Director Development Cost Management & Capital Planning

Director, Development Cost & Capital Planning (EMEA) 

Location: London, hybrid, with regular travel to project locations across EMEA

About Nscale

At Nscale, we are building the infrastructure for Europe’s AI revolution. Nscale is developing cutting-edge sovereign generative AI solutions, powered by a new generation of high-performance, sustainable data centres and GPUs built specifically for AI workloads. 

The growth of artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented global demand for compute and GPU infrastructure. Nscale is positioned at the heart of this transformation — building the platforms that will enable the next decade of innovation. 

Nscale is working closely with the world’s most advanced AI technology providers, integrating next-gen compute hardware and GPU clusters in both partner and Nscale built facilities. This is a unique opportunity to join Nscale’s journey, play a key role in delivering transformative AI infrastructure, and help shape a company scaling globally with a key focus in the EMEA region.

The Role

The Director, Development Cost & Capital Planning is accountable for establishing cost certainty, capital planning, development risk and commercial viability across Nscale's EMEA Development portfolio from site identification (Gate 0) through due diligence (Gate 1) to development sanction and ‘shovel-ready’ transition into Delivery (Gate 2).

The role owns L0 Indicative Estimates, L1 Estimated Budgets and L2 Schematic Design Budget for every EMEA opportunity, consolidating the development, energy, design, construction, procurement and AI infrastructure workstream budgets into a single Total Development Cost (TDC) providing the commercial and financial foundation for site selection, land and lease acquisitions, Colocation leases, underwriting business cases, investment committee approvals and project approvals.

Operating as an individual contributor at first, the role will personally prepare estimates, cost models, risk registers, benchmarking and investment-grade business cases while establishing the systems, governance and processes required for future growth. The role will develop to manage a high performing team supporting the Development function as it expands across the EMEA region.

Key Responsibilities

• Development Cost Planning & Estimating - Own L0, L1 and L2 estimates across the EMEA portfolio, maintaining the Total Development Cost (TDC), proforma and development cost baseline through Gate 2. Where early stage budgets have missing elements, propose and agree estimates and placeholders with the project team.
• Investment Underwriting & Business Case Development - Provide CAPEX, contingency, cash flow and cost-risk inputs to support acquisitions, business cases and Investment Committee approvals.
• Development Risk Management and Contingency Planning - Maintain project risk registers and govern contingency in accordance with Nscale policy.
• Site Selection & Land Acquisition Support - Support site screening, due diligence and acquisition decisions through cost, risk and abnormality assessments.
• Power, Utilities & Infrastructure Assessment - Integrate power, utility and enabling infrastructure costs and schedules into the overall development budget.
• Procurement & Strategic Supply Chain Integration - Work with Procurement and Strategic Sourcing to incorporate market capacity, procurement strategy, long-lead items and supply chain risks into estimates.
• Cost Benchmarking - Maintain EMEA cost benchmarks, escalation assumptions and market intelligence across key jurisdictions.
• Contract / Lease Support - Support the Development team in all areas of land / power acquisition and Colocation leasing and contracting, providing cost annexes in the agreed contract form.
• Market Intelligence - Retain current market benchmark costs and reintegrate as-built costs of developments into pre-development modelling and estimates.
• Portfolio Capital Planning & Forecasting - Lead portfolio CAPEX forecasting, cashflow planning and variance reporting for all pre-sanction opportunities.
• Development Governance & Gateway Approvals - Own cost deliverables, assurance and reporting for Gate 0-2 approvals.
• Global WBS Alignment and Handover into Delivery - Structure all estimates to the Global WBS and lead commercial transition to Delivery at Gate 2.
• Lessons Learned and Estimating Accuracy Improvement - Improve estimate accuracy, benchmarking and contingency calibration through estimate-to-outturn analysis.
• Functional Leadership and Future Team Development - Act as EMEA lead for development cost planning, establishing standards, tools and governance with responsibility for building and leading the team as the portfolio scales.

Who You Are

• 10+ years of experience in quantity surveying, cost management, estimating, commercial management or capital planning.
• Proven experience within hyperscale data centres, mission critical facilities, major infrastructure, energy or industrial developments. 
• The ability to build experienced based cost plans and budgets when limited information exists.
• Strong understanding of the full data centre development lifecycle from site origination, early stage development, planning, permitting through construction mobilisation.
• Experience preparing the cost basis for investment-grade business cases and underwriting budgets.
• Experience developing risk registers, contingency models and portfolio capital plans.
• Strong understanding of contractor markets, procurement strategies and supply chain dynamics.
• Experience working with developers, investors, lenders, consultants and contractors.
• Demonstrated ability to present to Executive Committees, Investment Committees and Board stakeholders.
• Fluency in data centre cost benchmarking (€/MW, €/m², cost per IT load) and the development cost drivers of power, cooling and AI-ready infrastructure.
• Working knowledge of EMEA contract forms and procurement routes (e.g. FIDIC, NEC and local equivalents) and their cost and risk implications.
• Proficiency with estimating and cost management tools and advanced Excel-based cost and cash flow modelling.
• Right to work [UK / EU] and willingness to travel across EMEA.

Preferred:

• Degree in Quantity Surveying, Construction Economics, Commercial Management, Engineering or related discipline.
• MRICS, CICES, ACostE or equivalent professional accreditation preferred but not essential.
• Experience across multiple EMEA jurisdictions.
• Experience supporting large-scale AI, cloud, hyperscale or mission-critical developments.