Director, Powered Land Development
Position Summary:
The Director, Powered Land Development is responsible for building Redwood Materials' powered land development function from the ground up: sourcing, evaluating, and advancing sites for Redwood Energy's solar and storage deployments. This role will focus on site selection, permitting and entitlements, local stakeholder and community engagement, and in some cases, interconnection and utility queue management. The role independently screens and diligences a wide range of prospective sites across target markets, negotiates site control with landowners and land agents, and builds the financial models, tracking tools, and repeatable processes needed to convert land opportunities into bankable, executable projects. Success depends on sound judgment operating with substantial ambiguity, comfort representing Redwood with landowners, counsel, and local officials, and the ability to build and lead the powered land development function while partnering closely with Engineering, Finance, and Legal.
Responsibilities
Source, screen, and evaluate prospective sites for Redwood Energy's solar and storage deployments across target markets, including land use, zoning, and site-level fatal-flaw analysis
Lead entitlement and permitting strategy, engaging local, county, and state officials, community stakeholders, and land agents to advance project feasibility
Support government affairs and community relations efforts tied to prospective sites
Negotiate and secure site control (leases, easements, options, and related agreements) with landowners and land agents
Represent Redwood with landowners, brokers, customers, and state and local officials throughout the site-selection process, including leading and negotiating agreements for local economic development, tax, and community agreements
Develop and own financial and valuation models to evaluate site economics, development costs, and project returns
Build and maintain tracking tools for land inventory, pipeline status, budgets, and schedules across active development sites
Manage site-identification tasks against budgets and schedules, including coordinating internal and external technical support such as environmental consultants, engineers, and outside legal counsel
Maintain disciplined pipeline tracking and reporting to keep leadership informed of site status, risk, and timeline
Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities
Bachelor's degree in real estate development, engineering, business, planning, or a related field
10+ years of experience in energy project development, real estate development, or land acquisition, ideally including utility-scale solar, storage, or data center site development
Demonstrated experience navigating local and county-level permitting, zoning, and entitlement processes
Track record independently sourcing and negotiating site control agreements with landowners and land agents
Working knowledge of financial and valuation modeling to evaluate project economics
Experience engaging and building relationships with local government officials and community stakeholders
Ability to independently build processes and tools for a function with limited existing infrastructure
Ability to travel extensively to support site visits, diligence, and stakeholder engagement across target markets