Senior Manager, Environmental Compliance & Strategy

Invenergy•Lebanon, TN

About The Position

As a Senior Manager in the Environmental Compliance & Strategy group overseeing Invenergy’s cultural resource management and Tribal relations program, you will lead the program’s development, implementation, and management. This role serves as a subject matter expert and liaison to Invenergy leadership and project teams, as well as external parties, and manages consultant engagement strategy for cultural resource and Tribal relations-related work to support the responsible development, construction and operation of utility-scale wind, solar, and thermal energy facilities, and transmission infrastructure, across the US. The successful candidate will advise on the application of state and federal historic preservation laws, regulations, and policies, as well as Tribal governance, sovereignty, and cultural protocols; develop corporate and project strategies to address complex, intersecting cultural resource management, Tribal relations, and energy development issues; and build familiarity, awareness, and team capacity across internal teams on the aforementioned.

Requirements

Demonstrated 10+ years cultural resource management and Tribal relations experience with 3+ years in the energy industry.
Bachelor’s degree required.
Ability to maintain strict confidentiality of sensitive materials, activities, and initiatives.
Comfort and experience working in a developing program area.
Strong critical thinking skills with the ability to identify and solve problems.
Must be self-directed and detail-oriented, with the ability to work effectively in a team environment.
Able to act and adapt to a fast-paced business environment with competing deadlines and quickly learn and implement internal processes.
Excellent technical writing, project management, leadership, and communication skills assuring documents and communications are concise and accurate.
Experience advising development teams on local, state, and federal historic preservation, cultural resources, Tribal relations, and environmental laws (e.g., NHPA, NEPA), guidelines and policies, and developing project strategies for compliance with the same.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in anthropology, archaeology, or related discipline.

Responsibilities

Tribal Engagement
Respond to internal inquiries about when a project triggers a need for engagement with Tribal Nations, using knowledge of federal, state, and county Tribal engagement requirements.
If appropriate, develop Tribal engagement strategy for projects.
Determine appropriate times to engage external consultants and develop requests for proposals for Tribal engagement support, review proposals, and oversee the consultant’s work to ensure it meets company expectations and the project’s goals.
Work with Tribal engagement and cultural resource consultants to develop survey and monitoring agreements and plans for Tribal permitting procedures and approvals.
Organize, track, and utilize a programmatic accounting of Tribal engagement and agreements to ensure that internal teams’ and business units’ approach to Tribal engagement is organized, consistent, and effective across portfolios.
Build out and refine internal BMPs and guidance on respectful and effective Tribal engagement approaches.
Cultural Resources
Build internal cultural resource familiarity across development teams, and work to ensure that the cultural resource survey firms and associated work product meet internal expectations.
Advise on appropriate survey scope for the specifics of a project and provide feedback on proposals regarding scope, schedule, and budget.
Respond to developer requests to review technical reports including cultural resource desktop studies, pedestrian inventory and testing reports, monitoring reports, ethnographies, cultural landscape studies; interpret technical jargon and details into layman’s language so teams can understand how to manage potential risks or make decisions on next steps.
Lead on National Historic Preservation Act’s Section 106 implementation, when necessary, including engaging with Tribal, state, and federal historic preservation agencies/departments on regulations and permitting requirements.
General
Maintain and update record keeping systems to document, track, and explain cultural resource and Tribal engagement laws, regulations, policies, and requirements at the federal, state, and county level.
Utilize information to support project permitting, populate permit matrices, review reports, strategic planning, and decision-making.
Develop, maintain, and regularly review internal cultural resource and Tribal information data standards and record keeping and data security protocols to ensure data are handled appropriately.
Coordinate conversations between development teams and other Invenergy teams (ECS, engineering, communications, federal affairs) to work through cultural/Tribal issues that have overlapping impact on their activities and goals.
Work with the talent development group on new developer cultural resource and Tribal relations training sessions and participate in Q&A sessions.