Land Acquisition Manager

Job Description

Overview

Microsoft Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers Microsoft's cloud services and our team is focused on delivering high quality infrastructure to support cloud operations.

As Microsoft’s Cloud business continues to mature, the acquisition and development of our owned, designed and constructed Data Center facilities will scale to meet the demands of our customers. Cloud Operations and Innovation (CO+I) will be developing and executing strategies to deliver owned and developed sites alongside our leasing team, to scale our business into the future.

The Infrastructure Planning & Acquisition (IPA) team is responsible for the acquisition and planning of Data Center Infrastructure needed to build out Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. As part of IPA, the Land Acquisition Team is responsible for the delivery and pre-positioning of Data Center real estate needed to build out Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure.

The Expedited Transactions Land Acquisitions Manager, based in London, Amsterdam, or Milan, will report to the EMEA Regional Director, and play a pivotal role in leading efforts to acquire land, even prior to zoning being in place. This entails spearheading risk analysis and crafting presentations for scenarios and opportunities where such strategies are viable and beneficial.

Responsibilities include researching and coordinating opportunities to secure land by comprehensively understanding current land use and navigating the conversion process through zoning/entitlement. Additionally, the role involves accelerating market growth through proactive engagement with pre-construction activities in the EMEA regions.

This is a unique opportunity to make a significant contribution and impact to one of the largest data center portfolios. You’ll have the opportunity to help shape and deliver on a strategy to improve and expand our infrastructure in various EMEA markets.

You’ll develop close working relationships with internal as well as external stakeholders, evaluate property solutions within our standards and guidelines, engage with municipalities, identify pre-closing off-site solutions needed to deliver capacity, and drive impact for the Microsoft infrastructure portfolio. You should also have a demonstrated ability to drive results related to complex contracts from business and technical perspectives.

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day. Our Team culture is one of inclusion and excellence, where every voice is heard, and every idea matters. Let's accelerate together towards a brighter future in the cloud computing landscape.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate, select, negotiate, and recommend acquisition structures for approval.

• Ability to negotiate effectively across private owners, municipalities, and institutions.

• Investigate land use processes within strategic locations to understand and develop an execution plan to deliver zoned/entitled land to downstream teams.

• Manage alternative acquisition structures for land including tasks which can range from site identification and critical offsite requirements to municipal collaboration for pre-construction work.

• Coordination with development, engineering, construction, project managers and legal teams amongst others, to enable evaluation of acquisition targets.

• Project manage external suppliers including technical firms and utilities across projects.

• Manage multiple assignments across EMEA regions.

• Provide input into the long-term delivery strategy to drive real estate acquisitions that support the Microsoft Cloud transformation.

• This position will require periodic travel to assigned geographies.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Experience in site selection, real estate industry
• Experience in leading negotiations

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of the real estate transaction process.
• Working knowledge of second european language, preferably French

• Experience with real estate options and/or zoning and easement related processes.

• Ability to effectively communicate internal process requirements to various audiences (e.g. internal and external stakeholders).

• A track record of coordinating high quality projects in an atmosphere where speed, flexibility, frugality and heavy workload are the expected norm.

• Previous experience managing complex and/or multi-party contracts.

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.