Job Description 

Project Development Managers play a unique and critical role at Earthrise.  They are the Company’s most knowledgeable team members about a complex project’s total value, and their ultimate responsibility is to create and then defend that value from initial investment to construction start, when a formal handoff happens.  In practice, this entails owning and shepherding a project from inception through the start of construction. The Project Development Manager will coordinate closely with, and often direct members of, the Land Acquisition, Community Engagement, Origination, Finance and Delivery teams; external consultants; and local stakeholders in the communities where the projects are located. This role will report to the Director of Development and have a dedicated direct report. The ideal candidate has 5-10 years of experience developing utility scale renewable energy projects and a demonstrated track record of successfully navigating every milestone of the development process, from early stage to NTP.

Responsibilities

• Lead project development to construction start, owning project schedule, cost and revenue, and actively calculating and managing tradeoffs among these three components to preserve total value
• Drive and direct a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders (including senior leaders), and lead the project Steering Committee, to identify and address risks and make key decisions to ensure each project stays on timeline
• Set objectives for land acquisition campaigns, coordinating with the Land Acquisition Team to build and execute campaigns to secure land for the solar array and easements on the timeline necessary for the project
• Lead site diligence and coordinate preparation of early designs, working with the Environmental Director to hire and manage vendors to survey the site, prepare reports and apply for and receive regulatory approvals
• Execute plan for municipal, county and/or state zoning, coordinating with Earthrise’s Director of Community Engagement; represent Earthrise in meetings and hearings with community members and local government officials
• Oversee title curative processes including negotiation of crossing agreements to ensure that title insurance can be secured prior to Financial Closing
• Support the Finance Team in reaching Financial Closing, coordinating support teams to secure closing checklist items and keeping the financial closing timeline on track
• Support interconnection applications and studies led by internal engineering specialists to support project timeline
• Support Origination with creating the offtake strategy for each project and identifying any other opportunities for value creation
• Support the Delivery Team after handoff, contributing to Steering Committee calls to ensure project makes progress towards COD

Qualifications & Skills

• At least 5 year’s experience leading development of utility-scale solar projects, preferably in Illinois and/or the Midwest
• Ownership mentality: willingness to drive decision making, push for follow-through, own impacts and trade-offs
• Critical thinking skills and eagerness to solve complex problems
• Strong grasp of real estate contract terms and conditions and ability to quickly extract key provisions from land agreements and legal documents
• Familiarity with project financing process, comfort with budget calculations and impact
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work closely with and orchestrate a diverse range of stakeholders, including senior leaders
• Public speaking skills
• Experience managing others
• Strong organizational, project management and problem-solving skills and the ability to structure work to meet project schedules and deadlines
• Ability to travel 25-50% of the time