BESS Development Manager

BESS Development Manager

DESCRIPTION OF SUNSTRONG MANAGEMENT

SunStrong Management is a leading independent asset management and servicing platform specializing in residential and commercial solar energy portfolios. SunStrong provides end-to-end services including operations and maintenance, customer billing and support, asset performance management, and investor reporting. The company partners with leading capital providers to optimize clean energy assets at scale, supporting the growth of distributed renewable energy while delivering reliable performance and exceptional customer experience

POSITION OVERVIEW
The BESS Development Manager originates and advances GoodFinch’s battery storage pipeline, both standalone projects and storage co-located with or retrofitted to existing solar assets, from site screening through ready-to-build and handoff to Project Delivery. The role owns the interconnection, permitting, land, and commercial workstreams that determine whether a project is financeable and buildable, and the pipeline governance that decides which projects proceed. It works with utilities and ISOs/RTOs, AHJs, landowners, offtakers, OEMs, and Finance, Legal, and Tax.
SunStrong Management operates GoodFinch assets for decades, so operability decisions made at origination (technology platform, site layout, monitoring architecture, service coverage) cost nothing at that stage and cost a mobilization after energization.
The distinguishing expectation is willingness to stop a project. A project advanced on optimistic interconnection cost, an unvalidated revenue assumption, or an unresolved permitting risk does not improve in construction; it becomes a worse project with a contractor on site. The role keeps stage-gate criteria, sourced and dated assumptions, and a record of why each project was advanced or stopped.
The BESS Development Manager recommends and prepares. Investment approval and execution of binding agreements sit with VP, Commercial Operations / GoodFinch per delegated authority. The role does not direct construction; after handoff the Project Delivery owns delivery, and the Manager stays accountable for development-origin obligations (interconnection milestones, permit conditions, land commitments) until closure is documented.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Pipeline Origination & Site Strategy

• Screen the GF-owned and SSM managed solar fleet for storage opportunities — co-location, retrofit, and adjacent land — and evaluate standalone sites against market, interconnection, and land criteria.
• Build and maintain the BESS pipeline with defined stage-gate criteria and documented advance or stop decisions. Report pipeline status and attrition, including the reasons projects stopped.
• Analyze target markets — capacity and resource adequacy constructs, ancillary services, energy arbitrage spreads, and regulatory trajectory — to identify where storage revenue is durable rather than temporary.
• Evaluate existing-site constraints early — point of interconnection capacity, existing interconnection and PPA terms, lease and easement provisions, and lender or tax equity consent — and treat each as a gate rather than an assumption.

Interconnection & Permitting

• Own interconnection strategy and applications — queue position, study process, surplus interconnection service and material modification pathways for adding storage to existing generating facilities, and upgrade cost allocation.
• Review study results and cost estimates independently with engineering support; challenge assumptions and update project economics as results arrive.
• Manage interconnection agreements through execution and track milestones, deposits, and security postings as dated obligations.
• Own the permitting path — land use approvals, conditional use permits, building and fire code review, environmental and stormwater requirements — and sequence it against interconnection and procurement milestones.
• Lead engagement with AHJs, fire authorities, and local officials on BESS safety design, emergency response planning, and decommissioning commitments; lead community engagement on projects that draw public opposition.
• Track permit conditions as obligations and transmit them to Project Delivery at handoff.

Commercial Structuring & Offtake

• Structure and negotiate revenue arrangements with support from GF — tolling agreements, resource adequacy and capacity contracts, merchant and hybrid structures, and amendments to existing PPAs or host agreements to add storage.
• Negotiate land agreements — options, leases, easements, and amendments — with access, assignability, and decommissioning provisions suited to a thirty-year asset as required.
• Abstract every executed development agreement into the standard term register and log exposures where terms fall short of the SSM standard — assignment, termination, curtailment, performance guarantee, and consent requirements.
• Evaluate structural and tax implications before committing scope — tax credit eligibility, including domestic content and foreign-entity sourcing restrictions; recapture exposure on retrofit of existing assets; trade-policy and supply chain exposure; and lender and tax equity consent thresholds — in coordination with Tax, Legal, and Finance.

Technology & Procurement Strategy

• Define the technology basis for each project with the GF, BESS/PV Engineer, Project Delivery and Portfolio Management — chemistry, block architecture, AC or DC coupling, duration, and platform — against the SSM fleet standard by creating and approved vendor list including technology.
• Run equipment and integrator selection — RFI, shortlist, and bid leveling — evaluating supplier financial strength, warranty and degradation guarantees, service coverage, and long-term parts and software support, not only price per kWh.
• Structure long-lead equipment reservations and supply terms so that capital at risk before financial close is explicit and bounded.
• Bring operability input into site and technology decisions at origination — O&M access, monitoring and data architecture, spares, and field service coverage — in partnership with Field Service.

Financial Modeling & Investment Approval

• Build and maintain project pro formas — revenue stack, degradation and augmentation, round-trip efficiency, availability, capex, opex and warranty cost, tax, and financing — with every assumption sourced and dated.
• Run sensitivity and downside cases on the assumptions that actually drive returns — interconnection cost, capacity price, degradation, and availability — and state which assumption would have to fail for the project to miss its hurdle.
• Prepare investment memos and approval packages with a recommendation and a risk position, not a summary of attractions.
• Own the development budget and track at-risk spend against stage-gates. No spend ahead of the gate that justifies it.
• Support lender, tax equity, and equity partner diligence — data rooms, technical and market advisor coordination, and condition precedent tracking.

Handoff to Project Delivery

• Prepare the development handoff package against the standard defined in SSM— design basis, interconnection agreement and obligations, permit conditions, land documents, executed commercial agreements, technology basis, budget, and open risks.
• Hand off each project with its open items documented and owned. An undisclosed open item is a defect in the package.
• Brief Project Delivery, Engineering, Commercial Operations and Asset Management on the commercial and permitting commitments that constrain construction scope and schedule.
• Remain accountable for development-origin obligations after handoff until closure is documented.
• Participate in lessons-learned reviews and route findings back into site criteria, stage-gate standards, and counterparty selection.