Director of Project Development and Strategy, High Voltage

SOLV Energy is a leading provider of infrastructure services to the power industry, designing, building and maintaining utility scale solar, battery storage and high voltage substation projects nationwide.

Job Description

Summary:

The Director of Project Development and Strategy leads all preconstruction activities for SOLV Energy's High Voltage Infrastructure business unit, from early-stage opportunity identification through estimate finalization, proposal submission, and handoff to project execution. This role owns the accuracy, consistency, and competitiveness of HV bids and budgets — including transmission, substation, and switchyard scope — and works closely with Business Development, Engineering, Procurement, and Operations leadership to convert pipeline opportunities into well-scoped, biddable, and constructible projects.

The Director builds and standardizes preconstruction process across a growing HV portfolio, including the integration of recently acquired self-perform capability, and is a key contributor to win-strategy and pricing decisions presented to executive leadership.

This role is based full-time in our office in San Diego, CA. Specific location details and expectations will be discussed during the interview process.

Job Description:

• This job description reflects management's assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned

Position

Responsibilities and Duties:

• Lead the HV preconstruction team through all phases of estimating and proposal development — conceptual/budgetary pricing, competitive hard-bid estimates, negotiated pricing, and change order/scope development for existing projects.
• Own the preconstruction stage-gate process for the HV business unit, ensuring consistent scope definition, take-off methodology, risk review, and estimate quality across all opportunities and estimators.
• Partner with Business Development to evaluate incoming opportunities, support go/no-go decisions, and shape win strategy, pricing philosophy, and differentiation for client proposals and RFP responses.
• Direct quantity take-offs, unit pricing, and labor productivity assumptions for HV scope, including substations, switchyards, transmission lines, and BOP tie-in work, using both self-perform and subcontracted delivery models.
• Lead constructability reviews with Engineering and Operations to identify schedule, sequencing, and cost risk during design development, and to ensure estimates reflect buildable, field-validated approaches.
• Manage subcontractor and major equipment vendor bid solicitation, leveling, and qualification (transformers, switch gear, structures, conductor, and specialty subcontract scopes), working closely with Procurement and Supply Chain.
• Develop and present cost estimates, risk registers, and pricing recommendations to executive leadership and ownership (American Securities) as part of proposal and award approval processes.
• Ensure a clean, well-documented handoff of awarded projects from preconstruction to project execution teams, including budget basis of estimate, key assumptions, and identified risk/contingency items.
• Track win rates, estimate-to-actual performance, and productivity/pricing benchmarks across the HV portfolio; use this data to refine future estimating assumptions and unit costs.
• Standardize estimating tools, templates, and historical cost databases across HV, incorporating lessons learned from ongoing process improvement work and integration of Spartan Infrastructure and Roberson Waite Electric.
• Build and develop the preconstruction team's bench strength, including hiring, mentoring, and succession planning for estimators and preconstruction managers as the HV pipeline grows.
• Support long-lead item identification and early procurement (LNTP) coordination with Operations and Supply Chain to reduce transformer, switch gear, and structure lead-time schedule risk.

Minimum Skills or Experience Requirements:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in preconstruction, estimating, or engineering roles within high voltage transmission, substation, or heavy electrical/industrial construction; 3+ years in a preconstruction leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience leading competitive and negotiated pricing efforts for HV/substation EPC or self-perform projects, including hard-bid, design-build, and progressive design-build delivery models.
• Strong command of substation and transmission scope, major equipment (power transformers, GIS/AIS switch gear, structures, protection & control), and associated cost drivers.
• Experience building and leading an estimating team, including process standardization across multiple concurrent pursuits.
• Working knowledge of construction project controls, scheduling, and constructability principles, and how they inform estimate accuracy and risk.
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills, with experience presenting pricing and risk recommendations to senior leadership.
• Bachelor's degree in Construction Management,…