Permitting Policy Director

tl;dr Manage Permit Power’s policy development on permitting, inspection, and HOA, across multiple states to dramatically accelerate the installation of home solar and batteries.

Permit Power is on a mission to make it cheap and easy for American families to power their lives by cutting the red tape that makes home solar and batteries so expensive. We are a small but ambitious team that advances common-sense policy fixes in states around the country to modernize processes like permitting and utility interconnection to allow tens of millions more American families to produce their own affordable electricity.

If we’re successful at lowering the price of home solar and batteries for American families, almost 20m more families will be able to install almost 200GW of power on their roofs and save $1.2trn over the life of their systems.

• Develop Permit Power's permitting policy agenda: Formulate and execute a comprehensive policy plan to simplify and streamline permitting and inspection requirements for home solar and batteries. This agenda should transform the approval process at building departments, fire departments, other authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs), and homeowners associations so it is no longer slow, cumbersome, costly, and a detriment to solar deployment.

• Oversee the bill-to-law cycle: Conduct preliminary research for, draft, and vet permitting bill language. Produce advocacy materials, such as talking points, fact sheets, graphics, and reports. In coordination with Permit Power’s advocacy team and outside lobbyists, lobby legislators, their staff, and executive branch officials. Negotiate with opposition.

• Build and drive coalitions: Manage relationships with partners such as environmental groups, the solar industry, think tanks, and others to broaden support for a permitting reform agenda and to collaboratively refine and update our state policy priorities.

• Serve as the subject matter expert: Act as the organization's authority on permitting rules, regulations, and cutting-edge policies like automated permitting and remote inspections.

• Lead regulatory policy development: Develop the organization’s policy positions on regulatory proceedings, such as creating a statewide automated permitting platform and adding remote inspections into the state building code. Prepare written comments, testify, and interface with partners.

• Manage external research and consultants: Scope external policy research and identify, onboard, and direct consultants to secure high-quality products supporting our permitting policy agenda.

• 5+ years of experience in policy development, legislative advocacy, and/or regulatory affairs related to behind the meter solar/storage, utility-scale renewables, or electrification technologies required. Experience in permitting policy preferred.

• Track record of successfully developing and executing policy agendas that lead to tangible outcomes, particularly within the state legislative or regulatory arenas.

• Ability to translate complex technical and engineering concepts into clear, accessible language and materials for policymakers, advocates, and the public.

• Experience testifying before, interfacing with, and developing materials for policymakers.

• Demonstrated ability to build coalitions and partner with stakeholders to achieve policy goals.

• Familiarity with permitting solutions (e.g. automated permitting, virtual inspections, ban on aesthetic review) and solar building safety codes and standards (e.g. Section R330 of 2024 IRC, Article 690 of NEC, UL 1741, UL 9540) or ability to quickly gain this knowledge.

• Relationships with clean energy policy groups, technical consultants, research firms, and think tanks in the distributed generation space.

• Entrepreneurial and self-directed. We are a small team, and you will need to be able to figure out what your goals are and how to achieve them within the set timeframe.

• Outcomes-oriented. We measure ourselves by how much we can drive down the cost and timelines for installing solar and batteries, and how much more solar and batteries are installed…