Director of Commercial

Director of Commercial

Reports to:

EVP |

Location:

Houston, TX | Level: Director

Vaulted Deep develops, constructs, owns, and operates deep well injection facilities that permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere by injecting organic waste — manure, treated sewage, paper sludge, and agricultural byproducts — below confining geology. The Director of Commercial owns the revenue-generating and site-securing agreements that make a project viable: waste-supply and water-supply contracts, landowner and pore-space agreements, royalties, and related long-term arrangements.

The role negotiates definitive infrastructure agreements end to end and translates commercial terms into project value.

This is a senior contract-negotiation role, not a procurement function. The Director of Commercial is accountable for the terms that determine project revenue and cost — negotiated from first term sheet to signed definitive agreement, not assembled from standard templates.

Commercial terms set the ceiling on project value. Waste-supply price, water cost, landowner economics, and contract structure determine whether a site clears its return threshold. This role negotiates those terms to a defensible position across a growing, multi-project pipeline: 10+ opportunities in origination, 3 in active development, targeting three-plus projects under construction within two years.

Definitive long-term agreements are the deliverable that unlocks Final Investment Decision.

• Negotiate definitive long-term commercial agreements end to end — waste supply, water supply, landowner, royalty, and related arrangements
• Own commercial term-sheet development with Project Developers and translate terms into project economics
• Lead negotiations from first contact through signed, enforceable definitive agreement
• Structure agreements to protect project value, allocate risk, and preserve optionality
• Defend commercial assumptions to management, the Investment Committee, and lenders' advisors
• Support business development on origination and counter party engagement as needed
• Coordinate with Legal on agreement drafting and with Land on site-securing terms
• Own the commercial risk register and key-terms tracking through FID

Reports directly to the EVP. May manage one direct report, including a Landman, scaling with the portfolio. Works closely with Project Developers to develop commercial term sheets, with Finance on project economics, and with Legal on definitive-agreement drafting. Presents commercial readiness and key terms at the Final Investment Decision gate.

• 15–20 years of commercial experience with a demonstrated record negotiating definitive long-term infrastructure agreements from start to finish
• Senior negotiator experience — leading deals, not filling in standard templates; M&A due diligence experience helpful, but not sufficient on its own
• Experience negotiating revenue-generating agreements such as waste supply, water supply, landowner agreements, or royalties
• Familiarity with basic technical principles and operational considerations (e.g. maintenance, technical minimum volume requirements) for long-term infrastructure contracting
• Strong understanding of project economics and how commercial terms influence project value
• Bachelor of Science degree required;
  Bachelor's degree in Engineering with MBA preferred

• Experience in infrastructure, oil & gas, chemicals, power, renewables, or utilities
• Business development experience (desirable, secondary to depth of contract-negotiation expertise)
• Experience negotiating alongside Finance and Legal on complex, multi-party agreements
• Exposure to permitting- or regulatory-driven commercial structures

• Long-term contract structuring: pricing, term, volume, risk allocation, and termination
• Commercial term sheets and their translation into definitive agreements
• Familiarity with the subsurface and infrastructure being contracted (injection, water, waste handling)
• Understanding of how commercial terms flow through project economics
• Mult-party negotiation and counter party management

• Negotiates definitive agreements start to finish, not from fixed templates
• Quantifies how commercial terms move project value, IRR, and risk
• Defends commercial assumptions to a board or a lender's technical advisor
• Balances deal speed against value protection across a multi-project pipeline