Director, Legal, Infrastructure, EMEA

The Director, Legal, Infrastructure, EMEA is Nscale’s dedicated UK-based infrastructure counsel for EMEA, reporting to the VP, Legal, Infrastructure. This is a hands-on execution role covering the full contracting lifecycle for Nscale’s EMEA data centre campuses, including construction, design and consultancy, major equipment supply and O&M, real estate, and power from term sheet through delivery and closeout. You will lead your own matters end-to-end, negotiate directly with major counterparties, and apply consistent commercial and legal positions across multiple jurisdictions, working closely with local external counsel where jurisdiction-specific advice is required.

Responsibilities include leading negotiations of owner-contractor, EPC, EPCM and design-and-build agreements for data centre campus construction across EMEA; drafting and negotiating design and consultancy agreements with architects, engineers and specialist consultants; negotiating supply, installation and O&M agreements for on-site power generation and critical electrical and mechanical equipment; supporting site acquisition, development arrangements, ground leases, power procurement, utility, interconnection and power purchase arrangements; and maintaining Nscale’s infrastructure contract templates and playbooks, including JCT, NEC, FIDIC and bespoke contracting structures. You will run counterparty comment rounds, drive consistent house positions across projects, manage contracts through delivery and closeout, and handle change orders, cost and schedule claims, payment and retention issues, defect correction and dispute avoidance. You will also coordinate insurance and bonding requirements, partner with Debt Capital Markets Legal on lender requirements for project-financed sites, manage EMEA outside counsel, and work closely with construction, procurement, finance, real estate, energy and operations teams.

You should have 7+ years’ PQE in construction and infrastructure legal experience, gained in-house and/or at a top-tier law firm, and be a qualified solicitor or barrister in England and Wales or another relevant EMEA jurisdiction, in good standing. England and Wales qualification is strongly preferred. You will need a strong track record negotiating major construction, EPC/EPCM, design-and-build, professional services and equipment supply agreements for large-scale, mission-critical or industrial projects; experience across multiple EMEA jurisdictions; and fluency in construction risk allocation, including pricing structures, delay remedies, warranties and defects, indemnities, insurance, liability caps and dispute-resolution provisions. You should be a confident first-chair negotiator who can run multiple high-value contracts in parallel, explain complex legal and commercial risk clearly to non-lawyers and senior stakeholders, and work comfortably alongside project finance, power, insurance and regulatory counterparts.

Desirable experience includes work at a hyperscaler, colocation provider, data centre developer, major contractor or infrastructure investor; energy and power project experience; familiarity with JCT, NEC and/or FIDIC forms; construction claims and dispute-resolution experience; and additional European language skills. Nscale is building a vertically integrated GenAI cloud platform spanning data centres, software and applications, using sustainable technology solutions and a culture of ownership, accountability, openness, collaboration and urgency.