VP Corporate Development and Strategic Finance

Location: UK or Europe Travel: Regular European travel required Relocation: Relocation to a major European metropolitan area may be required

About the role

We are supporting a confidential digital infrastructure business with the appointment of a VP Corporate Development and Strategic Finance.

This is a senior strategic finance and corporate development role requiring direct experience in the data centre industry.

The successful candidate will support financial planning, investment analysis, business planning, corporate development and growth activity across a European infrastructure environment.

This role requires someone who understands data centre economics, including power, capacity, colocation, connectivity, capex, opex, utilisation, customer contracts and infrastructure expansion.

This is not a general finance role.

Direct data centre experience is mandatory.

Key responsibilities

Lead financial modelling for data centre growth plans, investment cases, expansion projects and strategic initiatives.

Support corporate development activity, including market analysis, growth opportunities, strategic partnerships and potential transactions.

Build detailed business cases for capacity expansion, customer opportunities and infrastructure investment.

Analyse data centre economics, including power availability, capacity, utilisation, pricing, capex, opex, margins and return on invested capital.

Support strategic financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and long term business planning.

Prepare executive level and board level materials to support key decisions.

Work closely with senior leadership, finance, commercial, operations and technical teams.

Support M&A activity where relevant, including due diligence, valuation, financial modelling and transaction support.

Assess market trends, competitor activity, customer demand and infrastructure investment opportunities across Europe.

Provide clear financial and strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders.

Required experience

Direct experience in the data centre industry.

Strong financial background within data centres, colocation, digital infrastructure, telecoms infrastructure or closely related infrastructure environments.

Excellent financial modelling capability.

Experience with financial planning, forecasting, business planning and investment analysis.

Strong understanding of data centre economics, including power, capacity, colocation, connectivity, capex, opex, utilisation and customer contracts.

Experience working in a capital intensive infrastructure environment.

Ability to work with executive teams and present complex financial information clearly.

Strong commercial judgement, analytical capability and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred experience

Previous M&A or corporate development experience.

Experience within a data centre, colocation, digital infrastructure or telecoms infrastructure environment.

Experience supporting expansion planning, market analysis, growth strategy or infrastructure investment.

Experience preparing board papers, investor materials or senior leadership presentations.

Background in strategic finance, corporate finance, infrastructure finance, transaction services, investment banking or private equity, only where there is direct data centre sector exposure.

Candidate profile

The ideal candidate will be a senior finance, strategic finance or corporate development professional who has worked directly in the data centre industry.

They will be financially strong, highly analytical and comfortable working closely with executive leadership. They must be able to build robust models, challenge assumptions and translate financial analysis into clear commercial and strategic recommendations.

This person does not need to be a pure M&A specialist, but they must have the financial depth and sector knowledge to support major growth decisions in a data centre environment.

Important note

Candidates without direct experience in data centres or digital infrastructure are unlikely to be suitable.

Pure financial services, investment banking, or private equity profiles will only be relevant where there is exposure to data centres or digital infrastructure.