Senior Director of Development - West Coast

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Business Development:
• Identify acquisition and greenfield development opportunities for utility- scale solar and battery energy storage projects throughout North America;
• Perform detailed strategic and financial analyses, including company evaluations and financial feasibility studies of potential acquisition opportunities;
• Acquire and maintain information on market, industry, economic, consumer, and competitive conditions and trends;
• Engage in industry groups to identify new market solutions;
• Follow tariff rate structures and market changes to establish "deal" opportunities;
• Build and maintain liaison with external parties such as investment banks, trade and professional associations, consulting and research firms;
• Prepare acquisition/divestiture and other strategic transaction summaries and recommendations for Executive Management Team.
• Land and Real Estate: Manage all matters related to real estate from initial site control to issuance of the final title policy. This includes, but is not limited to:
• Obtain initial title commitments, perform all require title curative to achieve the proforma policy in a form acceptable to the financier;
• Manage title closing and issuance of the closing letter and final title policy with required endorsements;
• Manage all changes to the ALTA survey to provide a survey acceptable to the financier and the title company;
• Review and manage all lease agreements as well as any required amendments acceptable to the financing parties, including recoding the memorandums;
• Manage real estate land purchases and any sale lease backs;
• Obtain any needed easements in a form acceptable for financial close;
• Perform any subdivisions and or lot line adjustments needed for land acquisitions;
• Obtain any required crossing agreements such as, driveway, pipeline, transmission and distribution line, canal, DOT, communications, sewer and water, etc.;
• Manage key landowner relationships.


• Permitting: Acquire all permits needed to construct and operate utility scale solar and energy storage projects. This includes, but is not limited to:
• Obtain all local land use approvals from the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), such as Conditional Use Permits, Zoning Authorizations, Zoning Letters, etc.;
• Obtain required State siting and or facilities permits, such as Certificates of Public Necessity (CPCN), Electric Merchant Permits (EMP), Electrical Siting Permits, etc.;
• Hearing preparation and lead face for the project at all Local and State land use hearings;
• Receive all environmental clearances from Local, State, and Federal agencies as applicable, such as CEQA, NEPA, SEQR, etc.;
• Perform historic and cultural resource studies and obtain clearance from the State SHPO as required;
• Manage filings with the Federal Aviation Authority and any other effected airports;
• Evaluate and obtain any required threatened and endangered species initial screening, protocol surveys, and any required State or Federal take authorizations or permits. This includes consultations per Section 7 of the ESA, Section 10a Take Permits, or any State Take Authorization;
• Manage wetland surveys, filing of Preliminary and/or Approved Wetland Jurisdictional Determinations (PJD/AJD), and applying for and receiving approval of Preconstruction Notices (PCN) for issuance of the required Nationwide Wetland Permits. 


• Interconnection: Manage interconnection applications through the process until commercial operation. This includes, but is not limited to:
• Working knowledge of the ISO/RTO interconnection processes for filing interconnection applications including (CAISO, PJM, ERCOT, SPP, and MISO);
• Manage relationship with the utility and RTO/ISO from application to COD;
• Manage internal and external resources to provide engineering support for the process;
• Make all required security postings and payments in a timely manner;
• Review and solicit comments from consultants and internal team on the feasibility, system impact, and facilities studies;
• Negotiate all agreements needed to construct the facilities including Interconnection agreements, engineering and procurement, and construction agreements;


• Asset Divestment
• Manage flow of information between HQC US, project investor, and third-party financing representatives;
• Provide support for HQC US Structured Finance and Legal departments during project sale, debt and equity closings;
• Prepare projects for debt and equity finance or divestment by addressing low and medium finance risk items identified during acquisition process;
• Confirm that project land control documents, easements, right-of-way agreements, etc. meet minimum finance thresholds;
• Manage all matters related to real estate for the project closing.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in a business, urban planning, engineering, finance related fields
• 8+ years of renewable energy project development, working on behalf of the owner/developer
• A proven track record as a lead developer with a “deal sheet of projects” 50MW+ in size
• Solid understanding of energy markets and renewable energy development in North America
• Ability to communicate effectively with audiences that include but are not limited to management, coworkers, clients, vendors, contractors, and other stakeholders
• Superior preparation, presentation, time management & interpersonal skills
• Willing to travel up to 50% of the time within North America and internationally
• Represent the company with the utmost professionalism with internal and external communications
• A valid driving license and passport