Vice President, Utility Development

About Nscale

NScale is the GPU cloud engineered for AI. We provide cost-effective, high-performance infrastructure for AI start-ups and large enterprise customers. NScale enables AI-focused companies to achieve superior results by reducing the complexity of AI development. Our GPU cloud bolsters technical capabilities and directly supports strategic business outcomes, including cost management, rapid innovation, and environmental responsibility.

At NScale, our Design and Construction team plays a critical role in delivering data center facilities that are optimized for AI deployments.

We thrive on a culture of relentless innovation, ownership, and accountability, where every team member takes pride in their work and drives it with excellence and urgency. As an NScaler, you'll build trust through openness and transparency, where everyone is inspired to do their best work. If you join our team, you'll be contributing to building the technology that powers the future

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.

What You'll be Doing (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.

About You (Skills / 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.

Equal Opportunities Statement

At NScale, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace. We believe that a variety of perspectives enriches our work environment, and we encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there's anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.