Director – Mission Critical / Data Center – Commercial & Project Advisory – United States

Location: United States, multi-region (50% on-site across project clusters / 50% work-from-home; travel up to 50%)

Compensation: $245,000 – $350,000+ base, depending on experience and location, plus performance bonus and executive benefits

The Opportunity

HeatherDaniel International (HDi), a construction recruitment specialist, is representing an independent, partner-led global construction, project controls and real estate consultancy. Founded on a 190-year legacy of long-term client stewardship, equity ownership and zero external shareholder influence, they protect institutional capital across complex, high-density programmes worldwide.

We are seeking an executive Director to lead and scale their US commercial and project advisory practice. You will direct multi-region programmes, manage executive client relationships and expand a high-performing team across cost management, quantity surveying, master planning and project controls. Unlike a corporate matrix, this partner-led model offers direct equity progression, operational autonomy and long-term stability. You will be a primary trusted adviser to executive boards, institutional developers and hyperscale technology clients across North America.

Key Responsibilities

• Practice leadership: Direct, mentor and scale a multi-disciplinary practice (currently expanding across regional project clusters), driving team recruitment, fee proposals, P&L management and resource allocation.
• Hyperscale and mission-critical oversight: Provide strategic commercial, planning and project-controls governance across active hyperscale data-center clusters, high-voltage power/substation builds and complex industrial infrastructure portfolios.
• Post-contract governance: Oversee high-level cost modelling, budget forecasting, CVR reviews and rigorous GMP audits, testing contractor cost submittals against contractual provisions.
• Contracts and disputes: Act as the escalation point for complex contract administration, negotiating main-contractor change orders, evaluating extension-of-time claims and resolving delay/disruption disputes.
• Schedule interrogation: Direct integrated master planning, schedule quality reviews and risk assessments (Primavera P6), ensuring CPM logic, float analysis and MEP/commissioning sequence integration across facility life-cycles.
• Board advisory: Translate multi-project controls and financial data into executive dashboards, milestone-trend visuals and strategic risk assessments for C-suite leadership.

Requirements

• Education and credentials: A degree in quantity surveying, commercial management, civil engineering, construction management or a related discipline. Professional chartership or certifications (MRICS, FRICS, PMP, AACE, ChPP or equivalent) are valued.
• Track record: 12+ years of progressive commercial management, quantity surveying or project-controls experience within consultancy, owner’s rep or complex project-delivery environments, with recent experience at Director or Associate Director level.
• Sector: Direct oversight of high-density, capital-intensive builds — specifically hyperscale data centers, MEP infrastructure, high-voltage substations, energy or industrial manufacturing programmes.
• Work authorisation and mobility: Valid US work authorisation (US Citizen, Green Card holder) or eligibility for standard international visa-processing pathways. Open to travelling up to 50% of the time based on client delivery needs.
• Working model: 50% on-site presence across active project site clusters and 50% work-from-home / remote flexibility.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base salary: $245,000 – $350,000+, depending on experience and location.
• Bonus and benefits: Performance bonus structure, comprehensive health and retirement benefits, and full support for ongoing professional credentials.
• Partnership track: Meritocratic, structured progression toward partnership and long-term equity ownership.



• Relocation: Full domestic and international relocation assistance.

Next Step

Interviews are being arranged now.

Why candidates choose HDi

We start with you, not with a requisition to fill. The people we place today are often the clients who hire us tomorrow. That only works if we treat the first conversation with care.

We know what a Quantity Surveyor is. We work in verticals — cost, project advisory, claims and dispute, built-environment leadership, and data center and mission-critical programmes — not as a generalist shop that learns your job from a Wikipedia page.

We are honest about salary and fit, even when the answer is no. We do not mailshot your curriculum vitae. We do not share it without your consent. That promise is written in full on our Candidate Charter.

We stay with you from the first call through interview, offer, resignation and start.

A major statewide consultancy in the United States, headquartered in New York, has hired us on a retainer.

We are working with a major international consultancy and have placed nearly forty people with them this year.

Our Candidate Charter: You are a person, not a placement. We are honest on salary and fit. Your curriculum vitae is never shared without your consent. We reply, even when there is no update. We stay with you through the whole move.

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