--- title: 'Legal Counsel, Real Estate Leasing & Transactions at Crusoe' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/legal-counsel-real-estate-leasing-transactions-crusoe-san-francisco-b5a79r4mmwgp' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-11' --- # Legal Counsel, Real Estate Leasing & Transactions at Crusoe - **Company:** [Crusoe](https://feeny.ai/companies/crusoe) - **Location:** San Francisco, CA / United States - **Compensation:** $218k–$273k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-04-01 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Crusoe/4973f211-8285-4b5c-97b5-90e56b8c07a3/application **Skills:** Real estate acquisitions, Project finance, Power procurement, Construction financing, Loan due diligence, Contract drafting, Negotiation, Synthetic lease structures, Tax-equity financing, Digital infrastructure law, AI cloud scaling law > The Legal Counsel will lead contract drafting, negotiation, and execution for real estate acquisitions, joint ventures, and complex project finance transactions. This role supports large-scale data center development projects by managing synthetic leases, financing, and customer agreements while collaborating with c... ## Job description Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster. We're in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We're solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI. We're looking for problem-solving, opportunity-finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services. If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high-performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe. ## About This Role The Legal Counsel, Real Estate Leasing & Transactions will play a key role in supporting the company's large-scale real estate leasing and development programs. Reporting directly to the General Counsel, Real Estate, you will lead contract drafting, negotiation, and execution for hyperscaler and colocation leasing agreements, ground lease agreements, and complex data center occupancy agreements. In this high-impact position, you will work closely with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure timely and strategic legal support across all of Crusoe's data center leasing and development projects. This role is ideal for a candidate who can navigate the technicalities of a complex ground lease as easily as the operational needs of a data center occupancy agreement. This role is based in San Francisco, CA, and requires being in-office 5 days/week. (#INDCORP) ## What You'll Be Working On - Leasing Transactions: Own the full lifecycle of leasing transactions — from initial Letters of Intent (LOIs) through negotiation, execution, and post-closing administration — across ground leases, build-to-suit leases, colocation agreements, and data center occupancy agreements. - Customer & Tenant Agreements: Draft, negotiate, and execute customer leases, tenant agreements, and specialized data center service agreements tailored to Crusoe's operational and commercial requirements. - Real Estate Transactions: Support the review, negotiation, and execution of real estate agreements including site selection, Purchase and Sale Agreements (PSAs), options, and easements in support of Crusoe's expanding footprint. - Lease Due Diligence: Conduct and coordinate legal due diligence on leasehold interests, title matters, and landlord/tenant obligations across Crusoe's portfolio of data center sites. - Structured Leasing: Advise on and support complex lease structures including synthetic leases, sale-leaseback transactions, and ground lease financings in coordination with the finance and tax teams. - Portfolio Management: Develop and maintain a suite of standardized lease templates, forms, and playbooks to streamline negotiations and ensure consistency across Crusoe's growing real estate portfolio. - Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Power Engineering, Construction, Finance, and Tax to align leasing strategy with site development timelines, power procurement needs, and financial objectives. - Stakeholder Advisory: Present complex leasing and real estate concepts clearly and effectively to non-legal stakeholders during meetings and in written reports. ## What You'll Bring to the Team - Education: Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school. - Licensure: Active bar admission in any state. - Experience: 5–7 years of experience focused on commercial real estate leasing, with meaningful exposure to ground leases, build-to-suit transactions, and complex occupancy agreements. Experience in data centers or large-scale industrial development is strongly preferred. - Leasing Expertise: Deep knowledge of landlord/tenant law, leasehold financing, and the negotiation of complex lease terms including rent structures, tenant improvement allowances, assignment and subletting provisions, and termination rights. - Technical Skills: Excellent negotiation and drafting skills with a proven ability to manage high-volume, high-stakes leasing environments. - Problem Solving: Strong judgment and analytical abilities with a "self-starter" mentality and the ability to manage multiple active transactions simultaneously. - Sector Expertise: Experience with data center leasing, colocation agreements, or large-scale industrial or technology-driven real estate is strongly preferred. Bonus Points - Experience with synthetic lease structures, sale-leaseback transactions, or ground lease financings. - Previous experience at a law firm or in-house team specializing in commercial real estate leasing or data center transactions. - Familiarity with the legal nuances of digital infrastructure, hyperscale development, or AI cloud scaling. Benefits: - Competitive compensation and equity packages - Restricted Stock Units - Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs - Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance - Employer contributions to HSA account - Paid parental leave - Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability - Professional development & tuition reimbursement - Mental health & wellness support - Commuter benefits (parking & transit) - Cell phone stipend - 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary - Volunteer time off - Global travel insurance & emergency assistance - Daily meals allowance - Additional perks & programs specific to location ## Compensation Range Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $280,000 -$320,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicants knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data. (#INDCORP) Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation. ## About Crusoe ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Crusoe is an energy-first AI infrastructure company that designs, builds, and operates hyperscale data centers and a cloud platform purpose-built for artificial intelligence workloads. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series E) - **Headquarters**: Denver, Colorado, USA - **Founded**: 2018 - **Founders**: Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: AI Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Data Centers, Clean Energy - Target customers: Enterprise AI companies, AI-native startups, research institutions, government agencies (B2B) - **Mission**: "Accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence." ## Products & Services - **Crusoe Cloud**: An AI-optimized cloud platform purpose-built for AI workloads, featuring high-performance NVIDIA and AMD compute, accelerated storage, and optimized RDMA networking. Claims to deploy models up to 20x faster and cut costs by up to 81%. - **Crusoe Managed Inference**: A managed AI inference service built with Crusoe's proprietary MemoryAlloy technology, offering best-in-class speed, throughput, and reliability. Features the Crusoe Intelligence Foundry for model selection and API key management. - **AI Data Center Infrastructure**: Vertically integrated design, build, and operation of hyperscale AI factories (e.g., the 1.2 GW Stargate campus in Abilene, TX). Modular, scalable construction for power-hungry AI workloads. - **Crusoe Managed Kubernetes & Slurm**: Managed orchestration services that eliminate operational overhead for customers. - **Crusoe AutoClusters**: Fault-tolerant, managed cluster services for large-scale AI training. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company). - **Key Metric**: Raised over $1.8B+ in total funding (Series E in 2024 was $1B+; Series D in 2024 was $600M; Series C in 2021 was $350M). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: NVIDIA, NYDIG, GE Vernova, Redwood Materials, Tallgrass, AMD. The company has also partnered with leading energy and technology firms to power its data centers. - **Growth Signals**: Divested bitcoin mining business to NYDIG in 2023 to focus exclusively on AI infrastructure; broke ground on the 1.2 GW Stargate campus in Abilene, TX; expanded into Europe with a geothermal/hydro-powered deployment in Iceland; announced 1.8 GW Wyoming data center with Tallgrass; acquired GPU memory optimization startup Atero and established a Tel Aviv office. ## Competitive Advantages - **Energy-First Approach**: The company’s core differentiator is its vertical integration starting from energy sourcing. It uses "environmentally aligned power sources" (wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, natural gas with carbon capture) to power its AI factories, including pioneering technology to convert wasted natural gas into energy. - **Vertical Integration**: Controls the entire stack—from finding innovative energy sources to building and managing hyperscale data centers and operating the cloud platform. - **NVIDIA Partnership**: Close partnership with NVIDIA, providing access to the latest and highest-performance GPU hardware for its cloud and infrastructure. - **Proven Performance**: Claims 99.98% uptime, 100% customer satisfaction score, and significant cost/performance advantages (up to 81% cost reduction). ## Strategic Focus - **Massive Infrastructure Expansion**: Aggressively scaling its data center footprint, with major projects in Abilene, Texas (Stargate) and Wyoming (Tallgrass), and expansion into Europe. - **Deepening AI Cloud**: Continuing to build out its Crusoe Cloud platform with managed services (Kubernetes, Slurm, AutoClusters) to make it easier for AI companies to use their infrastructure. - **Responsible AI**: Emphasizing sustainability and responsible AI governance, as evidenced by achieving ISO 42001 certification and publishing an ESG report. - **Acquisition-led Growth**: Acquired Atero (GPU memory optimization) to enhance its core technology stack. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-Driven**: The company is united by a tangible mission: "Accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence." Employees report high levels of engagement (92% proud to work there per internal survey). - **Massive Growth Trajectory**: Crusoe is at the center of the AI infrastructure boom, building some of the world's most powerful AI factories. For job seekers, this means exposure to cutting-edge technology and the opportunity to scale a company from a startup to an industry leader. - **Culture**: The company values "moving fast and making things," continuous learning, and collective genius. It describes itself as an "AI factory company" that values velocity and impact. - **Work Policy**: Hybrid/Office presence required in most roles. Office locations include: Denver (HQ), San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Bellevue, Tulsa, Dublin (Ireland), and Tel Aviv (Israel). - **Benefits**: Competitive compensation & equity, comprehensive health & wellness, mental health resources, retirement plans, paid time off, leave of absence programs, learning & development, volunteer time off, daily meals allowance, and other location-specific perks. - **Engineering Culture**: Strong emphasis on technical excellence, working with large-scale systems, and pioneering new approaches to energy and infrastructure. The company values candidates' "AI fluency" in its hiring process. ## Sources 1. [crusoe.ai](https://www.crusoe.ai/) 2. [crusoe.ai/careers](https://www.crusoe.ai/about/careers) 3. [crusoe.ai/about/culture](https://www.crusoe.ai/about/careers/culture) 4. [crusoe.ai/about/company](https://www.crusoe.ai/about/company) ## Other roles at Crusoe - [Vice President, Information Technology](https://feeny.ai/job/vice-president-information-technology-crusoe-san-francisco-f3vrrtk5yffx) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Associate Construction Engineer - Power Infrastructure](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-construction-engineer-power-infrastructure-crusoe-denver-t7twn5hnxss8) — Denver, CO / United States - [Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-data-platform-crusoe-san-francisco-exbgj0xgczrk) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Head of Internal Audit](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-internal-audit-crusoe-san-francisco-1xcybe9drby4) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Vice President, Product Management, Managed AI](https://feeny.ai/job/vice-president-product-management-managed-ai-crusoe-san-francisco-cz9enxmhbgpk) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Logistics and Inventory Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/logistics-and-inventory-manager-crusoe-reykjanesbaer-91vdr925h1m4) — Reykjanesbaer, Iceland - [Senior Facilities Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-facilities-engineer-crusoe-sparks-hvr5yw0t8n6a) — Sparks, NV / United States - [Learning & Development Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/learning-development-specialist-crusoe-brighton-xa5tf3zx69r7) — Brighton, CO / United States - [Senior Analyst, Business Health Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-analyst-business-health-finance-crusoe-bellevue-je6bkyv3n58p) — Bellevue, WA / United States - [Quality Manager - Manufacturing](https://feeny.ai/job/quality-manager-manufacturing-crusoe-brighton-89d7tkz350zy) — Brighton, CO / United States