Director, Finance - Real Estate Finance

Job description

Crusoe is on a mission *to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence*. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster. We're in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We're solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI. We're looking for problem-solving, opportunity-finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services. If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high-performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe. **About the Role:** Crusoe is the AI factory company, on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. Crusoe designs, builds, and operates vertically integrated AI infrastructure — from energy generation and land acquisition to AI-optimized data center campuses and Crusoe Cloud, its AI cloud platform. With a development pipeline exceeding tens of GWs across multiple U.S. campuses, real estate, land, and power siting decisions sit at the foundation of every project Crusoe brings to market. **What You'll Be Working On:** Crusoe is looking for a Director of Real Estate, Land & Leases Finance to own the financial due diligence, commercial structuring, and lifecycle management of land and real estate transactions underpinning Crusoe's data center campuses. This role is the finance owner for every site from initial acquisition or lease negotiation, ensuring each land or lease deal is financeable with corp dev, appropriately structured, and tracked against its underlying economics over time. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role suited to someone who can move fluidly between deal due diligence, financial modeling, negotiation support, and long-term asset tracking, in a company where land and power access are often the binding constraint on how fast infrastructure gets built. **What You'll Bring to the Team:** **Due Diligence** - Lead financial due diligence on prospective land acquisitions, ground leases, and site control agreements — evaluating cost basis, tax implications, entitlement risk, and site-level economics. - Partner with Legal, Real Estate, and Power teams to assess title, easements, zoning, utility access, and environmental factors that affect deal viability and financing. - Build site-level financial models (acquisition cost, ground lease economics, property tax, incentive/abatement value) to support go/no-go TCO investment decisions. - Partner with Real Estate, Legal, HR and others on our international strategy. **Commercial Structure Support** - Advise on and help negotiate land purchase agreements, ground leases, option agreements, and related real estate instruments, ensuring terms align with Crusoe's financing strategy and return requirements. - Structure deals to optimize for financeability — working with capital markets/project finance teams on how land ownership vs. lease structures affect debt sizing, credit packages, and investor requirements. - Support negotiation of economic development incentives, tax abatements, and PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreements with local and state governments. **Lifecycle & Asset Management** - Own ongoing financial tracking of each land/real estate asset across its lifecycle — from acquisition through construction, operations, and any eventual disposition or refinancing. - Maintain a portfolio-level view of land and lease obligations (payment schedules, escalators, renewal options, purchase options) and ensure accurate reflection in forecasts and reporting. - Partner with Accounting on proper treatment of land, leases (ASC 842), and related capital costs. **Cross-Functional Partnership** - Serve as the finance point of contact for Real Estate, Development, Power, Legal, and Project Finance teams on all land- and lease-related matters. - Provide financial analysis and materials for board, investor, and lender due diligence related to real estate holdings and site pipeline. - Build scalable processes and tools as Crusoe's land portfolio grows across multiple simultaneous campus developments. **What We're Looking For:** - 8+ years of experience in real estate finance, land acquisition, project finance, or corporate development, ideally within data centers, energy, industrial, or infrastructure sectors. - Demonstrated experience leading financial due diligence on land or real estate transactions, including modeling acquisition and lease economics. - Working knowledge of ground leases, purchase options, easements, and real estate/economic development incentive structures (tax abatements, PILOTs). - Understanding of how real estate/land structures interact with project financing (debt sizing, financeability, credit requirements) — ability to partner effectively with capital markets and structured finance teams. - Strong financial modeling and analytical skills; comfort building models from scratch under time pressure. - Experience managing a portfolio of assets over a multi-year lifecycle, not just single-transaction execution. - Excellent cross-functional collaboration and negotiation skills; able to work directly with Legal, Development, and external counterparties (landowners, utilities, municipalities). - Bachelor's degree required; MBA, JD, or equivalent a plus. **Benefits:** - Competitive compensation and equity packages - Restricted Stock Units - Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs - Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance - Employer contributions to HSA account - Paid parental leave - Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability - Professional development & tuition reimbursement - Mental health & wellness support - Commuter benefits (parking & transit) - Cell phone stipend - 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary - Volunteer time off - Global travel insurance & emergency assistance - Daily meals allowance - Additional perks & programs specific to location **Compensation Range** Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $235,000-$275,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicant's knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data. Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.