Director, Public Affairs

• Job Category Legal, Risk, Sustainability & Compliance
• Job Schedule Full time

Position Title:Director, State and Local Public Affairs, Central Region

Location:Austin, TX

About the Role

As Director, State and Local Public Affairs for the Central Region, in partnership with external consultants, you will lead Digital Realty’s government and community relations strategy across key markets, including Texas and Illinois.

You will represent Digital Realty at the local, city, and state levels, managing relationships with elected officials, government agencies, community organizations, trade associations and business leaders. Your work will be critical in advancing the company’s public policy objectives, facilitating new development, and ensuring that Digital Realty is recognized as a responsible, engaged corporate partner.

This role combines strategic government affairs leadership with community engagement and reputation management. You will develop and implement advocacy strategies that support data center growth and infrastructure expansion while ensuring Digital Realty remains a partner in the communities where Digital Realty operates.

Working closely with internal partners across development, sustainability, energy, operations, communications, and legal, you will ensure policy, community, and business objectives are fully aligned throughout the Central Region.

What you will do

• Lead Digital Realty’s public affairs and community relations strategy across the Central Region (Texas and Illinois).
• Build and maintain strong relationships with local, city, and state government officials, regulatory agencies, and community stakeholders.
• Develop and execute advocacy and engagement strategies that support business objectives and long-term growth.
• Serve as the company’s representative in public hearings, community meetings, and with industry and business organizations.
• Collaborate on land use, zoning, permitting, and development efforts, engaging with government and community leaders to facilitate project success.
• Partner with the communications team to manage media relations and strengthen Digital Realty’s brand and reputation in local markets.
• Manage local sponsor ships and community partnerships, ensuring alignment with company values and regional priorities.
• Monitor legislative, regulatory, and political developments and provide strategic insights to company leadership.
• Build coalitions and work with industry associations on policies related to energy, tax, infrastructure, and technology.
• Ability to travel 35% as needed across the Central Region.

What you will need

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of experience working within government, corporate public affairs or public policy organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with or within state and local governments, particularly involving real estate, tax, economic development, data centers, information technology, critical infrastructure or energy policy.
• Knowledge of land acquisition, zoning laws, permitting, energy, electricity, utility policy and real estate development are a strong plus.
• Experience in campaign strategy or political communications, including stakeholder engagement and grassroots organizing.
• Experience in media relations, including proactive communications and issue management.
• Experience managing local sponsor ships and community partnerships to support corporate reputation and engagement.

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. Platform

DIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents.

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