Land Development & Due Diligence Lead

Openai
United States
Remote

Who this role is best for

Geared toward senior land development professionals with civil/environmental engineering expertise, comfortable with leading cross-agency technical reviews and scaling due diligence processes

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 8+ years in data center or infrastructure development projects
    — “8+ years in land development, civil/environmental engineering, or data center diligence
  • Individuals experienced in geotechnical analysis and regulatory compliance frameworks
    — “Lead all technical diligence: geotech, soils, title/ALTA surveys, mineral rights, and access
  • Professionals adept at translating complex studies into executive-level risk assessments
    — “Deliver go/no-go recommendations with risk and mitigation options

Things to consider

  • Background checks may disqualify candidates with certain criminal records
    — “Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law
  • Role requires handling sensitive IT systems and confidential data
    — “maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information

How to stand out

  • Emphasize template creation experience for standardized site reviews
    — “Build diligence templates and playbooks to scale future site reviews
  • Highlight track record in managing environmental consultants and permits
    — “Evaluate generator air permits, wetlands, floodplain, and stormwater constraints
  • Demonstrate ability to track KPIs for vendor performance evaluation
    — “Establish and track key performance indicators to assess the effectiveness of the site selection program
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • validate proposed sites
  • deliver go/no-go recommendations
  • build diligence templates
Typical background
land development experiencecivil/environmental engineering

Skills & requirements

Required

Land DevelopmentTechnical DiligenceProject ManagementConsultant ManagementRisk Assessment

Preferred

AI Infrastructure EcosystemData Center Diligence

Stack & domain

Land DevelopmentDue Diligence

About the role

Original posting from Openai via Ashby

About the Team

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is embarking on a journey to build the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Industrial Compute team is central to this mission, setting the core infra strategy and implementing this vision. From site selection to the buildout process, this team sits at the intersection of commercial, technical, strategy, and operations, interacting with teams and executives inside and outside of OpenAI.

About the Role

Responsible for validating that proposed sites are buildable, compliant, and cost-effective. You will lead diligence across civil, geotechnical, environmental, and entitlement dimensions, identifying risks and driving mitigation strategies.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead all technical diligence: geotech, soils, title/ALTA surveys, mineral rights, and access.
  • Oversee permitting/entitlement path and schedule governance with agencies.
  • Evaluate generator air permits, wetlands, floodplain, and stormwater constraints.
  • Manage consultants performing feasibility studies and environmental assessments.
  • Deliver go/no-go recommendations with risk and mitigation options.
  • Build diligence templates and playbooks to scale future site reviews.

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in land development, civil/environmental engineering, or data center diligence.
  • Knowledge of permitting, entitlements, and AHJ engagement.
  • Strong project management and technical review skills.
  • Experience managing consultants and interpreting complex studies.
  • Regularly communicate site readiness updates, risks, and milestones to executive stakeholders
  • Establish and track key performance indicators to assess the effectiveness of the site selection program and the contributions of external vendors and partners.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Source: Openai careers (Ashby)

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