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Salary: USD 242,500 - 320,000 / annual
Redwood Materials, founded in 2017 by JB Straubel (Tesla co-founder and former CTO), is the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America and has deployed the largest second-life battery project in the world. The company is profitable and operates in a market projected to grow 20–50x over the next decade.
The Director, Powered Land Development will build Redwood Materials' powered land development function from the ground up, responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and advancing sites for Redwood Energy's solar and storage deployments. This is a foundational role that will establish processes, tools, and team infrastructure for a critical business function.
Key responsibilities include:
- Source, screen, and evaluate prospective sites for solar and storage deployments across target markets, including land use, zoning, and fatal-flaw analysis
- Lead entitlement and permitting strategy, engaging local, county, and state officials, community stakeholders, and land agents
- 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/local officials; lead negotiations 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, coordinating internal and external technical support (environmental consultants, engineers, outside counsel)
- Maintain disciplined pipeline tracking and reporting to leadership on site status, risk, and timeline
The role requires sound judgment operating with substantial ambiguity, comfort representing Redwood with diverse stakeholders, and the ability to build and lead the powered land development function while partnering closely with Engineering, Finance, and Legal.
Requirements:
- 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
