Development Project Manager

ABOUT ZENOBE

Our goal is to make clean power accessible, to accelerate the shift to zero carbon power and transport.

We’re building and operating the world’s most sophisticated battery systems to enable the uptake of more renewable power and accelerating fleet electrification, de-risking the transition to zero-emission transport at scale. We’ve been consistently innovative since we were founded in 2017, achieving major industry firsts and using proprietary software and data analysis to optimise operational performance for our customers. At the end of their life, we repurpose electric vehicle batteries to provide clean power at depots, on construction sites and film sets.

Today we have 730 MW of grid scale battery storage operational and under construction and are the largest owner and operator of EV buses in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, supporting over 1,000 electric vehicles worldwide. In our first five years we have raised nearly £1.8 billion in funding and have expanded into other markets such as the US. Our rapidly growing company is looking for highly talented and motivated people to join us.

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are seeking an experienced Development Project Manager  to lead and oversee the development of battery storage construction projects with a focus on projects that have secured land, grid and planning and taking them through to financial investment decisions / financial close.

In this role, you will manage the entire project lifecycle, ensuring successful delivery while maintaining timelines, budgets, and quality standards. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, contractors, and stakeholders to drive the development of Zenobe’s BESS projects.

The candidate will bring a good understanding of grid, procurement, project management, due diligence, legal, external consultants, land and planning and have good engineering capability, while focusing on the commercial.

This is a hybrid working role, with flexibility to split your time between home working and our Head Office in London, with occasional site visits.

A TASTE OF THE DAY TO DAY

Project Development and Oversight:

• Take overall responsibility for projects post-concept phase through financial close, adhering to cost, time, and risk expectations.

• Lead the stage gate process, managing project handovers to delivery teams at financial close.

Risk Management:

• Proactively identify and resolve project risks, ensuring commercially viable and deliverable solutions that align with timelines.

Coordination across Teams:

• Collaborate with land, planning, and engineering teams to secure land agreements, planning permissions, and grid connections that best align with project needs.

• Manage a matrix-structured project team, assigning tasks, tracking progress, and fostering a collaborative team environment.

• Mitigate project risks by holding cross functional meetings to ensure the optimal solution is agreed and teams are informed.

Procurement Support:

• Partner with the procurement team on tender processes, including preparing ITT documentation, evaluating tenders, and negotiating contracts.

Project Management Tools:

• Maintain and update project management files, including budgets, programs, risk registers, and action logs.

Site and Stakeholder Engagement:

• Conduct site visits, meet with landowners, and participate in external meetings and community engagement events as needed.

• Work with procurement, business development, delivery, corporate finance, finance, PMO, project development, commercial and more/ Working with external consultants.

Techno-Economic and Financial Modelling:

• Understanding the business model and feeding into the financial model that is owned by business development.

Budget Management:

• Support the development of CAPEX budgets and oversee expenditure for development activities up to the final investment decision.

• Ensure sanctioned budget spend is tracked and prepare further budget requests as projects mature through development.

Due Diligence and Financing:

• Manage and lead the due diligence process to secure project financing, ensuring all documentation and actions are completed to the highest standard.

Reporting and Communication:

• Compile and present detailed reports to management and board-level committees, including investment committees.

Process Improvement:

• Continuously improve processes related to project development and management.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We realise that certain groups of people are less likely to apply for a role if they don’t meet 100% of the job requirements. To be absolutely clear: if you like the look of this job and think you could do it well, we encourage you to apply with a CV that highlights your transferable skills and experience. Above all, Zenobē is looking for collaborative, flexible, empathetic people who are interested in creating and promoting practical routes to a zero carbon world.

Essential skills:

• Experience managing and driving the delivery of the development on large-scale multi million GBP infrastructure projects.
• Strong analytical skills with a structured and proactive approach to working.
• A proven ability to balance conflicting requirements schedule, costs and technical matters. On an individual, departmental and team basis.
• Experience of managing projects through the construction and commissioning phases.
• Ability to persuade, challenge and build credibility at all levels across functions of the business.
• Project and proposal management.
• Project controls management including scheduling, cost control, risk management etc.
• Proficient working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel), MS project and an appreciation of Primavera P6.
• Strong planning, risk management and organisational skills, team player.
• Pragmatic, proactive and solution driven.
• Strong commercial skills – comfortable with legal contracts and project finance.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of presenting project updates.
• Strong stakeholder and contractor management skills.

Essential competencies:

• Knowledge of renewable energy project development activities.
• Solid work experience (minimum 5 years) in the energy sector preferably in energy storage or renewables sectors.
• Strong team-player with good interpersonal, Excellent communication skills, capable of presenting technical results and implications.
• Strong organisation skills, team player and good attention to detail.
• Solutions oriented who is not afraid to take responsibility and accountability.
• Ability to manage and motivate people.
• Desire to work in a fast moving, high pressure and entrepreneurial environment.
• UK Driving License

Desirable competencies:

• Previous working experience on battery energy storage systems.
• Engineering degree or similar.
• Project Management Qualification.

WORKING AT ZENOBE

We’re passionate about sustainability and are proud to offer Team Zenobē a pioneering and collaborative working environment. We encourage our people to take ownership of their career progression and celebrate those that can think outside the box.

If you’d like to join our community of likeminded people hit the apply button now, we’d love to hear from you!

WHAT WE OFFER

Charge your career at Zenobē and receive

• Up to 33% annual bonus for being awesome

• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays

• Private Medical Insurance

• £1,500 training budget per year, to ensure you grow as we do

• EV Salary Sacrifice Scheme

• Pension scheme, up to 8% matched contributions

• Enhanced parental leave

• Cash back health plan

• Plus more

Lots of our people work flexibly in many different ways, including part-time, flexitime and hybrid working. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want, but please talk to us about the flexibility you need and let’s see how we can make it work.

OUR APPROACH TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Our people are our strongest asset and the key determinant of our success, and we value a range of skillsets and perspectives. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. We work to provide equal opportunities and an inclusive work environment, where everyone is fairly treated in the application process and through their career at Zenobē. If there are any adjustments that would help improve your experience with Zenobē, please let us know when you apply.