Community Engagement Manager, Data Centers (Virginia & West Virginia)
Friendly · Friendly US (Travel Required) · USD 265,000-295,000 / year · 7+ years experience · Remote · Posted Oct 15, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 7+ years experience
- Workplace
- Remote
- Location
- Friendly · Friendly US (Travel Required)
- Salary
- USD 265,000-295,000 / year · Base salary
- Visa sponsorship
- Visa sponsorship available
About Anthropic
- Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.
About the role
- Anthropic is seeking a Community Engagement Manager in Virginia and West Virginia to serve as the on-the-ground presence in communities where data centers are sited, built, and operated.
- This is a relationship-focused role within the Public Policy team to make Anthropic a trusted, visible, and valued neighbor from site selection through long-term operations.
Responsibilities
- Build and maintain trusted, sustained relationships with Virginia boards of supervisors, city and town councils, and planning commissions, West Virginia county commissions and municipal officials, state economic development agencies, community groups, civic leaders, educational institutions, and workforce partners in the Virginia and West Virginia data center markets you cover
- Develop and execute a community engagement strategy for each of your markets, spanning site selection, pre-development, construction, and ongoing operations
- Build external coalitions, host education and listening sessions, and design local solutions that deliver real benefits to the communities where we operate
- Represent Anthropic in public forums, town halls, planning hearings, community events, and local media
- Monitor community sentiment and local political dynamics, and advise internal teams on risks, opportunities, and the right pace and posture for engagement, including in markets where data center development is already well established and community questions about its cumulative effects are active
- Partner with the Real Estate and Infrastructure team to bring community input into how projects are planned, communicated, and delivered, not just how they are announced
- Work with the Communications team to develop proactive, locally relevant messaging
- Coordinate charitable giving, community investment, and economic development commitments in your markets, including managing nonprofit partner relationships
- Partner with the Energy and Sustainability team to explain our approach to environmental stewardship and respond to questions about power, water, noise, transmission, and land use
- Build a community engagement playbook and repeatable processes that scale as Anthropic's infrastructure footprint grows
Requirements
- Experience in community affairs, public affairs, economic development, government relations, local or state government, or a closely related field
- Direct experience working for or engaging with local governments and a broad set of community stakeholders on behalf of large infrastructure, construction, energy, or technology projects, with a working understanding of how local politics and community dynamics actually play out
- A skilled relationship and coalition builder who earns trust with a diverse group of stakeholders, and who maintains relationships through difficult conversations
- The ability to represent a company credibly in public settings, including town halls, hearings, and press interviews
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to turn a complex operational plan into plain language that a local official or reporter can understand and respond to
- The ability to work independently, get up to speed quickly on complex policy issues, and manage multiple concurrent engagements across different markets without losing track of any of them
- Based in Virginia or West Virginia or willing to relocate to one of them, and prepared to travel regularly across both states
- Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience
- A field of study relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience
Preferred qualifications
- 7+ years of experience in community engagement specifically on data center, utility, energy, or large-scale industrial infrastructure projects, or in local government
- Familiarity with land use, zoning, and permitting processes at the county and municipal level, including rezoning and special use permit hearings in Virginia
- Experience with community concerns around data center siting, such as noise, transmission lines, water, and proximity to residential areas
- Experience managing corporate social responsibility programs
- Established relationships with economic development, workforce, or civic organizations in the markets this role covers, including in Appalachian and energy-transition communities
- Experience working with real estate, legal, communications, and policy teams at the same time
- A genuine interest in the communities where you work, not just the projects you are managing
Benefits
- Competitive compensation and benefits
- Optional equity donation matching
- Generous vacation and parental leave
- Flexible working hours
Workplace
- Travel required up to 50% of the time within Virginia and West Virginia, and occasionally to other Anthropic data center markets
- Location-based hybrid policy expecting staff to be in an office at least 25% of the time, though some roles may require more time in offices
