Vice President, Utility Development

About the Role

We are looking for a VP of Utility Development to lead utility development strategy and execution across NScale's data center portfolio in the East and West regions. This leader will own end-to-end responsibility for securing utility capacity (power, water, fiber, and related infrastructure) to support hyperscale AI/GPU data centers. You will lead the regional Directors of Utility Development, driving consistent standards and sharing best practices across markets. You will serve as a senior technical and commercial leader engaging utilities, regulators, municipal authorities, and outside fiber providers.

Responsibilities

• Utility Development Strategy
  • Own the long-term utility development strategy across regions, aligning with site selection, load forecasts, and growth plans.
  • Set standards and playbooks for utility engagement, ensuring consistency across East and West teams.
  • Evaluate and prioritize markets based on utility capacity, reliability, and interconnection timelines.
  • Direct strategy for behind-the-meter, islanded, and grid-connected load solutions, balancing reliability, schedule, fuel availability, emissions, and total cost of ownership.
• Regional Team Leadership
  • Lead and develop the Directors of Utility Development (East and West), aligning regional execution with enterprise strategy.
  • Build organizational capacity to support a growing pipeline of data center projects.
  • Resolve cross-regional resourcing, prioritization, and escalation issues.
• Utility & Regulatory Engagement
  • Lead senior-level engagement with utilities, ISOs/RTOs, municipal authorities, and regulators on interconnection and service agreements.
  • Oversee negotiation of interconnection agreements, service agreements, and tariffs across regions.
  • Track and influence grid and utility infrastructure upgrade timelines affecting project delivery.
  • Oversee generation interconnection studies and compliance for behind-the-meter and utility-parallel operation.
• Fiber & Connectivity Development
  • Own the strategy for securing fiber connectivity to support data center campuses, including diverse, redundant long-haul and metro fiber routes.
  • Lead engagement with outside fiber providers (carriers, dark fiber providers, and third-party network operators) to plan, negotiate, and contract fiber builds and lit/dark fiber services.
  • Set standards for fiber route diversity, latency, and resiliency requirements across the portfolio, and ensure fiber timelines are integrated into overall utility development schedules.
  • Oversee commercial negotiations for fiber easements, conduit agreements, and indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) in partnership with Legal and Real Estate.
• Cross-Functional Partnership
  • Partner with Development, Construction, Finance, and Legal to align utility milestones with project schedules.
  • Communicate utility risks, trade-offs, and options to executive leadership.
  • Contribute to enterprise power and utility strategy, including cost, capacity, and sustainability considerations.

Qualifications

• Required
  • Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, or a related field.
  • 10-15+ years of experience in utility development, infrastructure development, or grid-connected projects, including people leadership.
  • Deep understanding of utility interconnection processes, service agreements, and regulatory environments.
  • Demonstrated success leading multi-region teams delivering complex infrastructure projects.
  • Strong negotiation and stakeholder management skills.
  • Experience securing fiber connectivity for large facilities or campuses, including negotiating with carriers and outside fiber providers.
• Preferred
  • Master's degree in Engineering or a related field.
  • Professional Engineer (PE) license.
  • Experience with data center or hyperscale utility development.
  • Familiarity with water and sewer utility coordination in addition to power.
  • Experience operating across multiple U.S. regions or jurisdictions.
  • Familiarity with fiber route engineering, IRUs, and dark/lit fiber commercial structures.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible paid time off
• Parental leave
• Retirement plan participation
• Bonus, equity, and/or commission programs (eligibility may vary)

Pay

Salary range: $210,000—$360,000 USD. Actual compensation may vary based on job-related factors such as skill set, experience, education, and location.