Project Director / VP - Data Center Campus (Edmonton)

Level: Director / Vice President | Team: Project | Type: Full-time employee | Location: Edmonton area, Alberta - on site, five days per week | Target start: Q3 2026 - immediate | Range: CAD $250,000 - $375,000 base, plus bonus and equity participation

The role

This is the senior-most role on the ground at a multi-hundred-megawatt data center campus in the greater Edmonton region. The site lead owns delivery outright: schedule, budget, contractor performance, End Client relationship, and the site itself.

The campus comprises four data halls held under four separate leases. Each hall carries its own milestone obligations and its own financial consequences for late delivery. Delivering the program on time in aggregate is not the standard - each hall stands on its own. That structure shapes every decision this role makes.

The client is an early-stage data center developer with an unusually large pipeline and a deliberately small delivery team. Process is being written while the work proceeds. The person in this seat will build the site organization around themselves rather than inherit one.

What you will own

• Full accountability for delivery of the campus - schedule, budget, quality and safety - from site mobilization through to ready-for-service on each data hall.
• Day-to-day ownership of the general contractor relationship, including schedule challenge, change management, and holding contractor commitments to the milestone structure.
• Management of the End Client relationship on site, including milestone verification, turnover sequencing and the commissioning path to RFS for each hall independently.
• Coordination with the design team and with the owner-furnished equipment program, where the client carries procurement risk and the contractor carries installation.
• Recruitment, onboarding and leadership of the site-based project team as it scales through the build.
• Escalation judgment - deciding what leadership needs to know, when, and with what recommendation attached. This role is expected to say no when no is the right answer.
• Winter-readiness planning and execution, including sequencing to get out of the ground before the Alberta winter constrains earthworks.

What we require

• Demonstrable data center delivery experience. This is not negotiable at this level. Experience in hospitals, oil and gas, or large commercial construction does not substitute - the terminology, the owner-End Client relationship, the turnover sequence and the pace are a distinct discipline, and this program has no ramp-up period.
• A track record of leading delivery on projects of comparable scale and capital value, with direct accountability for outcome rather than for a defined scope within someone else's outcome.
• Experience on both the contractor side and the owner or consulting side of the industry. The strongest profile for this role is four to seven years with a general contractor - learning budgets, schedules, contracts, purchase orders and payment applications - followed by a move to the developer or consultancy side with visible progression afterwards.
• Willingness and genuine appetite to be on site five days a week. This is a job-trailer role. Fly-in, fly-out arrangements will not be considered.
• Comfort operating without established process, dedicated support functions or a mature organization behind you.

What will set you apart

• Delivery experience in Canada, and a working understanding of how Canadian contractor behavior, subcontractor management, authorities having jurisdiction and cross-border equipment movement differ from the United States.
• Direct experience building through a Canadian winter, and practical knowledge of the techniques and cost implications involved.
• Experience with multi-lease or multi-phase turnover structures where milestones are enforced independently.
• A record of building and retaining site teams in tight labor markets.

Relocation support is available.