Chief Business & Technology Officer

Chief Business & Technology Officer – Greenfield Hyperscale Data Centre

Role Overview

The Chief Business & Technology Officer holds full P&L, commercial, and technical accountability for establishing, commercializing, and scaling a greenfield hyperscale data centre platform. This executive role owns the complete asset lifecycle—from overarching investment strategy, capital structuring, land and utility acquisition, government engagement, and aggressive customer development through technical architecture, design governance, construction, commissioning, commercial ramp-up, and steady-state operations.

The incumbent will personally lead high-value strategic, capital, commercial, regulatory, and technology decisions while building high-performing functional teams and engaging specialist engineering, design, EPC, MEP, commissioning, and operating partners.

The leader will be accountable for creating a bankable, highly resilient, energy-efficient, and scalable campus capable of supporting major global hyperscalers, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), large enterprises, and high-density AI/GPU compute workloads.

Key Responsibilities

1. Business Strategy, P&L & Enterprise Governance

• Vision & P&L Leadership: Own the overall platform strategy, business plan, market positioning, P&L performance, cash flows, and long-term return-on-capital objectives.
• Commercial Model Optimization: Define the optimal business model and portfolio allocation across wholesale hyperscale capacity, build-to-suit (BTS) solutions, powered shell, enterprise colocation, and high-value managed services.
• Capital Allocation & Phasing: Prepare rigorous investment cases, secure board approvals, and determine campus scale, phase sequencing, and capital deployment to match demand and avoid speculative overbuilding.
• Governance & Risk Management: Establish board reporting, decision rights, risk controls, and operational governance across commercial, technical, financial, and legal functions.

2. Hyperscale Sales, Business Development & Commercial Engine

• Commercial Strategy & Go-To-Market (GTM): Build, direct, and scale the commercial organization responsible for revenue generation across hyperscalers, cloud service providers (CSPs), GCCs, global enterprises, and strategic tech clients.
• CXO Account Relationship Management: Personally cultivate and own executive CXO/SVP-level relationships with global hyperscale procurement heads, site-selection teams, and enterprise infrastructure leaders.
• Anchor Tenant & BTS Pursuits: Originate, pipeline-govern, and personally drive high-value deal pursuits for anchor tenants, multi-megawatt capacity reservations, and custom build-to-suit deployments.
• Contractual Negotiations & Structure: Lead end-to-end commercial deal structuring and contract negotiations, including detailed pricing models, Master Service Agreements (MSAs), Service Level Agreements (SLAs), capacity reservation deposits, and risk-allocation frameworks.
• Deal Sponsor & RFP Leadership: Serve as executive commercial and technical sponsor for key customer RFPs, bid defenses, technical due diligence reviews, site walkthroughs, and custom customer design workshops.
• Pipeline & Revenue Alignment: Ensure tight synchronization between contracted customer demand, available power capacity, construction delivery schedules, and revenue ramp-up schedules.

3. Capital Strategy, Financing & Development Economics

• Capital Raising & Structuring: Lead capital planning across promoter equity, project debt, private credit, infrastructure funds, joint ventures, and customer pre-commitments.
• Financial Modeling & Benchmarking: Own platform economics, cost-per-MW benchmarks, yield targets, cash-flow projections, and sensitivity analysis.
• Investor & Lender Engagement: Lead investment discussions with institutional investors, debt providers, equity partners, and anchor customers.
• Commercial Controls: Ensure disciplined procurement, commercial controls, change-order management, and lifecycle-cost optimization across development.

4. Site Selection, Land, Utilities & Regulatory Approvals

• Corridor Acquisition: Lead site selection and due diligence across the Vizag and Hyderabad corridors, evaluating land titles, power availability, water access, fibre diversity, and natural hazard risks.
• Critical Utility Sourcing: Secure high-voltage grid connections, transmission clearances, water rights, and carrier-neutral connectivity dependencies.
• Government Engagement: Drive central and state government relations to secure single-window clearances, power subsidies, tax incentives, and SEZ/non-SEZ operational benefits.

5. Technical Strategy & Executive Design Authority

• Design Basis: Establish and approve the technical design basis for the campus, covering MW capacity, rack density, redundancy, efficiency (PUE/WUE), security, and maintainability.
• Electrical & Mechanical Architecture: Oversee high-voltage utility intake, transformers, generators, switchgear, UPS systems, N+1/2N resilience topologies, cooling generation/distribution, and airflow containment.
• Industry Certifications: Drive facility design, construction, and operational audit pathways for Uptime Institute Tier standards, TIA-942, and ASHRAE guidance.
• Integrated Systems: Oversee implementation of DCIM, BMS, SCADA, physical security, carrier-neutral meet-me-rooms, and operational technology (OT).

6. AI/GPU & Future-Technology Readiness

• High-Density Compute Strategy: Formulate commercially justified roadmaps for high-density AI/GPU workloads and high-capacity compute racks.
• Cooling Evolution: Define migration pathways from conventional air cooling to rear-door heat exchangers, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and immersion cooling architectures.
• Infrastructure Adaptability: Future-proof floor loadings, cooling distribution units (CDUs), facility water loops, leak detection, and power distribution systems.

7. Energy Strategy, PPAs & Sustainability

• Power Sourcing & PPAs: Formulate energy procurement strategies using grid supply, open-access renewables, group-captive structures, and 24/7 green energy matching.
• Storage & Clean Tech: Evaluate business cases for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), microgrids, peak shaving, and advanced energy management systems.
• ESG & Environmental Excellence: Drive water-efficient cooling, Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD), waste-heat recovery, and certifications including LEED/IGBC and ISO 50001.

8. Construction, EPC & Commissioning Governance

• Vendor Selection: Lead evaluation and selection of design consultants, EPC/MEP contractors, commissioning agents, and major equipment OEMs.
• Project Delivery: Oversee master planning, FEED, detailed engineering, modular MW phasing, construction schedules, safety standards, and change controls.
• Commissioning & Handover: Own asset delivery through factory testing, site acceptance, load-bank testing, Integrated Systems Testing (IST), and customer acceptance.
• Operational Readiness: Establish SOPs, MOPs, EOPs, preventive maintenance, spare-parts logistics, and 24/7 critical facilities management systems.

Qualifications & Required Experience

Leadership & Track Record

• 20+ Years Experience: Extensive senior executive experience in data centre development, critical infrastructure, power/energy infrastructure, or telecom/tower networks.
• Executive Accountability: Proven background with P&L accountability, capital allocation, and board-level reporting as CEO, Business Head, Chief Development Officer, CTO, or Chief Engineering Officer.
• Greenfield Delivery: Demonstrated ownership of at least one greenfield data centre campus or mission-critical asset from land acquisition through construction, commissioning, customer onboarding, and operations.

Hyperscale Sales & BD Capabilities

• Hyperscale Deal Making: Proven track record in originating, negotiating, and closing large-scale data centre contracts with global hyperscalers, CSPs, and enterprise accounts.
• Commercial Pipeline Management: Direct experience building a sales organization, managing multi-year sales cycles, and managing capacity reservation pipelines.
• Contracting Expertise: Fluency in negotiating complex MSAs, SLAs, power pass-through pricing, and capacity reservation agreements.

Technical & Regional Expertise

• Technical Depth: Deep knowledge of data centre economics (Cost/MW, Pricing/kW, PUE, WUE), critical electrical/mechanical systems, and high-density liquid cooling pathways.
• Power Markets: Sound understanding of Indian power sector regulations, grid connections, open-access renewable policies, group-captive PPAs, and BESS applications.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Power, or related Engineering discipline. Master’s degree or MBA is highly advantageous.