Senior Associate, Pre-Construction Manager EMEA

Overview

As part of Ada’s Design and Delivery team, you will drive upfront development from site selection to permitting and prepare for construction. You will balance technical, scheduling, and commercial work to accelerate speed to market for data center opportunities in the EMEA region. You will operate across London, development sites, and travel in EMEA, shaping master planning and campus development strategies. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure timely, within-budget project delivery and a smooth handover to construction.

Responsibilities

• Lead upfront development activities: feasibility, due diligence, entitlement, permitting, and site evaluations to enable project delivery.
• Define scope, deliverables, phasing, and integrated schedules for preconstruction; align milestones with cost and procurement goals.
• Support development and management of budgets from early design to GMP; review contractor cost submissions for accuracy and alignment.
• Lead procurement and contractor engagement: sourcing strategies, tenders/RFPs, contractor selection, long-lead equipment, and contract negotiations.
• Manage project risk, compliance, governance: risk registers, regulatory and safety requirements, permits, and commercial risk assessment.
• Serve as primary interface between development and design teams; facilitate cross-functional collaboration and executive reporting.
• Oversee preconstruction process management and controls: deliverables, performance monitoring, reporting systems, and ensuring requirements for construction transition.
• Coordinate transition from preconstruction to construction: contracts, budgets, baselines, site readiness, and logistics for early works.

Key requirements

• 12+ years in technical or commercial development
• 6+ years data center experience
• Experience with hyperscale or high-density data center projects
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field
• Strong proficiency in MS Office; experience with MS Project, Primavera, Procore
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills
• Strong written and verbal communication
• Independent thinker with proactive problem-solving; able to work in fast-paced environments

• Interpersonal and communication skills
• Proactive problem-solver
• Team player and collaborative mindset
• Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
• MS Project
• Primavera

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