Director of Data Center Development

About the role

The Director of Data Center Development will drive the growth of the utility business by identifying and cultivating new data center clients while continuing to manage existing relationships and partnerships. This role involves developing strategic partnerships, understanding client needs, and promoting the utility's services to support data center growth opportunities. The ideal candidate has experience developing relationships with hyperscalers, colocation providers, or large data center operators as well as experience building relationships with economic development organizations, community leaders, industry partners, and regulatory stakeholders to support project development and implementation. The ideal candidate is a customer relationship-driven leader who demonstrates strong commercial acumen, and brings the passion, resilience, and cross-functional collaboration skills necessary to drive growth in a rapidly evolving market. Black Hills Energy is a customer, growth and safety focused utility company dedicated to improving life with energy as an energy partner of choice. Based in Rapid City, South Dakota, we have over 3000 employees and serve 1.3 million natural gas and electric utility customers across eight states (South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Arkansas). Location: Rapid City, SD; Cheyenne, WY; or Denver, CO.

Responsibilities

• Identify and target potential data center customers, developing strategies to attract and secure new business.
• Develop and implement strategic growth plans to expand the utility's customer base within the data center sector.
• Lead negotiations with potential data center customers to secure agreements and partnerships.
• Create compelling and innovative proposals and presentations to showcase the utility's services and value proposition.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including data center customers, industry partners, and regulatory bodies.
• Lead cross-functional coordination among regulatory, engineering, transmission, generation, finance, legal, and operations teams to advance data center opportunities from initial engagement through