Business Development Manager / Country Manager

Business Development Manager / Country Manager At Verda, we're building a full-stack AI cloud, covering everything from data centers and hardware to our own cloud platform that the world's leading AI teams use to do serious AI work. We strive to make a positive mark on the world through the infrastructure we build and give leading teams a service they can truly depend on. Headquartered in Helsinki, we operate globally with offices in London and San Francisco. Join Verda while it’s still being built - not once it’s finished. Why Verda Cash and equity compensation along with various fringe benefits (healthcare, lunch, wellbeing, and more). Profitable operations with rapid, sustained growth. 30+ nationalities, with 6 different ones on the management team. A real chance to make an impact and work alongside world class engineers, researchers, and partners across the global AI ecosystem. Practicalities Work mode: Hybrid, based in Sweden, with regular travel to sites and to Helsinki Level: Senior Employment type: Full time and permanent About the role As Business Development Manager / Country Manager you own Verda's expansion into Sweden end to end: finding and securing colocation and data center capacity, structuring the commercial and legal terms behind it, and making sure each project lands on time, on budget, and operationally ready. You sit at the intersection of legal, finance, procurement, construction, and operations, and you are the person leadership looks to for the status and the decision. This is a ground floor role: you are not executing someone else's playbook, you are writing it. As Verda's Swedish footprint matures, the role is built to grow into full country level ownership. Your responsibilities Own Verda's Swedish expansion pipeline, from colocation and site identification through due diligence, selection, and operational handover Structure, negotiate, and close leases, partnership agreements, and vendor contracts with local and regional counterparties Build the investment case and financial model for each expansion project together with Finance, and defend it to senior leadership Manage relationships with local authorities, utilities, grid and power providers, landlords, and external legal counsel Drive cross-functional workstreams across legal, procurement, construction, and operations so projects hit schedule and budget Run the governance framework for active projects: milestones, risks, spend, and clear reporting into the COO org Act as the primary point of contact for all Sweden based commercial and operational matters as the business scales Your key competencies You are a commercially sharp infrastructure operator who is comfortable owning a market alone, moving without a template, and being accountable for the outcome rather than the process. 8+ years in infrastructure, real estate, energy, telecoms, or construction, with direct experience delivering complex capital projects Proven track record structuring, negotiating, and closing commercial contracts and leases with multiple stakeholders Strong financial literacy: able to build and challenge investment cases, models, and business plans Working knowledge of the Swedish legal, regulatory, permitting, and real estate environment Comfortable making decisions independently in a fast moving, scaling environment Fluent Swedish and English, spoken and written Comfortable working across time zones with remote international teams Nice to have Data center or hyperscale colocation experience, including power and connectivity negotiation Experience opening a new market or entity for an international company Existing network among Swedish landlords, developers, utilities, or municipalities What's next We're building fast and this role needs the right person behind it. There's no artificial deadline, but when we find who we're looking for, we move. If this sounds like your next move, apply now. Please submit your application through our Careers page. We don't accept applications sent by email. Department Data Center Construction Locations Sweden Remote status Hybrid About Verda Verda (formerly DataCrunch) is a technology company building the next generation of cloud infrastructure for AI – compute that's instant, on-demand and at scale. Headquartered in Helsinki, the company operates globally across Europe, the US and Asia. Verda employs over 100 people from nearly 30 nationalities and has raised over $200M in total funding from investors including Lifeline Ventures, byFounders, J12 Ventures, Skaala, Varma and Tesi, alongside leading financial institutions.