senior director real estate manager London, England
Job description
Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company, operating 240+ data centers across the globe and providing interconnections to all the key clouds and networks. Businesses need one place to simplify and bring together fragmented, complex infrastructure that spans private and public cloud environments. Our global platform allows customers to place infrastructure wherever they need it and connect it to everything they need to succeed.
We are a fast-growing global company with 20 years of continuous growth. Through our innovative portfolio of high-performance products and services, we have created the largest, most active global ecosystem of 10,000+ companies, including 2,100 networks and 3,000+ cloud and IT service providers in 32 countries spanning six continents – and counting!
A leadership role at Equinix means you will drive and collaborate on work that impacts the world. We embrace diversity in thought and contribution and are committed to providing an equitable work environment. that is foundational to our core values as a company and is vital to our success.
Job Summary
We are more than legal professionals protecting Equinix’s interests. We are valued business partners, known as responsive, consistent and proactive. We take customer service seriously and strive for excellence in our execution. Equinix’s dynamic growth trajectory keeps us on our toes and constantly learning. Our strong relationships with our internal clients, fuelled by our solution-driven orientation and creative yet practical advice, bring us to the table early and often and lead to interesting and rewarding work in support of Equinix’s overall business objectives.
Our global Legal department may span four continents, but we are One Legal - a true team working together across borders in support of our shared strategic objectives. We work hard but take time to celebrate our accomplishments – both professional and personal, with a healthy dose of fun thrown in along the way. We look forward to coming to work every day to support Equinix and each other and highly value the “team first” culture we have created. We are proud that our collective effort has led to Equinix One Legal being named as one of the Top Innovative Law Departments in North America by the Financial Times.
This open role of Senior Director, Legal - Real Estate & Infrastructure, EMEA will be responsible for providing corporate real estate and construction law and related support for our business in more than 20 markets across the EMEA region. The EMEA Real Estate & Infrastructure team is dedicated to acquiring land and assisting in the development thereof with regional as well as global business support functions, in particular Corporate Development, Design & Construction, Procurement and Treasury functions.
Responsibilities
Responsible for all legal support for the delivery of inventory/capacity to support regional organic expansion plans
Lead and manage all real estate transaction activity (acquisitions, ground leases, commercial leases), and advisory and disputes (pre-litigation) work associated with the same
Lead and manage all design, construction and development contracting activity, and advisory and disputes (pre-litigation) work associated with the same
Coordinate with the Global Contracts team around the support for procuring long lead time equipment items forming part of overall expansion projects, in co-ordination with established global procurement policies and practices
Lead and manage legal support for power strategies in region, including support for power purchasing contracts, advising on renewable and sustainability issues, supporting complex power projects such as onsite power generation and building and operating sub-stations
Lead and manage legal support for permitting issues in relation to organic expansion projects
Lead and manage legal support for environmental issues (pollution, remediation arrangements, etc.) in relation to organic expansion projects
Lead and manage legal support on all real estate and construction and development transactional work in support of xScale JV business in the EMEA region, with a good knowledge of the issues that are critical to the xScale business such as securing best title requirements, managing construction and development activity sometimes already in flight with customer interest, etc., and liaise with the VP, Legal, xScale accordingly
Work closely with the Senior Director, Commercial Transactions, in region and his/her leadership team to ensure issues of joint interest around acquiring and selling inventory/capacity (e.g. term of leases, xScale customer lease-like terms, such as sub-ordination and non-disturbance issues) are understood and managed
Represent One Legal on the regional investment committee, handling any legal and related queries as part of the review and approval of new organic expansions
Own stakeholder relationships with the regional heads of each of Corporate Development and in particular Real Estate, Design & Construction in EMEA and also MD’s and Commercial Finance teams as far as it relates to metro strategies in region
Manage team of 4/5 people directly to support the work outlined above
Build and maintain a network of external counsel relationships across the region with the necessary expertise and knowledge of Equinix to ensure excellent, timely and cost effective external legal support, and manage budgeted spend accordingly
Qualifications
Degree qualification, with solid post qualification and proven years of experience preferred in corporate real estate law or related areas from a middle or top tier law firm and/or a large multi-national organization is essential
Experience working in an in-house legal role in a dynamic business environment is strongly preferred
Experience of leading a team and proven strong people management skills required
Strong communication and relationship-building skills, and experience (internal or external) working with other business focused personnel is essential
Strong attention to detail
Strong ability to organise and prioritise tasks and workload, and good administrative skills. Ability to work with tight deadlines
Strong ability to take a pragmatic and commercial approach. Ability to multi-task and work with limited supervision
General working knowledge of financial spreadsheets, accounting rules (revenue recognition etc.) is desirable
Good presentation skills
General working knowledge of databases, e.g. Access databases etc. IT proficient in relation to all MS Word packages
Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability. If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.
Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law.
