Global Economic Incentives & Site Selection Manager at Vertiv, Westerville, OH

Global Economic Incentives & Site Selection Manager at Vertiv in Westerville, OH. Est. up to $130k. Apply with swipeandhired.

Position Summary

The Global Economic Incentives & Site Selection Manager serves as Vertiv’s global center of expertise for strategic site selection and economic development incentives.

The role partners with Real Estate, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Tax, HR, Engineering, Legal, Government Affairs, and business leadership to evaluate locations for new manufacturing, engineering, distribution, office, and other strategic facilities and to identify, negotiate, secure, and administer economic incentives associated with Vertiv’s capital investment and job creation.

The position is expected to independently lead complex site-selection and incentive initiatives from initial business requirements through market evaluation, financial analysis, negotiations, approvals, commitments, and transition to implementation.

The role is entrusted to provide objective, data-driven recommendations that balance real estate economics, labor availability, infrastructure, utilities, logistics, customer proximity, incentives, taxes, operating costs, regulatory considerations, execution risk, and long-term strategic value.

Success is measured not simply by the amount of incentives secured, but by the quality of the underlying location decision and the long-term value delivered to Vertiv.

Key Responsibilities Global Site Selection Strategy

• Lead site-selection strategy for significant new facilities, relocations, expansions, consolidations, and other strategic location decisions.

• Partner with business and Operations leaders to translate operating requirements into objective site-selection criteria.

• Develop structured market-screening and site-selection methodologies tailored to the requirements of each project.

• Evaluate countries, states, provinces, regions, metropolitan areas, and individual sites using quantitative and qualitative criteria.

• Establish weighted decision matrices and scoring models to support objective comparisons.

• Ensure site-selection recommendations consider both near-term project requirements and Vertiv’s long-term operating strategy.

• Challenge preferred locations or assumptions where data indicates alternative locations may create greater enterprise value.

• Maintain independence and objectivity throughout the site-selection process.

Market & Location Analysis

• Evaluate potential markets based on labor availability/skills/wages, real estate availability/cost, utilities, transportation/logistics, supply chain, customer/supplier proximity, taxes/regulatory environment, economic incentives, construction/development conditions, environmental/entitlement considerations, community/governmental support, continuity/resilience, and political/economic/execution risk.

• Coordinate collection and validation of market data from internal and external sources.

• Develop comparative location analyses and clear executive recommendations.

• Identify key sensitivities and risks that could materially affect the location decision.

Economic Incentives Strategy

• Lead Vertiv’s global strategy for identifying and pursuing economic development incentives.

• Evaluate incentive opportunities associated with capital investment, job creation, payroll, R&D, training, infrastructure, energy, sustainability, and other qualifying activities.

• Identify potential programs at national, federal, state/provincial, regional, and local levels.

• Develop project-specific incentive strategies that maximize value while maintaining appropriate flexibility for the business.

• Assess whether potential incentive value justifies associated commitments, compliance requirements, restrictions, and administrative burden.

• Ensure incentives are treated as one component of the overall location decision rather than the sole driver.

Incentive Negotiation & Execution

• Lead or coordinate negotiations with economic development organizations, governmental authorities, utilities, and other public-sector stakeholders.

• Develop negotiation strategies designed to maximize economic value while minimizing restrictive commitments and compliance risk.

• Negotiate incentive packages involving grants, tax credits, abatements, exemptions, infrastructure support, workforce programs, utility incentives, training programs, and other forms of assistance.

• Partner with Legal, Tax, Finance, HR, and Operations to ensure proposed commitments are achievable and appropriately documented.

• Review incentive agreements and term sheets to confirm financial value, performance obligations, clawbacks, reporting requirements, timing, and other material provisions.

• Maintain clear documentation of negotiated commitments and approvals.

Financial Analysis & Business Cases

• Develop comprehensive financial analyses comparing alternative locations.

• Quantify total location economics including real estate, construction/capital, labor, taxes, utilities, logistics, incentives, operating costs, transition costs, and other material location-specific expenses.

• Evaluate incentives on both gross and risk-adjusted bases and incorporate timing of incentive realization.

• Model potential clawback exposure and compliance sensitivities where appropriate.

• Perform NPV, cash-flow, payback, and sensitivity analyses to support investment decisions.

• Clearly distinguish recurring operating advantages from one-time incentive benefits.

• Partner with Finance and Tax to validate assumptions and methodologies.

• Develop executive-level business cases and decision materials.

Incentive Compliance & Realization Governance

• Establish processes to ensure incentives secured by Vertiv are appropriately transitioned to responsible implementation and compliance teams.

• Maintain visibility to key incentive commitments, milestones, reporting requirements, and expiration dates.

• Coordinate with Finance, Tax, HR, Operations, and other stakeholders responsible for documenting capital investment, employment, payroll, training, or other performance requirements.

• Monitor achievement against key commitments and identify potential compliance risks early.

• Support remediation or renegotiation when business conditions materially change.

• Track incentive realization versus original negotiated value.

• Ensure documentation is maintained to support audits, certifications, and governmental reporting.

External Advisor & Consultant Management

• Determine when specialist site-selection, incentive, tax, labor, legal, engineering, or economic-development advisors are required.

• Develop scopes of work and support selection of external consultants.

• Direct and challenge third-party advisors rather than outsourcing ownership of Vertiv’s decision-making.

• Validate external analyses, assumptions, incentive estimates, and recommendations.

• Ensure advisors provide transparent, objective, and commercially sound advice.

• Evaluate consultant performance based on quality, responsiveness, cost, and results.

Economic Development & Government Relationships

• Develop productive relationships with economic development organizations and governmental authorities in priority markets.

• Represent Vertiv professionally in discussions involving potential investment, employment, and community impact.

• Coordinate with Government Affairs, Legal, and other internal stakeholders where engagement involves public-policy or governmental considerations.

• Maintain confidentiality around prospective investments and location decisions.

• Support executive engagement with governmental or economic-development leaders when appropriate.

Cross-Functional Project Leadership

• Serve as the central coordinator for site-selection and incentive workstreams.

• Establish clear evaluation criteria, schedules, decision points, responsibilities, and governance.

• Coordinate stakeholders across Real Estate, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Tax, Treasury, HR, Engineering, Capital Projects, EHS, Security, Legal, Government Affairs, Procurement, and IT.

• Ensure appropriate due diligence is completed before site commitments are made.

• Identify and escalate issues that could affect project economics, timing, operational viability, or incentive realization.

• Support transition from site-selection decision to transaction, design, construction, and operational implementation.

Global Governance & Center of Excellence

• Develop and maintain Vertiv’s global site-selection and incentive methodologies, templates, evaluation tools, and governance processes.

• Establish consistent standards for evaluating markets and incentive opportunities.

• Maintain a pipeline of active and prospective site-selection and incentive initiatives.

• Develop reporting that provides leadership visibility to potential and realized incentive value.

• Capture lessons learned from completed projects and apply them to future decisions.

• Maintain awareness of changes in economic development programs and incentive trends in key markets.

• Support regional Real Estate teams with specialized site-selection and incentive expertise.

• Build internal capability so major location decisions are based on consistent, rigorous analysis.

Key Stakeholders

• VP, Global Real Estate & Facilities

• Regional Real Estate & Facilities Leaders

• Real Estate Transaction Managers

• Operations and Manufacturing Leadership

• Supply Chain

• Finance

• Tax

• Treasury

• HR

• Engineering / ER&D

• Capital Projects

• Legal

• Government Affairs

• EHS

• Security

• Procurement

• IT

• Regional and Site Leadership

• Economic development organizations

• Government agencies

• Utilities

• External site-selection, tax, incentive, legal, and economic-development advisors

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate, Finance, Economics, Business, Accounting, Public Policy, Engineering, or a related field.

• Approximately 8–12+ years of experience in corporate real estate, site selection, economic development incentives, location strategy, tax incentives, consulting, or a related discipline.

• Demonstrated experience leading complex site-selection projects.

• Demonstrated experience identifying, negotiating, or administering economic development incentives.

• Strong financial and analytical skills, including NPV, cash-flow, scenario, and sensitivity analysis.

• Ability to evaluate complex quantitative and qualitative location factors and translate findings into executive recommendations.

• Strong understanding of capital investment and job-creation incentive structures.

• Demonstrated commercial judgment and negotiation capability.

• Experience working across multiple functions including Finance, Tax, Operations, HR, Legal, and Real Estate.

• Ability to independently lead complex projects involving significant capital investment and sensitive business decisions.

• Strong executive-level written and verbal communication skills.

• Advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint capability.

• Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects across geographies and time zones.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within a multinational corporate occupier, manufacturing company, or global advisory firm.

• Experience supporting large manufacturing, distribution, engineering, R&D, or mission-critical investments.

• Experience with U.S. federal, state, and local incentives and international economic-development programs.

• Experience with grants, tax credits, abatements, training incentives, infrastructure incentives, utility incentives, and other public-sector support mechanisms.

• Familiarity with labor analytics, logistics modeling, utility evaluation, and site-development considerations.

• Experience managing major site-selection and incentive consultants.

• Experience with greenfield and brownfield manufacturing projects.

• Familiarity with economic incentive compliance and clawback provisions.

• Professional designation such as CCIM, SIOR, MCR, CEcD, or equivalent is beneficial but not required.

Core Competencies

• Strategic thinking

• Financial acumen

• Data-driven decision making

• Commercial judgment

• Negotiation

• Site-selection expertise

• Economic incentives expertise

• Executive communication

• Business partnership

• Influencing without authority

• Project leadership

• Cross-functional collaboration

• Managing complexity and ambiguity

• Risk assessment

• External stakeholder management

• Accountability and ownership

• Confidentiality and judgment

• Bias for action

Measures of Success

• Quality and objectivity of site-selection recommendations.

• Total enterprise value created through location decisions.

• Incentive value secured relative to project investment and job creation.

• Percentage of negotiated incentive value ultimately realized.

• Effectiveness in minimizing incentive clawback and compliance risk.

• Accuracy and quality of location and financial analyses.

• Successful completion of site-selection decisions within required business timelines.

• Quality of executive business cases and recommendations.

• Effectiveness of cross-functional project leadership.

• Strength and consistency of global site-selection methodology.

• Effectiveness of external advisors and consultants.

• Successful transition of incentive commitments into ongoing compliance processes.

• Stakeholder satisfaction with site-selection and incentive support.