Vice President of Engineering

VP of Engineering, Power Plant Design | Relocation Provided

Help build the next generation of baseload power — from the ground up.

Brightsmith is proud to be partnered on a confidential search for a mission-driven clean energy developer that's quietly doing something remarkable: engineering a portfolio of next-generation power plants designed to deliver clean, reliable baseload power across the western United States. This is a business built on technical excellence, environmental stewardship and genuinely collaborative leadership — not just words on a careers page.

This isn't a role where you inherit someone else's system and optimize around the edges. As VP of Power Plant Design Engineering, you'll own the technical direction of an entire portfolio — shaping how surface-plant engineering, power conversion systems and grid integration come together to turn an emerging clean power technology into a bankable, scalable source of baseload energy. Your fingerprints will be on project economics, operational reliability and the long-term trajectory of the business itself.

Few engineering leadership roles offer this much genuine ownership this early in a company's growth.

• Leading engineering strategy and execution across multiple power plant developments simultaneously
• Building and leading an Owner's Engineering team (5–10 engineers) spanning process, mechanical, electrical, and civil/structural disciplines, plus construction and commissioning oversight
• Shaping technology selection and vendor strategy alongside internal resource and advanced technology teams
• Owning tender packages, EPC bid evaluation, and technical clarifications from the ground up
• Holding EPC partners to the highest bar on technical compliance, schedule, quality and safety
• Partnering with permitting and regulatory teams to bake compliance into engineering design from day one
• Working shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow VPs across infrastructure, interconnection, resource development and site operations — this is a genuinely collaborative leadership team, not a siloed one
• Acting as a trusted technical voice to senior leadership, flagging risk early and providing clear-eyed guidance

• 15+ years in power plant engineering and development, ideally in process-intensive or power generation environments
• A background in geothermal, biogas, CCGT, waste-to-energy or another thermal/renewable power discipline
• Strong mechanical and electrical systems expertise, with hands-on commissioning experience
• A track record of building and leading multidisciplinary teams and managing subcontractors
• The organizational chops to keep complex, multi-workstream schedules on track
• The communication skills to move seamlessly between technical, regulatory and executive audiences

This search is being handled on a confidential basis by Brightsmith.