Vice President Project Development - CO280

BLANKSLATE Partners•Houston, TX

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

CO280 is a leading developer of low-carbon industrial infrastructure projects, specializing in BECCS and expanding into low-carbon power solutions for the data center market. The company leverages existing hyperscaler relationships, a portfolio of pre-qualified industrial sites, and expertise in energy and CCS project development to address the power constraints of the AI buildout. CO280 is seeking entrepreneurial, collaborative, and transparent operators to build practical, bankable, and scalable clean power projects. The Vice President Project Development will be responsible for building and leading CO280's low-carbon power data center infrastructure platform. This includes owning project origination, development strategy, strategic partnerships, and the project development organization. The role involves identifying, originating, securing, and advancing gigawatt-scale infrastructure opportunities from concept through Final Investment Decision (FID). Success requires strong executive relationships and a proven ability to deliver projects. The solutions may involve gas-to-power + CCS, biomass, and solar with storage. The role is crucial in addressing the power constraint for the AI industry by combining strategic industrial sites, customer relationships, and development expertise to build a significant low-carbon infrastructure portfolio. Key initial priorities include building the project development function, converting host sites, securing anchor customers, and advancing initial projects to FID.

Requirements

15+ years of relevant project development experience in power, energy infrastructure, or digital infrastructure, with a track record of taking projects from origination to FID and, ideally, to COD.
An established executive network across utilities, Independent Power Producers, OEMs, EPCs, infrastructure developers, investors, or hyperscaler infrastructure teams.
Demonstrated success originating and commercializing new infrastructure opportunities with sophisticated corporate customers and partners.
Deep experience developing utility-scale power infrastructure: generation, transmission, interconnection, permitting, and site development.
Strong commercial, financial and engineering fluency, with the ability to structure bankable infrastructure projects and communicate effectively with technical, commercial and investment stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to contribute to term sheets and definitive agreements with sophisticated counterparties — hyperscalers, AI-native buyers, industrial hosts, midstream operators, or strategic investors.
Experience building and running a development team, with clear views on stage-gates, risk allocation, and development budgets.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting hyperscale data centers is highly desirable but not essential.

Responsibilities

Drive new low-carbon power projects from origination through FID, then support the project engineering team commercially through construction to commercial operation.
Develop CO280's project origination strategy by matching industrial host sites with hyperscaler demand, transmission availability, fiber infrastructure and regional power market opportunities.
Own the development budget and project economics for each project through stage-gates to FID, including scenario and sensitivity analysis on key inputs.
Build executive relationships with utilities, industrial hosts, hyperscalers, neoclouds, data center developers, OEMs, EPCs, gas suppliers, and strategic partners across the project value chain.
Negotiate contracts with project partners, working closely with project engineering, finance, legal, community engagement, and commercial teams.
Partner with the commercial team to map the hyperscaler and AI-buyer channel end-to-end, translating buyer needs directly into project design and the development roadmap.
Partner with engineering to develop technically robust, commercially attractive, and financeable projects, including coordinating studies, and building relationships with OEM and EPC partners.
Align with finance to ensure projects are bankable, supporting project economic models and corporate/project financing activities.
Manage the operating cadence — stage-gates, risk registers, development-budget discipline, and project economic performance.
Build and lead the project development team: hiring, operating cadence, stage-gate process, and development budgets.
Shape CO280's long-term infrastructure strategy as a member of the executive leadership team, defining where the business plays, how it wins, and how it scales.
Serve on the executive leadership team and represent CO280 externally with customers, partners, investors, and industry stakeholders.