As the Associate Director of Development-Canada, you will lead projects and provide leadership to a team of developers who are driving the creation of Scout’s Canadian-based renewable energy projects. With a focus on early- and mid-stage development phases, you will help guide the team’s identification of, development of strategy for, and delivery of the needed real estate, environmental, and permitting functions. You will be responsible for delivery of profitable projects that meet all project milestones.
You will contribute to setting our team’s strategic direction and then help lead your team’s execution of the resulting plan. You will mentor staff and who serve as the face of our portfolio of projects, both externally and internally. Direct management of external consultants and advisors supporting the development of the Scout Canadian pipeline. You will serve as a doer-manager, integrating hands-on project management roles with management and mentorship roles within your assigned team.
For the projects that you manage directly, you will
▪ Serve as project lead for discussions with landowners, negotiate site control agreements and secure planning / use permit approvals.
▪ Manage various studies and the outside consultants who lead them to meet project budget and schedule.
▪ Communicate effectively with stakeholders, including federal, state and local officials, project landowners, and surrounding community members.
▪ Drive complex negotiations and independently create solutions to project-specific challenges.
For projects led by your mentees, you will
▪ Ensure effective communication with stakeholders, including customers; landowners; and federal, provincial and local officials.
▪ Work with your team to obtain local, provincial, and/or federal permits.
▪ Shape your team’s positioning for and approach to complex negotiations that create solutions to project-specific challenges.
Typical issues include land agreements, road use agreements, crossing agreements, and various others.
▪ Standardize management of consultants and external parties to meet project budget and schedule.
You will be most successful in this role if you have the ability to get into the details of the team’s work in real time. You will provide directional feedback and develop content yourself. Understanding the longer term impacts of certain approaches and decisions will help you guide the team’s work and professional development. In all cases, you will make sound decisions under challenging circumstances using available data and your experience.
Internally, you will collaborate with other Scout staff to align the Development team’s operations to
▪ Facilitate the engagement of internal new projects, interconnection, origination, procurement, construction, legal, and finance teams.
▪ Integrate the feedback of Scout team members into your project approach to achieve superior results.
▪ Establish team and project goals and objectives in line with the overall business plans and objectives.
▪ Implement long-term company strategy and initiatives as related to the development of renewable energy projects.
▪ Create control and influence over the costs, terms, and schedules of key project milestones.
▪ Efficiently and effectively manage multiple projects in parallel.
▪ Support and help guide the work and professional development of more junior team members.
Requirements
▪ A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college program.
▪ 7+ years of renewable energy development experience.
▪ Experience working in IESO, BC Hydro, AESO and other Canadian power markets
▪ Considerable experience leading early- to late-stage development projects, including extensive knowledge around real estate, interconnection, permitting, and environmental studies.
▪ Leadership of growing teams, demonstrating team member development and achievement of financial and other operational goals.
▪ Strong understanding of the relationships within a project schedule in order to prioritize teams’ resource allocation.
▪ Prior experience with or interest in expanding to development of utility-scale wind, solar and/or storage projects.
▪ Solid knowledge and understanding of key value drivers for renewable power projects.
▪ Demonstrated ability to work in a flat organization, successfully leveraging the expertise of multiple colleagues in different lines of reporting.
▪ Strong communication, project management and team-building skills experience working with cross- functional internal and external technical advisors and stakeholders.
▪ Ability to multi-task and arbitrate between conflicting priorities with clear target setting and follow- through capability in a fast-paced work environment.
▪ Proficiency with Microsoft Office and geospatial environments (ArcGIS, Google Earth, etc.)
▪ Willing and available to travel as needed.
▪ Legally authorized to work in Canada without visa sponsorship.