Director of Land Acquisition

Job Title: Director of Land Acquisition
Reporting To: SVP of Construction
Level: Salaried
Location: Field-based, with extensive travel to target markets
Schedule: Mon - Friday, with travel on short notice, or as per manager's discretion and business needs.

SCOPE

Target Hospitality is seeking a seasoned, entrepreneurial Director of Land Acquisition to build and execute the company’s land banking and strategic land positioning strategy in support of AI infrastructure, power generation, and data center development. This role sources, evaluates, and secures land in rural and remote markets — frequently where ownership is fragmented, sparsely recorded, or opaque — and converts raw ground into controlled, entitled, buildable positions ahead of announced demand.

This is a field-based role for someone who operates with fervor and urgency. Sites are identified, walked, and tied up on compressed timelines, often ahead of a client’s formal site selection process. The successful candidate will travel extensively and on short notice, work to deadlines driven by client award schedules and utility interconnection queues, and make sound judgment calls with incomplete information.

The ideal candidate is a career land professional with deep title, leasehold, and surface experience, an instinct for off‑market assembly, and enough civil and construction fluency to know what a parcel can realistically support before an engineer confirms it.

WHO WE ARE

Target Hospitality is a leading provider of specialty rental and hospitality services, delivering turnkey workforce housing, culinary, and facility management solutions to remote and challenging environments across North America. We take pride in building not just accommodations, but communities — and that same commitment to people extends to our own team.

We believe that a great guest experience starts with a great employee experience, and we invest in the people who make that happen every day.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Land Sourcing and Strategic Positioning

• Safety — Accountable and responsible for maintaining a safety culture, following all SOPs, JSAs, and policies and procedures as set out by Target Hospitality.
• Off‑market sourcing — Identify, approach, and secure control of parcels ahead of the market, working directly with landowners, ranchers, family trusts, estates, and heirs in markets with no MLS presence and little to no commercial broker coverage.
• Strategic land banking — Build and manage a rolling inventory of optioned and owned positions aligned to announced and anticipated AI infrastructure, power generation, transmission, and data center build-outs.
• Ownership research — Resolve fragmented, unrecorded, heirship, and severed surface and mineral estates; run chain of title, work appraisal district and courthouse records, and establish who actually controls the ground.
• Market intelligence — Track transmission capacity, substation and interconnection queues, water availability, fiber routes, and announced projects to position the company ahead of demand.
• Local network — Build durable relationships with county officials, appraisal districts, abstractors, title companies, surveyors, utility planners, and landowning families across target counties.

Site Assessment, Due Diligence, and Constructability

• Site suitability screening — Evaluate topography, drainage, soils, access, and constructability constraints against both horizontal scope (earthwork, pads, roads, utility corridors) and vertical scope (foundations, modular set, building envelope).
• Infrastructure diligence — Assess water availability and water rights, wastewater and disposal options, power service and interconnection capacity, and telecom, and identify which constraint governs the site.
• Environmental and regulatory review — Manage Phase I and Phase II ESAs, wetlands and waters delineations, threatened and endangered species review, cultural resources, and floodplain constraints.
• Title and survey — Order and review title commitments, exceptions, easements, rights‑of‑way, encroachments, and ALTA surveys; drive curative work to clear defects and confirm legal and physical access.
• Entitlements, zoning, and planning — Secure conditional and special use permits, variances, rezonings, plats, and development permits; own the hearing calendar and build the administrative record.

Negotiation and Transaction Execution

• Deal structuring — Negotiate letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, options, rights of first refusal, surface use agreements, ground leases, and easement and right‑of‑way agreements.
• Multi‑party negotiation — Lead negotiations across landowners, co‑tenants, lessees, adjacent operators, and mineral owners where the surface and mineral estates are severed.
• Underwriting support — Build acquisition budgets and land basis assumptions, and support project pro formas, DCF, and ROIC analysis with defensible land cost and carry inputs.
• Closing and position control — Manage escrow, curative, funding, and recording through close, and maintain a current register of all owned, optioned, and leased ground.

Community and Stakeholder Engagement

• Local relationships — Represent the company with county commissioners, planning and zoning boards, groundwater conservation districts, school districts, and landowner groups.
• Public hearings — Present at public meetings and build local support in advance of entitlement decisions.
• Coordination — Work with Community and External Affairs to align messaging, community benefit, and local hiring commitments with the land strategy.

Executive and Cross‑Functional Partnership

• Internal partnership — Partner with Commercial, Development, Construction, Legal, Finance, and Operations to move controlled positions into execution without loss of information.
• Executive presentations — Present land investment packages, position summaries, and capital requests to executive leadership and the Board.
• Additional duties — Additional duties may be assigned by a manager.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Urgency and drive — Operates with fervor and a bias to action, and is comfortable dropping the plan to be on a site tomorrow when a position is at risk.
• Hunter mentality — Cold‑calls landowners, knocks on doors, works the courthouse, and uncovers ownership and inventory that no database will show.
• Master negotiator — Navigates complex, multi‑party negotiations and aligns landowner expectations with corporate requirements and timelines.
• Judgment under pressure — Makes sound, defensible calls with incomplete information on compressed timelines, and knows which unknowns are fatal and which are manageable.
• Credible in both rooms — Equally at ease at a kitchen table on a working ranch and presenting a capital request to the executive committee.
• Discretion — Handles confidential site strategy, client requirements, and pre‑announcement positions without leakage into local markets.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Ability to walk raw, undeveloped ground in all conditions and terrain, including uneven, rocky, brushy, and unimproved surfaces.
• Extended periods of driving, including long‑distance travel to remote sites and multi‑day field trips.
• Extended periods of sitting and computer use when performing research, underwriting, documentation, and reporting.
• Short‑and long‑distance walking required when conducting site walks and moving between parcels, offices, and public buildings.
• Use of stairs and step stools.
• Bending, reaching, and kneeling when inspecting site conditions, access points, and boundary markers.
• Occasionally lift an average weight of 25 lbs with a maximum of 50 lbs. Where weights may exceed 50 lbs, the assistance of another person or a lifting aid is mandatory.

WORKING CONDITIONS AND ENVIRONMENT

• Ability to hear and understand verbal instruction as well as other sounds such as safety alarms and signals.
• Must be able to see without impairment and able to read small text such as product warning labels.
• Exposure to extreme hot and cold environments, sun, wind, dust, and weather during site walks and field work.
• Exposure to livestock, wildlife, insects, and agricultural and industrial operations on working ground.
• Extensive travel, frequently on short notice and without advance planning, including remote sites and multi‑day field trips.
• Target markets are often remote, with limited amenities and services nearby.
• Work is driven by client award schedules, utility interconnection queues, and public hearing calendars, which may require work outside standard business hours.
• Ability to work safely and navigate within small, close quarters and congested areas.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience — Minimum 10 years of dedicated land experience, including land acquisition, land management, right‑of‑way, or oil and gas and energy land work. Career land professionals strongly preferred.
• Rural and remote markets — Demonstrated success in low‑population, low‑liquidity markets where ownership records are sparse or opaque, listings are nonexistent, and deals are made in person.
• Off‑market track record — Proven history of assembling land positions directly with landowners, without listings or broker representation.
• Land development and civil fluency — Working knowledge of site development, earthwork, and utility infrastructure, and of the legal aspects of land, including easements, access, setbacks, plats, deed restrictions, covenants, and severed estates.
• Entitlements — Hands‑on record securing zoning changes, conditional use permits, platting, and development permits at the county and municipal level.
• Technical skills — GIS and mapping platforms including ArcGIS, LandVision, and county GIS; title plant and courthouse research; and Excel‑based acquisition budgeting.
• Education — Bachelor’s degree preferred; equivalent land experience will be considered.
• Driving — Valid driver’s license required.
• Screening — Must be able to pass a background check, driver license check, and urinalysis.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• RPL or CPL certification through the AAPL, or an active real estate license. Not required for candidates with a strong land record.
• Experience supporting data center, power generation, transmission, renewables, midstream, mining, or other large industrial projects.
• Familiarity with groundwater conservation districts, water rights, and severed surface and mineral estates in target states.
• Prior experience assembling positions in advance of announced client demand or under confidentiality.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support you and your family — on the job and beyond:

• Health Coverage — Medical, vision, and dental insurance to keep you and your family covered.
• Flexible Spending — HSA and FSA options to help you save on healthcare costs.
• Employee Assistance Program — Confidential support for life’s everyday challenges, big and small.
• Pet Insurance — VPI pet insurance to help care for your four‑legged family members too.
• Retirement Savings — 401(k) plan with company match to help you plan for the future.
• Easy Enrollment — Online enrollment portal makes signing up for benefits fast and simple.
• Competitive Pay — Compensation that reflects your skills and hard work.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.