Senior Director, Permitting

Summary:

Strata Solar Development is seeking a Senior Director, Permitting to lead and scale its national permitting organization across the Southeast, Central, and Western/Southwestern United States. This is a senior leadership role responsible for setting permitting strategy, driving execution excellence, and mentoring a geographically distributed team of permitting professionals supporting Strata’s utility-scale solar, battery storage and digital infrastructure portfolio.

The successful candidate will be an established permitting leader with deep experience navigating complex land use, environmental, and agency processes across multiple jurisdictions. This role requires strong executive presence, cross-functional leadership, and the ability to balance speed, risk management, and stakeholder engagement in a fast-paced development environment.

The Senior Director will oversee and develop a high-performing team of permitting professionals, while driving standardized processes, risk mitigation strategies, and cross-functional alignment across Development, Origination, Engineering, Transmission & Interconnection, Capital Markets, EPC, and Asset Management.

This role is expected to provide enterprise-level leadership and serve as a key strategic partner to executive management, ensuring projects are positioned for successful approvals, financial viability, and on-time delivery.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Oversight

• Serve as Strata’s senior functional authority on permitting, establishing and leading company-wide permitting strategy to support project development goals and pipeline growth.
• Develop scalable processes, tools, and frameworks to standardize permitting and land activities across regions.
• Provide executive-level guidance on permitting risk, project viability, and timelines.
• Partner with Development and Origination to influence site selection, project design, and early-stage feasibility.
• Advise senior leadership on regulatory trends, policy changes, and market-specific permitting risks.

Team Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead, mentor, and oversee a high-performing permitting organization, including Southeast, Central and Western/Southwestern permitting teams.
• Build organizational capability, including hiring, training, and succession planning.
• Foster a culture of professionalism, collaboration, ownership, and continuous improvement across teams and regions
• Establish performance expectations, KPIs, and accountability measures aligned with company objectives.

Permitting Strategy

• Oversee the development and execution of comprehensive permitting strategies, including schedules, budgets, and risk mitigation plans.
• Ensure alignment of permitting strategies with project timelines, financial models, and execution plans.
• Provide oversight of all discretionary permits including land use approvals, environmental approvals, and federal/state/local authorizations.
• Guide negotiation strategies for permit conditions, development agreements, and mitigation requirements.
• Partner with Development leadership to identify fatal‑flaw permitting risks early and support disciplined go/no‑go decisions to protect portfolio schedule and capital.

Stakeholder & Regulatory Engagement

• Maintain and elevate relationships with key regulatory agencies, government entities, and community stakeholders.
• Represent Strata in critical meetings, hearings, and negotiations with permitting authorities, elected officials, community stakeholders, and external consultants when senior-level engagement is required.
• Support high-impact negotiations with local officials and regulatory bodies.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Development, Land, Engineering, Interconnection, Legal, and Commercial teams to ensure integrated project execution.
• Partner closely with Execution and EPC teams to ensure constructability and compliance with permit conditions.
• Ensure seamless transition from development to execution, including compliance with all permit conditions.

Risk Management & Continuous Improvement

• Establish and refine permitting workflows, schedules, and reporting mechanisms to improve predictability and transparency across the portfolio.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate permitting risks across the portfolio.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, reduce timelines, and lower costs.
• Provide regular portfolio-level permitting status, risk, and schedule updates to Development