Vice President, Commercial

Who we are:

Digital Edge is a trusted and forward-looking data center platform company, established to transform digital infrastructure in Asia. Backed by Stonepeak, a leading alternative investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real assets, Digital Edge has in excess of US$1 billion in committed capital.

Our mission is to bridge the digital divide across Asia Pacific by building the sustainable digital ecosystems of the future. Through building and operating state-of-the-art, energy efficient data centers rich with connectivity options, we bring new colocation and interconnect options to the Asian market, making digital infrastructure deployment in the region easy, efficient and economical.

Founded in 2020 the company has grown rapidly across multiple markets in the region, and currently provides data center and fiber services across China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.

This role is an exciting opportunity to join our fast growing team as we further expand our footprint across Asia.

Our values:

• Responsibility: We take ownership of our actions and outcomes.
• Innovation: We embrace change and create bold solutions.  
• Strive: We show grit, resilience and relentless drive.
• Excellence: We pursue the highest standards in all we do.   
• Respect: We act with integrity and treat others with dignity.

What we need:

We are seeking a VP, Commercial to lead commercial governance, cost certainty, and contractual risk management across Digital Edge’s end-to-end D&C portfolio (hyperscale, build-to-suit, and campus developments across Asia). This is a senior leadership role responsible for commercial strategy from early feasibility and design development through construction completion, close-out, and handover.

With procurement operations transitioning under Finance, the VP, Commercial will provide front-end commercial leadership, including commercial strategy, contract governance, and portfolio risk oversight, partnering closely with Finance-led Procurement, Engineering, Project Delivery, and Corporate Development to deliver robust commercial outcomes across all projects.

Key Responsibilities:

Commercial strategy & portfolio governance

• Own and continuously improve the commercial management framework across all D&C projects, including cost planning standards, contracting strategies (e.g., GMP, cost-plus, hybrid), and risk management policies.
• Lead commercial input into feasibility and early-stage development (e.g., RIBA/phase gates), ensuring investment cases, budgets, benchmarks, and cash-flow forecasts are aligned to business objectives and customer commitments.
• Establish portfolio-level governance forums, decision rights, and approval thresholds (e.g., contract award gates, change control authority, risk escalation cadence).

Contract management, change control & claims avoidance

• Provide executive oversight of end-to-end contract administration: pre-contract strategy, tender governance, negotiation support, execution readiness, and final account settlement.
• Oversee major EPC/D&B/framework agreements across regions, ensuring disciplined change-order management, claims prevention, dispute resolution strategy, and contractual compliance.
• Maintain a proactive portfolio view of commercial risk exposure and escalate issues with clear mitigation plans and quantified impacts.

Cost planning, forecasting & executive reporting

• Lead regional and portfolio-wide cost planning and benchmarking for major construction and MEP packages; drive standard cost structures and data definitions across countries.
• Own a standardized commercial reporting suite (portfolio dashboards) tracking CAPEX burn, forecast-to-complete, variance analysis, and milestone-based spend (e.g., S+X vs T+X).
• Support Finance on funding calls and cash-flow management by delivering accurate spend projections and scenario modelling.

Cross-functional leadership & external stakeholder management

• Partner with Finance-led Procurement to ensure sourcing strategies, commercial terms, and vendor selections meet D&C technical, schedule, and risk requirements.
• Work with Engineering, Project Directors, and Operations to validate design-to-budget alignment, drive value-for-money, and embed lessons learned into future contracting strategies.
• Interface with JV partners, lenders, and hyperscale customers on commercial governance, reporting, and contractual matters.

Team building, capability uplift & tools

• Build and lead a regional commercial organization (commercial managers, QS/cost planners, contract administrators, project controls), with clear career paths, training, and performance standards.
• Champion the use of commercial management tools, reporting automation, and data analytics to improve visibility, forecast accuracy, and decision velocity.

Success measures (examples)

• Portfolio forecast accuracy and cost certainty at key stage gates
• Change-order discipline (cycle time, value leakage, trends)
• Claims/disputes minimized, favourable commercial outcomes on settlements
• Standardized dashboards and governance adopted across all regions/projects
• Strong partnering satisfaction from Finance/Procurement, Engineering, Delivery, and Corp Dev

Actively champion and implement the organization’s policies on health & safety, environment, energy, quality, information security, and business continuity, ensuring adherence to incident reporting, legal, and regulatory requirements.

Candidate Profile:

• Bachelor’s degree in Quantity Surveying, Engineering, Construction Management, or related discipline.
• 15+ years of commercial management experience in data centres / mission-critical / major infrastructure projects, including 8+ years in senior regional leadership across multiple markets. (Adapted from Director baseline requirements.)
• Deep knowledge of contracting and commercial risk (e.g., FIDIC/major contract forms), cost control methodologies, change management, and dispute resolution.
• Proven ability to lead high-value contract portfolios across Asia and collaborate effectively with Finance-led procurement teams.
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, and negotiation skills; comfortable with lenders/JV partners and hyperscale customer interfaces.
• RICS / MRICS or equivalent preferred.