Senior Development Manager – Energy Investment Team – Octopus Australia

This is an opportunity to join the growing Octopus team, as we spread our tentacles across renewable energy investments throughout Australia and beyond. The successful applicant will be part of a dynamic and energetic team, currently developing a portfolio of renewable assets in Australia, with a broader horizon of expansion into Asia Pacific.

About Octopus

From a standing start in 2010 Octopus grew its energy business rapidly to become Europe’s largest non-utility renewable energy investor, including a global portfolio of solar, wind, biomass and waste to energy assets. Octopus now manages over 1GW of projects in the UK, France, Italy and Australia on behalf of its investors and has the equivalent of nearly AUD 7 billion under management in the Energy team. We also have one of the fastest growing energy retail businesses in the UK with over 3 million customers.

In January 2018 an office was opened in Melbourne to take advantage of a rapidly growing renewable energy investment market. We have invested in the 275MW Darlington Point Solar Farm in NSW and the 180MW Dulacca Wind Farm in QLD. We have a strong national pipeline of projects across wind, solar, battery storage and hydrogen opportunities.

We have a team of 31 across Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland.

About the Role

About the role

You will be leading the development of renewable projects, including solar, wind, battery storage projects and hydrogen opportunities that will need your stewardship through the development life cycle to financial close.

The role is based in Melbourne or Sydney – with site visits required periodically to: our development sites, stakeholders and communities. Our current portfolio consists of a mixture of greenfield through to late-stage assets, and we are currently growing the pipeline with a focus on wind developments

Just as important as what you achieve in this role, is how you perform the role. We’ll need you to be an engaged team member, who can cross pollenate your development expertise into an investment world. Be ready for a dynamic work environment, with a start-up mindset. You’ll be encouraged and supported to be bold in your thinking and leadership, whilst being a helpful colleague to those around you.

Flexible working arrangements are typical at Octopus with the team working from both home and office over the working week.

Essential Job Functions

Project Development

• Potentially anything that falls under the banner of Project Development from land owner liaison, development approvals, grid connection, EPC procurement, PPAs etc. Treat the projects as if they are your own.
• Assist the wider Investment Team through asset growth opportunities as required, including bringing your contributions and knowledge into project evaluations, acquisition bids, transaction and negotiation processes, due diligence work and supporting Investment Directors through internal approval processes.
• Provide leadership in developing sound relationships with relevant stakeholders including: landholders, community, Traditional Owners, regulators and policy makers.
• Manage project teams of multidisciplinary internal and external experts, including technical, planning, legal, grid, environmental and engineering advisors.
• Selecting advisors, consultants, OEMs and construction contractors (including EPC contractors), running procurement process and contract negotiations through to financial close.
• Take the lead role for negotiation of high value contracts including project construction (EPC etc), equipment supply and transmission connection agreements.
• Manage the grid connection process, working closely with NSPs and grid consultants, to navigate the complexity of the technical, regulatory and commercial connection landscape.
• Manage the delivery of development works within allocated budgets in a timely, efficient and effective manner.
• Development of project execution plans including timelines, costs, risk assessments, communication of project financials and progress reports in a consistent manner across the assigned projects.
• Development of required inputs for management papers, board papers and commercial negotiations as required.
• Prepare and manage budgets for Capex and Opex, project schedules, and technical inputs into financial models, supporting overall project business case development.
• Support our fundraising efforts, including meeting with prospective investors, promoting the Octopus profile, and supporting our fund managers with development expertise as required.
• Support ongoing profile raising activities – networking with industry participants and at times engaging with energy policymakers to influence energy policy.

Qualifications

Job Specific Experience/Technical Skills/Abilities

Outline of skills/experience required

• Eligibility to work in Australia – visa sponsorship is not offered.
• A relevant tertiary qualification, preferably in both technical and business-related fields.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in a similar position working in the renewable energy sector is preferred. Development experience within complex infrastructure projects including oil & gas, transmission, road, rail, pipelines will be well regarded.
• Exposure to development process from concept to final investment decision.
• Ability to engage at General Manager/Executive level with superior written and verbal communication.
• Candidates with an existing network of contacts within the Australian renewable energy industry will be highly regarded.

Core skills required:

• • Strong Project Management skills with a background with technical / engineering qualifications and experience. Demonstrated experience managing complex workloads in a fast paced and dynamic environment.
  • Applicants are expected to demonstrate awareness of how an investment business and a renewable energy business would operate.
  • Knowledge of Health, Safety and Environmental practices, legislation and requirements.  Liaising with relevant regulatory statutory bodies will be done in close cooperation with the Octopus Investments HSE Director.  
  • Contract and project management skills. The candidate must be highly organised, confident in negotiating large and complex contracts and able to handle relationships with external contracts effectively, sometimes in challenging circumstances.
  • Candidates must demonstrate a commercial mindset, and in particular be able to consider technical challenges in a broader commercial and investment context.
  • The role will not require detailed financial modelling skills but applicants are expected to have at least a basic understanding of key investment principles – rates of return, risk, IRR and NPV financial concepts and ideally some familiarity with financial models used for renewable energy investments.

What we offer

💰  A competitive salary, bonus, share incentive plan
✈️ Take what you need holiday
🏡 Flexible working 
⚓ Anchor (our wellness hub) which includes Headspace, one to one coaching through Sanctus, Parent Cloud, Digital GP, Shout & more
👪 Enhanced family leave policies
 

Our Values 

At Octopus we don’t just focus on what we do but also how we do it. Everyone shares our values of being straightforward, helpful and bold. 

We’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive employee experience for all. We promote equal opportunities for growth and development regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, or socio-economic background. We believe strongly that teams are at their best when every member of the team feels safe to bring their whole self to work.