Principal, Delivery Lead, North America (Construction)

Over the last 20 years, Ares’ success has been driven by our people and our culture. Today, our team is guided by our core values – Collaborative, Responsible, Entrepreneurial, Self-Aware, Trustworthy – and our purpose to be a catalyst for shared prosperity and a better future. Through our recruitment, career development and employee-focused programming, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive work environment where high-performance talent of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can build careers within this exciting and growing industry.

Job Description

Ada Infrastructure is a global data center business committed to being a positive force for technology, people, and the planet. As part of the digital infrastructure platform of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES), a leading global alternative investment manager, Ada Infrastructure is positioned to be a leader in the industry in reliable, safe, secure, and sustainable digital infrastructure. With nine in-flight campuses across the US, Japan, the UK, and Brazil, we have over 850 MW of power currently available and more than 1,500 MW in our global pipeline.

To learn more about Ada Infrastructure, visit www.adainfrastructure.com or to learn more about Ares Management visit www.aresmgmt.com.

Why Join Us:

This role is an excellent opportunity to join a deeply experienced and high-performing team with the ability to directly impact and contribute to Ada’s development program. Our team combines industry-wide experience and in-country expertise across all our regions.

We are committed to collaborating cross-functionally and partnering to drive efficient and effective solutions that meet the needs of our internal and external stakeholders.

The Team you are joining:

The Delivery team is responsible for the full construction lifecycle, following handoff from the development team who is responsible for pre-construction planning and entitlement. The delivery function manages scope, schedule, budget, and risk mitigation throughout construction, commissioning, and turnover to operations with the goal of delivering scalable future ready solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers in line with commercial performance targets. The delivery team executes on the vision and global products generated by the Product and Innovation teams while providing cost and schedule inputs for their future outputs.

Summary:

The Delivery Lead for North America is accountable for the end‑to‑end construction and delivery of Ada Infrastructure’s development portfolio, overseeing all active and future U.S. campuses. In this role you will have the opportunity to provide strategic leadership, governance, and operational oversight across multiple large‑scale, capital‑intensive data center developments, ensuring projects are delivered safely, on time, within budget, and aligned with Ada’s commercial, technical, and operational objectives.

This role spans all North American Delivery, including campus‑based delivery teams (e.g., Virginia and other U.S. locations). You will also serve as Ada’s senior construction delivery authority in the region. The position will partner closely with Development, Design, Product, Finance, Sales, Operations, EHS, ESG, and executive leadership, while representing Delivery in customer, vendor, and Board‑level discussions.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute the North America delivery strategy across all U.S. campuses, from pre-construction handoff through commissioning and turnover to operations including but not limited to leading the tender/contractor selection, construction and power delivery, coordinating LLE purchase and delivery, and project closeout

• Lead, manage, and develop a high performing regional delivery team, including internal leaders and augmented third party resources

• Establish and continuously refine delivery governance, processes, controls, and reporting standards to enable scalable execution across multiple markets.

• Ensure consistent application of Ada’s global design standards, delivery methodologies, and risk management frameworks across all campuses

• Maintain full accountability for regional CAPEX performance, including budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and cost controls

• Provide clear, executive level reporting on portfolio status, risks, opportunities, and performance metrics including project level cost analysis, budget/estimating insight, and cost driver transparency

• Oversee regional contractor and vendor strategies, including MSAs, GPAs, SOWs, and contractor qualification

• Drive execution excellence with Design team across CSA and MEP intensive construction programs, ensuring constructability, schedule integrity, and quality outcomes

• Identify and mitigate program level risks, including schedule, supply chain, labor, permitting, and power delivery constraints

• Collaborate with the Development, Design and Project Controls teams to identify cost optimization opportunities and Incorporate prefabrication, modularization, and alternate delivery strategies to improve speed, cost certainty, and scalability

• Champion a proactive safety culture across all sites, embedding safety as a baseline expectation, leading by example, and ensuring safety is treated as a core value rather than a compliance driven exercise

• Partner with EHS and ESG leadership to ensure delivery outcomes align with Ada’s sustainability and environmental commitments

• Act as the senior Delivery interface for North America with customers, hyperscalers, and strategic partners and support Sales in leasing pursuits through customer engagement, construction related RFP responses, and delivery commitments

• Ensure consistent and accurate use of delivery systems (e.g., Procore, Primavera P6) as sources of truth across the region

• Foster a collaborative, high accountability culture that encourages continuous improvement and shared learning through coordination with parallel delivery leaders across the globe and Incorporating lessons learned campus to campus and phase to phase

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in construction management, Engineering, or related discipline; equivalent experience considered

• 15+ years of experience delivering large-scale, capital-intensive construction programs, with 10+ years in senior leadership roles

• Extensive experience delivering mission critical or data center infrastructure required

• Proven leadership of multi-site, multi-billion dollar construction portfolios

• Deep expertise in CSA and MEP construction, construction means and methods, and delivery models

• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including CAPEX management, contract strategy, and risk allocation

• Executive presence with the ability to influence internally and externally at the LT and customer level

• Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, growth-oriented environments with evolving priorities

• This role is expected to have 30-50% travel which may evolve over time, working with teams across all sites, and manufacturers and vendors as required

Reporting Relationships

Managing Director, Head of North America & CTO, Ada

Compensation

$250,000.00 - $275,000.00

There is no set deadline to apply for this job opportunity. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the search is no longer active.