Executive Principal Development Engineer

What You Will Do

The Executive Principal Development Engineer (Executive PDE) is a senior‑level technical leadership role within a major U.S. Energy Service Company (ESCO). It is elevated above the Senior Principal Development Engineer level and serves as the highest technical authority within Project Development for assigned regions, portfolios, or strategic markets. Reporting to senior engineering and business leadership, the Executive PDE provides enterprise‑level oversight, governance, and risk ownership across a portfolio of large, complex, and high‑risk Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) projects.

The role is accountable for technical integrity, shaping development strategy, influencing deal structure, and ensuring consistent application of policies, standards, and regulatory requirements across the organization. It plays a critical role in executive risk reviews, contract approvals, portfolio governance, and strategic decision‑making, with clear authority to influence or stop projects based on risk, financial exposure, or compliance considerations.

• Establish and enforce enterprise‑level project development standards, governance processes, and engineering tools; ensure consistent implementation across regions and project teams.
• Provide high‑level oversight of project development activities from opportunity pursuit through contract execution, focusing on financial viability, performance risk, constructability, and lifecycle outcomes.
• Lead and facilitate executive risk reviews and contract reviews for the most complex, visible, or high‑exposure projects.
• Integrate and evaluate technical, financial, commercial, legal, and regulatory inputs to support go/no‑go decisions, contract terms, guarantees, and risk allocation.
• Serve as the senior technical authority for measured and non‑measured energy savings, baseline energy analysis, ECM scopes, construction schedules, cost estimates, and Measurement & Verification (M&V) strategies.
• Review and approve Owner/JCI contracts, JCI subcontracts, and third‑party agreements to ensure alignment with development assumptions, risk posture and performance guarantees.
• Review and approve M&V plans to ensure compliance with IPMVP standards and contractual obligations.
• Lead strategic evaluation and enterprise vetting of new technologies, delivery models and business offerings prior to market adoption.

• Act as a trusted technical advisor to executive leadership on portfolio risk, market trends, regulatory changes, incentive policy evolution and strategic opportunities.
• Provide functional leadership and mentorship to Senior Principal Development Engineers, Project Development Engineers and M&V leaders.
• Set clear expectations for technical rigor, ethical decision‑making, customer alignment and risk transparency across the Project Development organization.
• Support enterprise business goals through leadership of the Solutions Playbook and Best Business Practices, driving consistency, repeatability and scalability.
• Represent the organization in executive‑level customer engagements on strategic, flagship or high‑risk projects.

• Serve as the executive owner and subject‑matter expert for navigating, structuring and managing Connecticut incentive programs, including NRES, state‑backed rebates, grants and applicable tax credits.
• Own incentive‑related risk at the portfolio level and provide strategic direction on incentive integration into project financial models, contracts and guarantees.
• Advise project teams on incentive eligibility, compliance requirements, documentation strategy and long‑term risk considerations.
• Develop and maintain senior‑level working relationships with utility program administrators, state agencies and third‑party program managers.
• Establish and maintain relationships with contractors, vendors, technology providers and third‑party delivery partners to support execution certainty, innovation and risk mitigation.

• 15+ years of progressive experience as a Development Engineer, M&V Engineer or technical leader within an ESCO or energy services organization, including responsibility…