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Breakthrough Energy Ventures Portfolio Company Career Opportunities

Director, Energy and Origination

Heirloom

Heirloom

Brisbane, CA, USA
Posted on Oct 24, 2024

About Us

All across the world, from the azure pools of Turkey and Oman to the travertine terraces of Yellowstone, our planet quietly pulls carbon dioxide from the air and turns it to stone. For eons, Earth has relied on this process to balance its carbon cycle. What if it could be harnessed? What if we could do it faster, in larger quantities, and at a low enough cost to make it an effective tool in the fight against climate change?

At Heirloom, we are turning that into reality. We use the natural carbon capture properties of abundant minerals to pull CO2 from the air, and store it permanently underground. We come to work every day to slow climate change, and are united behind a single, common goal - to remove 1 billion tons of CO2 from the sky by 2035, and to not stop before we get there.

We bring together the precise recipe of science, technology, know-how, and strategy necessary to make low cost, high quality carbon removal a reality. If we’re successful, we will directly mitigate climate change, build a world we can proudly hand over to our children and grandchildren, and catalyze an industry that will rival the largest the world has ever seen. If you want to change the planet, come join us.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

As temperatures continue to rise, individuals from marginalized communities will face the harshest impacts of climate change. We believe wholeheartedly that building a diverse company is critical to Heirloom’s success. To accomplish this, we’ve put recruiting, hiring and retaining individuals from underrepresented groups at the top of our priority list.

We encourage you to apply if you identify as Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Hispanic or Latino, LGBTQ+ – or with any other underrepresented group – even if you don’t tick all the boxes in the description below.

The Role


Heirloom is seeking an experienced Director of Energy Development to lead energy procurement for new
Direct Air Capture (DAC) facilities currently under development in the United States. In the coming decade, the company will need to procure hundreds of megawatts of power across a variety of geographies. This role
is crucial to ensuring that Heirloom’s facilities have access to affordable renewable energy that meets our rigorous lifecycle analysis (LCA) and additionality requirements. You’ll work closely with the Commercialization and Project Development teams to identify key regions of interest and help inform site selection and diligence based on the availability of low-cost energy supplies. You will help inform Heirloom’s strategy around behind-the-meter assets, power purchase agreements and energy-related environmental attributes.

What You Will Do


In this role, you will leverage your experience in developing utility scale renewable projects and structuring off-take agreements to drive Heirloom’s energy procurement. You will have an intimate knowledge of national energy markets, especially ERCOT, MISO and SPP and bring a deep understanding of wholesale market dynamics. You will have a detailed understanding of interconnection queue processes and timelines, challenges and opportunities around wind and solar development and commodity hedging strategies. You will work with local utilities, independent power producers and regional transmission operators to help Heirloom
structure energy contracts that meet our exacting needs around renewable content, additionality, flexibility and cost. Your experience in renewable energy project development will inform Heirloom’s ability to work with third party developers to help deliver new utility scale projects that meet Heirloom’s growing energy needs by 2028 and beyond.

What You Will Bring

The ideal candidate will have more than 10 years of experience in the renewable energy industry, in project development, offtake structuring and procurement. You will have successfully negotiated interconnection and offtake agreements with utilities and regional transmission operators, with a preference for a successful track record of projects in the southern US (ERCOT, SPP, MISO). You’ll have deep expertise in a variety of
power purchase agreement (PPA) constructs, on- and off-site PPAs, synthetic/virtual PPAs, sleeved PPAs and green tariffs. Most of all you will bring a sense of ingenuity to the role, helping to identify new mechanisms and strategies that can drive down Heirloom’s long-term energy costs while ensuring that our continued dedication to environmental stewardship is met. You don’t have to have every listed requirement and skill to be a great fit - you may even teach us something about what we should be looking for! If you are passionate about this opportunity and think you have the skills to succeed, please apply!

Our Principles

Radical Honesty means we are open, transparent, and inclusive in everything we do. We aren't scared to challenge each other, but bring clear motives and our best intentions when we do.

Persistent Optimism means we carry an infinite amount of optimistic energy with us on our journey, constantly chipping away at what may seem insurmountable.

Maximize our learning rate means we're always in discovery mode. Compounding knowledge is our key to victory - we continuously hone our crafts, seek the fastest paths to new learning, and are quick to absorb new knowledge.

Why you should join Heirloom

  • We are solving the engineering problem of our generation. Climate change is an existential threat, and we need as many of the world’s motivated minds as possible to help. There is no greater challenge or opportunity than fighting climate change.

  • We have done this before. We’re engineers, scientists, and concerned humans from a variety of backgrounds and experiences who are pooling our knowledge and skills to collectively build a more equitable, prosperous future for all.

  • We are a united, resilient, and optimistic bunch. We are all here for the same reason - to slow climate change. We recognize the magnitude of the challenge ahead of us, and believe we can solve it. We can see a hopeful future where we eventually reverse climate change. It won’t be easy, but we won’t quit.

  • We are backed by the best climate partners in the world. We’re well funded by investors from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Ahren Innovation Capital, Carbon Direct, Microsoft, Lowercarbon Capital, ARPA-e and the National Science Foundation. Our early customers include Stripe, Shopify, and Klarna, and we’re building durable partnerships that enable us to tackle this decades-long problem.

Perks and Benefits

  • Robust health coverage. Excellent health, dental and vision insurance covered up to 100% by Heirloom. FSA option.

  • Generous parental leave. 16 weeks paid leave for all Heirloom employees, regardless of primary/secondary caregiver status.

  • Generous stock options.

  • Flexible time off. Unlimited PTO for exempt (salaried) employees & 120 hours for full time non-exempt (hourly) employees.

  • 401(k).

  • Stay healthy. Monthly health and wellness reimbursement.

  • Learn on the job. Robust annual education and conference budget, including airfare and hotel costs.

Physical Demand Description

The following requirements also apply to any roles which will spend any time working in our plants or construction sites (all technician and operations roles, most engineering roles, and many other roles):

  • Ability to work in outdoor environments (example: hot sun, cold, wind, rain, crawl spaces, etc.). Stop work will be called when it is unsafe to work.

  • Position may require working at heights including; climbing ladders/equipment, stairs, elevators, and working on scissor lifts.

  • Capable of performing repetitive duties including; lifting up to 50 lbs., bending, pushing, pulling, and standing for long periods of time.

  • Experience using basic hand and power tools safely.