Data Center Site Selection Expert — From ANY part of US! - Remote

Are you passionate about making a significant impact on one of our generation's most pressing environmental challenges? Do you have the expertise to look at a parcel of land in US and know — before anyone else does — what will kill the project? Join us in creating and leading a new category in the Climate Tech industry.

About Waterplan

Waterplan is a pioneering Series A Y Combinator-backed Climate Tech startup dedicated to accelerating the journey toward a water-secure future. Through our leading B2B Enterprise SaaS platform, we empower companies to understand, respond, report, and monitor their ever-evolving water risk. We help businesses see the tangible benefits of mitigating water risks – fostering a future where organizations are motivated to conserve water and preserve our precious ecosystems.

Civarea, our AI-powered site selection platform for data centers, applies that same rigor to the fastest-growing infrastructure market in the world. We compress 30 days of fragmented site due diligence into same-day risk visibility: 280+ factors per site across power, permitting, water, environmental, community, connectivity and legal — used today by some of the largest DC operators and hyperscalers in the world.
We're looking for a Data Center Site Selection Expert to be the expert eye between our AI engine and the client.

Every site assessment (SDC — Site Data Collection) and screening report we deliver passes through an expert review step. That step is you. You never face clients: your job is to make sure that what reaches them would survive the scrutiny of a VP of Site Acquisition who knows that region personally.

This is a high-impact role that combines technical judgment, regional depth, and speed. Your corrections don't just fix one report — they feed back into the engine, so your work compounds with every site you review.

One hard rule: the 12-hour turnaround. Our clients send us a site and expect it to be evaluated in 12 hours. You choose your active days; within them, the 12 hours are the contract. If you can't commit to that response window, this isn't the right fit — and we'd rather be direct about it now.

What You'll Do

• Review AI-generated SDCs and screening reports for US Data Centers sites before delivery — typically 1–2 hours per site, inside the 12-hour window.
• Validate site-specificity: every key finding must be true for this parcel — this municipality, this utility, this grid node — not generic to the country or region.
• Verify the power picture: grid operator identification (TSO/DSO), connection context, and known constraint zones.
• Verify permitting and legal: zoning, environmental permitting pathways, the authority landscape, and realistic timelines for that jurisdiction.
• Red-team the Top 5 risks. Try to break them, and flag anything overstated, understated or missing — community sentiment, flight paths, wetlands, protected areas.
• Correct scores with a one-line justification each. These corrections train the engine.
• Flag better local data sources when you know them: registries, cadastres, grid maps, local media.
• Contribute your expert read to the internal self-review when a client challenges an assessment.

• 3–6 years of experience in data center site selection or technical due diligence, ideally at a consultancy (Arup, Jacobs, Linesight, Turner & Townsend, CBRE's DC practice or similar) or inside a DC developer's site acquisition team.
• A real feel for how community and environmental factors kill sites, not just how they get scored.
• You've reviewed reports for a living. You know the difference between a finding and a filler sentence.
• Exceptionally detail-oriented and independent. You work unsupervised against a clock and you don't let things slip.
• Fluent written English. German, French or Spanish is a plus, as is hyperscaler or colo exposure, GIS familiarity, and fiber & connectivity know-how.

The Engagement

Contract: hourly: up to 120 USD per hour depending on experience and site complexity.

Volume of ~5–15 sites per week and growing with our pilot pipeline, at roughly 1–2 hours per site. You set your active days and we assign within them.

We start with a paid trial: you review 2 real SDCs under the real 12-hour SLA, and we compare your notes against known ground truth. If it clicks, we ramp immediately.

Why Join Waterplan

Impactful Mission: Contribute to a meaningful cause with a clear vision of fostering a water-secure future.
Dynamic Team: Work alongside a talented and passionate team dedicated to making a difference.
Growth Opportunity: Be at the forefront of our industry's growth, shaping how the world's largest data centers get sited.
Culture & Values: Enjoy a fully remote working environment, rooted in our core values:
I dive in & own the outcome;
I'm guided by nature when making decisions;
I treat every customer as precious as water;
I'm always iterating towards excellence;
I make others successful;
I listen with depth and respect.

Diversity & Inclusion: Thrive in a workplace that champions diversity and inclusivity at every step of our journey.

If you're ready to join a transformative division at a groundbreaking company, then we'd love to get to know you. Apply today and help chart the course to a water-secure world.