Director, Powered Land Development
Redwood Materials
$242,500 - $320,000 / year
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Description
About Redwood Materials
Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by JB Straubel, co-founder and former CTO of Tesla, on a simple but radical idea: the critical minerals powering the energy transition already exist. They just need to come back. Today Redwood is the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America — recovering, refining, and redeploying critical minerals from end-of-life batteries back into the supply chain. On the energy side, Redwood has deployed the largest second-life battery project in the world, delivering power to AI data centers in months rather than years using proprietary energy architecture engineered entirely in-house. The company is profitable, the market it operates in is projected to grow 20 to 50 times over the next decade, and Redwood is the only company with the supply chain, the technology, and the operational scale to lead it.
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
In accordance with California pay transparency laws, the salary range for this position is listed below. Actual compensation may vary based on a variety of factors, including experience, education, and skills.
The position is full-time. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.
We collect personal information (PI) from you in connection with your application for employment with Redwood Materials, including the following categories of PI: identifiers, personal records, professional or employment information, and inferences drawn from your PI. We collect your PI for our purposes, including performing services and operations related to your potential employment. If you have additional privacy-related questions, please contact us at privacy@redwoodmaterials.com.
About this role
Redwood Materials is building out a powered land development function from scratch, and this director role owns that entire operation. You'd be responsible for sourcing and evaluating sites across target markets for solar and storage deployments, managing the full pipeline from initial screening through permitting, community engagement, and site control negotiations with landowners. The work spans site selection and fatal-flaw analysis, entitlement strategy, financial modeling, and stakeholder representation—essentially converting raw land opportunities into bankable projects while coordinating with internal teams and external consultants.
This role demands 10+ years in energy project development, real estate development, or land acquisition, with proven experience in utility-scale solar, storage, or data center site work. You'll need demonstrated competency in local permitting and zoning processes, a track record of independently sourcing and negotiating site agreements, and the ability to build financial models and tracking systems for a function with limited existing infrastructure. Comfort with ambiguity, strong judgment, and the capacity to represent Redwood credibly with landowners, brokers, government officials, and community stakeholders are essential.
You should expect extensive travel to support site visits and stakeholder engagement. The role is based in San Francisco and full-time, with a salary range of $242,500 to $320,000. This is a ground-floor opportunity to build a critical function at a profitable company operating in a market projected to grow 20 to 50 times over the next decade.
How this employer is doing
average
- H1B: Sponsors Visas
- Layoffs in News
- Hiring Mentioned
- Recently Raised Funding
In the news
Minerals processing startup Valor hires former Redwood Materials VP of engineering, Mining Weekly
This role's local market on JobMinglr
Pay for this role
$242,500 to $320,000 per year
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