambiguity or incomplete data sets.

Preferred:

• Strong preference for candidates with current development & construction background in data centers.

Wondering if you’re a good fit? We believe in investing in our people and value candidates who can bring their diverse experiences to our teams – even if you aren't a 100% skill or experience match. Here are a few qualities we’ve found compatible with our team. If some of this describes you, we’d love to talk. 

• You love to take ownership from first look through execution, solving complex development problems and turning them into clear, buildable outcomes.
  
  
• You’re curious about how power, infrastructure, capital, and operations come together — and you ask the right questions to continuously improve how development gets done.
  
  
• You’re an expert in leading cross-functional development workstreams, building owner-side development budgets, and managing risk from site control through operational handoff.

Why CoreWeave?

At CoreWeave, we work hard, have fun, and move fast!  We’re in an exciting stage of hyper-growth that you will not want to miss out on. We’re not afraid of a little chaos, and we’re constantly learning. Our team cares deeply about how we build our product and how we work together, which is represented through our core values: 

• Be Curious at Your Core
• Act Like an Owner
• Empower Employees
• Deliver Best-in-Class Client Experiences
• Achieve More Together

We support and encourage an entrepreneurial outlook and independent thinking. We foster an environment that encourages collaboration and enables the development of innovative solutions to complex problems. As we get set for takeoff, the organization's growth opportunities continue to expand. You will be surrounded by some of the best talent in the industry, who will want to learn from you, too. Come join us!  

The base salary range for this role is $180,000 to  $240,000. The starting salary will be determined by job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the market location. We strive for both market alignment and internal equity when determining compensation. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package includes a discretionary bonus, equity awards, and a comprehensive benefits program (all based on eligibility).