Project Development Associate

Job Description

Matrix Renewables is a renewable energy platform that was founded by global alternative asset manager TPG through its impact investing platform, TPG Rise, in 2020. Headquartered in Madrid, Matrix Renewables focuses on developing, constructing and being long-term owners of renewable energy assets.

Matrix Renewables’ current portfolio is comprised of 15.7 GW (operational, under construction, ready to build, under development) of renewable energy projects and storage across North America, Europe and Latin America.

TPG impact-investing platform is a $27 billion impact investing platform focused on investing in and supporting the growth of world-class businesses that deliver positive and measurable social and environmental impact globally.

TPG is a leading global alternative asset investment firm with offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, and Washington D.C. TPG’s investment platforms span a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, growth equity, impact investing, infrastructure, growth venture, real estate, secondaries, and public equity.

The Role

At Matrix Renewables we are looking for a highly motivated individual to play a key role managing our Project Development in Italy. Based in Rome and on extraordinary basis it might be considered the possibility to work remotely, the Development Associate will be in charge to manage directly the origination and the development of Matrix’s projects in Italy, and mainly in the Regions assigned to him, reporting to Matrix Development Manager in Italy. This is primarily a project level role. During origination and development phase, the candidate will collaborate with in-house Matrix and external teams to ensure that projects obtain all the permits, authorizations, and licenses necessary to reach Ready to Build (“RTB”) status, on time. Part of the role will also be to manage timing between project RTB and PPAs from Matrix’s assets.

The Candidate should use his experience and intelligence to identify risks, to assess the quality of work done by advisors, consultants and engineering service providers, to handle project development aspects of projects managed directly, and to guide Matrix in understanding the risks that these projects face along the different development stages.

The candidate should be mature and confident enough to be able to represent Matrix’s interests with the local teams and stakeholders under a proactive approach, able to handle sometimes difficult or complex situations. The Candidate should have a good network of connections with the relevant stakeholders in the industry. The candidate must be familiar with the relevant and critical aspects of the origination and development of renewable energy projects, either Storage or Solar and with the applicable regulatory framework, including agrovoltaic considerations.

Key activities and responsibilities

• Management of the entire value chain of the permitting phase, following the filling of the documents and the obtainment of the permits.
• Project scheduling management through activities definition, sequencing, resources, and duration estimation.
• Support in structuring all agro-photovoltaic technical and administrative conditions till RtB.
• Control of fulfilment of Matrix standards and applicable regulatory requirements of project design, engineering, etc under permitting phase
• Liaise with engineering team to obtain required inputs to speed-up the permitting process/acceptance of new opportunities.
• Support on the Due Diligences and active red flag solving in order to close and acquire efficiently the projects when reaching RTB, leading the development/administrative side.
• Assure closings are done & executed on time.
• Lead and ensure a suitable handover of Projects RtB to Operations to accelerate NTP obtainment.
• Budgeting and funding management in Matrix reporting tool. Delivery and control of the budget committed at project level. The candidate shall be entitled to control the funding activities and budgeting to follow what is stipulated in the contracts, having also control on the Matrix “money at risk” exposure per developer.
• Assist the finance, engineering, EPC & accounting teams, to prepare BD inputs, information for RfPs, etc.
• Support in the implementation of ESG Company policy at local level in compliance with modern standards, regulations, and best industry practice. Flag to HQ any ESG issues as soon as possible, gather information related to them and where instructed interact with stakeholders if appropriate.
• Ensure the highest compliance about anticorruption practices along the relationship with all the stakeholders.

General Skills / Attributes

• Master’s degree in engineering preferably and alternatively can be considered law or business.
• At least 3 years of energy industry experience in a project development, project administration, project management, deal execution, project finance or other commercial role
• Full understanding of the development for solar projects and BESS in Italy
• Experience dealing with developers, utilities, distributors and generators.
• Good industry contacts with developers, distribution companies and large generators
• It will be valuable to have general construction knowledge/experience.
• Able to perform at a high level in a matrixed organization, working in interdepartmental teams to achieve objectives.
• Solid communication skills: capability to perform presentations, establish technical discussions in different cultural environments.
• Fluent in English & Italian. Spanish will be much appreciated.
• Ability to travel through Italy & Spain to meet stakeholders around Matrix projects.