Senior Data Center Pre-Construction and Capacity Delivery Manager, EMEA

anthropic

Contract type

Ongoing

Work mode

Hybrid

Experience

Senior · 8+ years

Job description

Senior Data Center Preconstruction & Capacity Delivery Manager at Anthropic, focused on making EMEA data center deals ready to execute before lease signature and then carrying them through delivery. About 75% preconstruction/pre-lease management and 25% delivery leadership.

At a glance

Employment: Full-time · Employee (employment agreement)
Work mode: Hybrid
Pay: GBP 1 / year

What you'll do

Lead by engaging developers, contractors, utilities and transaction teams early enough to shape the outcome of each deal rather than report on it afterwards
Confirm deal readiness and serve as the gatekeeper to validate transaction viability from LOI through lease execution, ensuring all predevelopment, planning, technical and business requirements are met before commitment
Give transaction leads an early delivery view from desktop study on capacity, power, permitting, connectivity, schedule and cost, so that the sites moving to LOI are ones that can be delivered
Run independent, evidence-based delivery due diligence on each opportunity, tested against source documents rather than relayed claims, covering capacity, power, permitting, connectivity, procurement, schedule, cost, and whether the developer's team, contractors and supply chain can deliver
Interrogate every developer schedule from the native file rather than summary dates, testing logic, durations, production rates and critical paths, planning backwards from commissioning, and establishing the unconstrained date before any commercial protection is added
Rigorously accelerate programs during the pre-lease phase by making schedule work a priority for the developer while the deal depends on it, pulling forward design, permitting, power, early works and procurement, and sequencing the build around how capacity turns up
Assess contractor and supply-chain capacity and long-lead equipment needs for each opportunity, setting a long-lead strategy that secures delivery capacity ahead of need and making the case for early equipment funding where it protects a date
Challenge Total Development Cost and delivery schedules against the assumptions behind Yield-on-Cost and IRR, flagging where time-to-power or cost exposure puts the investment case at risk
Shape the delivery terms of the LOI, lease and supporting exhibits with transaction and legal teams, including phasing and target dates, landlord scope, diligence cost, ownership and reliance, risk allocation and governance, and check that the developer's contract with its general contractor carries the same milestones and aligns incentives around accelerated delivery
Give deal and delivery leadership a clear go/no-go recommendation at each decision point up to signature, with the risks, conditions and mitigations behind it
Keep one delivery-readiness record and one risk register across all EMEA opportunities, assigning every risk to an accountable owner, tracking it to resolution, and escalating where cost or schedule is threatened
Direct owner's representatives and third-party advisers and assure what they produce, bringing design and engineering, cost, schedule, commercial, contracts and procurement into a single view of risk and readiness
Develop and refine the preconstruction playbook, a reference log of unit costs and benchmarks, and the operating model needed to scale the function, using AI tools including Claude for first-pass assessment, document review and benchmarking
Prepare and present regular executive reporting on readiness and risk for each opportunity and across the portfolio, including time from signature to construction start, risks found before versus after signature, and baseline-to-actual variance
Document the baseline at signature for design, budget, schedule, long-lead position, open risks and conditions, so delivery starts from an assured position
Partner with landlords and developers post-deal to serve as Anthropic's primary point of contact, coordinating across internal stakeholders, tracking construction progress, and facilitating critical information exchange
Be at one or more project sites in adequate amount to shape the culture, approach, and aggressiveness that define those extended site teams
Be a force multiplier that develops and enhances the skillset that development partners, contractors, and key trades bring to the project(s)
Represent Anthropic in key technical and operational decisions required by partners during the development process, ensuring infrastructure requirements are met while maintaining strong partnerships
Drive seamless handoffs to operational state with heavy focus on engagement across networking and deployment teams, enabling rapid workload turn-ups and minimizing time-to-production
Identify and mitigate risks throughout the delivery lifecycle, proactively addressing blockers that could impact timeline, cost, or technical requirements, and feed what you learn on site back into diligence and the playbook

What we're looking for

8+ years of experience in preconstruction, development, or cost and commercial management on data center or other large mission-critical programs within EMEA, including time leading delivery on site
A track record of testing developer and contractor claims on cost, schedule, power and permitting against source documents, and of telling a deal team when a date does not hold up
Have taken time out of programs before construction started, and can show how; read a native schedule fluently and know which levers in design, permitting, power and procurement move a date
Have shaped delivery terms in development, lease or construction agreements, working with legal teams, and have led tendering and bid analysis; understand how cost and schedule flow through to the investment case
Strong understanding of the end to end (dirt to delivery) data center development process to include entitlements and permitting, planning and supply chain, execution, commissioning, and handover
Understand the nuances of data center design and construction across EMEA markets - who the players are, how power and permitting differ, what contractual norms get in the way of speed of delivery, how teams can be incentivized to build and deliver faster than normal
Have built or scaled a team or function, including directing third-party advisers
Thrive operating with ambiguity and have a willingness to own outcomes
Minimum education: Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience
Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience

Nice to have

Understand AI/ML infrastructure requirements, including high-density power and advanced cooling systems
Have had preconstruction or leadership positions (Preconstruction Manager, General Superintendent, Project Manager) within a GC, EPC or developer on hyperscale data center projects or in self performance of hyperscale data center development projects
Prioritize extreme ownership and have the ability to create winning cultures across diverse teams and job sites
Are deeply familiar with lease negotiations, construction contracts, or real estate development processes and have strategies to move those arrangements from traditionally transaction and risk managed arrangements to collaborative efforts that align incentives around accelerated delivery of facilities
Have secured long-lead equipment or manufacturing capacity ahead of a signed deal, including through frame agreements or early funding arrangements
Have run quantitative schedule risk analysis, or built parametric cost benchmarks across a portfolio of sites
Speak additional European languages

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About Anthropic

Anthropic's team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

Mission

Anthropic's mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole.

Key facts

We do sponsor visas, but we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate
Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time