Associate Program Manager - Data Center Construction

The company is seeking an Associate Program Manager to support pre-lease technical due diligence for a confidential hyperscale data center client. You will work under a Program Manager to keep a portfolio of live deals organized, on track, and moving, while building toward ownership of your own deals.

This is an execution and organization role that builds into program management. You will own the tracking, follow-up, and day-to-day structure across every deal you support, sit in on every deal call as the account's backstop, and progressively take on direct ownership of workstreams and sites as you demonstrate the judgment to run them. Deals move on short exclusivity windows and incomplete information. We are looking for people who bring order to that rather than waiting for it to settle.

Prior program or project coordination experience is expected. Data center, real estate, or construction exposure is a plus but not required. This is not an executive assistant role and not a purely administrative function. It is the operational backbone of the diligence process, and a defined path into full program management.

This role reports to a Program Manager and is based in San Francisco, with other locations and remote considered for the right candidate.

Responsibilities

• Tracking and follow-up: Own the action item log across every meeting on your accounts. Assign owners, chase status, and close items out, escalating anything that stalls.

• Risk log management: Keep the risk register current for every site in your portfolio. Log new findings, confirm each has an owner and a next step, and follow up until closed.

• Meeting management: Build and distribute the agenda ahead of every standing call, keep it on track, and issue a recap and minutes the same day.

• Deliverable tracking: Track what is due from consultants and developers across every workstream, and chase it before it is late, not after.

• Deal awareness and backstop: Participate in every deal call across your portfolio. Serve as the backstop for each deal, whether you own it or not: know what is happening, what the open issues and risks are, and what needs to happen next. Backstop means knowing it and flagging it, not making the final call on it.

• Communication and systems: Keep the shared trackers and communication channels clean, concise, and accurate so the Program Manager, the client, and other account partners can find what they need without asking you first.

• Client and reporting support: Draft the first pass of client reports and status updates for the Program Manager to edit, so they are reacting to a draft, not starting from a blank page.

• Process and tools: Build and maintain the checklists and templates the account runs on, and improve them yourself when you find a gap.

• Deal ownership: As you ramp, take direct ownership of full workstreams or lower-complexity sites end to end, bringing judgment calls to the Program Manager until you have earned the room to make more of them yourself.

• Escalation: Raise anything that looks wrong the same day it surfaces. Do not sit on an open question hoping it resolves itself.

SOX control responsibilities may be part of this role, which are to be adhered to where applicable.

• Minimum 3 to 5 years of relevant experience. A degree is not required.

• Prefer candidates that are located in/near San Francisco, CA that can come to the office 2 to 3 days a week but will consider remote for the right candidates.

• Program or project coordination experience preferred. Data center, real estate, or construction backgrounds are a plus.

• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, low-information environment, with the organizational instinct to bring structure to it.

• Strong written and verbal communication, with the polish to represent the account directly to clients and developer counterparties.

• A working understanding of, or willingness to quickly learn, what a data center is and how one gets built, including power, cooling, and long lead equipment.

• Enough command of program tracking and risk management to keep a portfolio organized without oversight.

• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams and reprioritize with incomplete information.

• A self starter who takes initiative, adapts quickly, and does not wait for a playbook.

• Technologically proficient, including MS Suite and Google Workspace. Comfort building and maintaining tracking tools is an advantage.

• Be able to understand and follow site HSSE policies.

Project/Program Specifications

• Market sector experience: Data center development, mission critical facilities, or complex technical and hyperscale buildings preferred, not required.

• Program specific responsibilities: Tracking, follow-up, meeting management, and risk log ownership across a portfolio of concurrent sites, building toward direct site ownership.

• Software specific requirements: MS Suite and Google Workspace. General technological proficiency expected.

• Travel: Minimal, approximately [TBD] days per month.

The salary range for this role is $100,000 - $130,000. This range reflects the company's good faith estimate of the base salary for this position at the time of the posting. Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, skills, qualifications, and internal equity. In addition to base salary, employees may be eligible for bonuses and a comprehensive benefits package.

*On-site presence and requirements may change depending on our client's needs.

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The company is a global professional services company with over 22,000 people in more than 60 countries.

Working with our clients across real estate, infrastructure, energy and natural resources, we transform together delivering outcomes that improve people’s lives. Working in partnership makes it possible to deliver the world’s most impactful projects and programmes as we turn challenge into opportunity and complexity into success.

Our capabilities include programme, project, cost, asset and commercial management, controls and performance, procurement and supply chain, net zero and digital solutions.

We are majority-owned by CBRE Group, Inc., the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, with our partners holding a significant minority interest. The company and CBRE work together to provide clients with the premier programme, project and cost management offering in markets around the world.