Job Description

Your Role

The Regional Due Diligence Lead (f/m/d) for EMEA will support all pre-development technical due diligence and site feasibility efforts across the regional portfolio. This role sits within the Design, Engineering & Construction (DE&C) organisation and plays a critical part in evaluating potential data centre developments by assessing technical and commercial viability. The successful candidate will work closely with internal stakeholders, including Acquisitions, Legal, Development, and Design, as well as external consultants, to identify site constraints, risks, costs, and development pathways that inform acquisition decisions and enable successful project delivery.

What you’ll do

• Own regional due diligence, planning and permitting governance, sequencing and process, continuously improving how we approach our due diligence and entitlement activities.
• Lead and coordinate all technical due diligence, site feasibility, and development readiness activities for potential site acquisitions globally.
• Own the technical and commercial assessment of prospective sites within the Preconstruction function, identifying development constraints, risks, opportunities, and costs to support informed acquisition decisions.
• Assist the Acquisitions team by providing technical input for both existing and new market evaluations.
• Review seller-provided materials and documentation for accuracy, completeness, development viability, and associated project risks.
• Develop and execute strategies for entitlements, permitting, and utility connections, working with internal teams and external stakeholders to establish clear development pathways.
• Engage and support internal teams in managing land use attorneys, civil engineers, environmental, geotechnical, utility, and other specialist consultants to assess project risks, permitting requirements, and development schedules.
• Collaborate with internal teams (Design, Construction, Masterplanning, Development, Legal, etc.) to consolidate technical inputs and establish comprehensive development schedules for each potential site.
• Ensure due diligence deliverables align with internal development standards, commercial objectives, and long-term delivery requirements.
• Structure reports and present findings, risks, recommendations, and development strategies to senior leadership to support investment and acquisition decisions.
• Develop scalable due diligence processes, standards, and tools to support the continued growth of the global development pipeline.

• Act as the regional technical due diligence authority, consolidating specialist inputs and providing a clear recommendation on site viability, principal risks, development strategy, cost and schedule assumptions. Final acquisition and investment decisions remain subject to the applicable corporate governance process.

What you’ll need

• Significant senior-level experience in site development, design, construction, technical due diligence or development management, with a demonstrable track record of leading complex, multi-jurisdictional real estate or infrastructure assessments.

• Proven experience leading cross-functional due diligence and site feasibility efforts for large-scale real estate or infrastructure projects.
• Strong understanding of zoning, permitting, entitlements, utility coordination, environmental review processes, and site development regulations.
• Demonstrated experience developing entitlement, permitting, and utility strategies that enable successful project execution.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects and acquisitions concurrently.
• Experience procuring and managing consultant scopes, schedules, budgets, and technical deliverables.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present complex technical and commercial findings clearly to executive stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across multidisciplinary global teams.

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, architecture, construction management, real estate development or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience. A relevant postgraduate qualification is desirable.

• Multi-jurisdictional planning and permitting environments and tracking of utility capacity, connection strategy and programme risks associated with permitting.

• Environmental, ground, flood, transport and infrastructure constraints.

• Provide eisk-based recommendations for investment governance and consultant procurement and management across countries.

• Ability to travel across EMEA and to work across cultures, time zones and regulatory regimes.

• Additional European languages as desirable, not mandatory unless genuinely required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with data centre development or hyperscale infrastructure is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with land acquisition, entitlement, and permitting frameworks across multiple international jurisdictions.

• Relevant professional membership, chartership or certification, such as CEng, Eur Ing, RICS, CIOB, RIBA, PMI/PMP or an equivalent national or international qualification, is desirable.

A bit about us

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data centre platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data centre footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents.

To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter

What we can offer you

Our rapidly evolving business sector offers the opportunity to be part of a courageous and passionate team who work together to understand and meet the changing needs of our global customers.

Join us and you’ll be part of a supportive and inclusive environment where you can bring your whole self to work. As part of our team, you’ll get to work with people from different business areas, challenge the way we do things and put your ideas into action. We’ll also give you plenty of development opportunities so you can build a rewarding and successful career with us.

Apply today, take charge of your career and grow your talents with us.

Health and Safety

Safety isn't just a priority here at Digital Realty; it's critical to everything we do. Safeguarding lives, protecting assets, and securing data aren't just ideals - they're essential pillars of our commitment to excellence for our people, our partners and our customers. We have a culture of care where every member of Team Digital embraces a relentless pursuit of working safely across Digital Realty. Together we are Safely Powering Progress.

Our Compensation Philosophy

Digital Realty offers its employees a highly competitive compensation package, excellent benefits, and an environment that recognizes and rewards your contributions. Central to our compensation philosophy is rewarding our employees for achieving the values and objectives aligned to the company's overall goals and values.