Director, Development Permitting & Environmental

Houston Texas | Asset Development

We are seeking a Director, Development Permitting & Environmental to lead the owner's-side environmental development and permitting capability supporting Talen Energy's power generation, battery storage, and digital infrastructure portfolio. The role owns early environmental screening, site-specific diligence, permitting strategy and schedule, agency engagement, and acquisition of approvals needed to advance projects from site evaluation through Final Investment Decision (FID) and transition to execution. The Director will convert environmental and regulatory complexity into practical recommendations that improve project viability, schedule certainty, and investment readiness.

Reporting to the Chief Asset Development Officer, this leader will support simple-cycle and combined-cycle facilities using aeroderivative and large-frame F- and H-class gas turbines; utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS); and powered-land or data center opportunities. The role will work closely with Corporate Environmental and other internal stakeholders while managing external consultants. Detailed studies and permit applications may be outsourced, but the Director retains accountability for development-stage strategy, schedule, budget, risk, quality, agency relationships, and consultant performance. The scope is development and project-specific permitting, not routine operating-fleet compliance, with disciplined transfer of permit conditions and continuing obligations to Project Delivery, Operations, and other accountable compliance owners.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Environmental Development & Permitting function, including screening standards, permitting playbooks, stage-gate deliverables, consultant governance, regulatory intelligence, document controls, and portfolio reporting.
• Partner with Site Origination, Project Development, and assigned Project Owners to screen greenfield, brownfield, and co-located opportunities; identify environmental fatal flaws; define early diligence and kill criteria; and recommend whether to advance, mitigate, pause, or exit before material spend.
• Develop and maintain a permitting roadmap for each active project, identifying required approvals, agency and public-engagement pathways, study windows, expected permit review periods, application dependencies, risks and mitigations, budget, schedule, critical dates, and contingency plans.
• Coordinate closely with Corporate Environmental, Legal, Project Delivery, Operations, and External Affairs to align development-stage environmental and permitting work with applicable Talen policies, procedures, standards, and environmental management-system requirements. Seek early input and provide advance notice when projects may affect existing permits, compliance programs, operating assets, enterprise positions, or material legal or regulatory risk.
• Lead air-permitting strategy for gas-fired generation and other stationary sources. Direct applicability analyses, emissions estimates, dispersion modeling, control-technology evaluations, and applications involving NSR, PSD, nonattainment NSR, Title V, NSPS, emission credits, NESHAP/MACT, BACT, LAER, greenhouse-gas requirements, and state programs.
• Direct site-specific diligence and field programs, including Phase I and, when warranted, Phase II Environmental Site Assessments; wetlands and waters delineations; threatened and endangered species reviews; cultural and historic-resource evaluations; floodplain and habitat reviews; noise and visual studies; and legacy-liability assessments.
• Lead or coordinate Clean Water Act Sections 401 and 404 approvals, NPDES and stormwater permits, erosion and sediment-control approvals, wastewater and water-supply or withdrawal authorizations, wetlands mitigation, and related environmental permits.
• Establish environmental strategies for BESS and powered-land or data center developments, including emergency or on-site generation, water and wastewater, stormwater, hazardous materials, spill prevention, noise, mitigation, and interfaces with local approvals owned by Site Origination.
• Select, scope, direct, and hold accountable environmental consultants, air modelers, wetland and ecological specialists, cultural-resource firms, laboratories, and environmental counsel. Manage procurement, quality, interfaces, budget, schedule, and acceptance criteria, and challenge unsupported assumptions.
• Serve as the principal development-stage environmental interface with EPA, state agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, State Historic Preservation Offices, Tribal representatives, watershed authorities, and local regulators. Lead consultations, permit negotiations, responses, public notice, and hearings as appropriate.
• Integrate environmental requirements into project configuration, engineering, procurement, contracting, and construction planning. Maintain permit and obligation trackers, incorporate mitigation commitments into project documents, and coordinate with Corporate Environmental and Legal to transfer continuing obligations to Project Delivery, Operations, and other accountable compliance owners.
• Own environmental workstream plans, budgets, schedules, assumptions, and risk registers. Provide decision-ready status, risk, mitigation, and approval recommendations to Project Owners, Development Controls, Finance, Legal, executives, and investment-governance forums.
• Perform environmental diligence for acquisitions, partnerships, and existing-site reuse; monitor regulatory developments; and convert lessons learned and agency feedback into stronger standards, consultant networks, and portfolio strategy.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in environmental science, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, biology, ecology, natural resources, environmental planning, geology, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in environmental permitting, consulting, energy development, or complex infrastructure, including substantial responsibility for development-stage capital projects.
• Demonstrated success advancing utility-scale energy or comparable industrial projects from screening and diligence through permit acquisition, FID, notice to proceed, or construction readiness while managing schedule, budget, risk, and cross-functional interfaces.
• Direct experience permitting or supporting simple-cycle and combined-cycle gas generation using aeroderivative and large-frame F- and H-class turbines, with working knowledge of emissions, air modeling, control technology, water, noise, site-layout, and operating-profile considerations.
• Experience with utility-scale battery energy storage and the environmental requirements relevant to site development, construction, hazardous materials, stormwater, spill prevention, emergency planning, and operations.
• Strong working knowledge of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, NEPA, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, CERCLA, RCRA, and related state siting and environmental-review requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to lead agency engagement and permit negotiations, interpret complex technical studies, manage external consultants and counsel, and maintain defensible applications, schedules, budgets, records, and commitments across multiple projects.
• Strong project leadership, business judgment, analytical ability, and executive communication skills, including the ability to translate environmental findings into clear project and capital-allocation recommendations. Ability to travel regularly.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree and/or relevant professional credential such as Professional Engineer, Certified Environmental Professional, Professional Wetland Scientist, CHMM, or PMP.
• Direct experience in PJM states, including familiarity with state environmental agencies, regional water authorities, federal field offices, and permitting practices affecting generation, storage, transmission, and large-load development.
• Experience with powered-land, hyperscale data center, or other large-load development, including air permits for emergency or on-site generation, water and wastewater strategy, and environmental site readiness.
• Experience with greenfield and brownfield projects, including retired or operating generation sites, legacy contamination, remediation, acquisitions, repowering, and reuse of industrial infrastructure.
• Experience supporting construction-phase compliance, financing or acquisition diligence, public hearings, contested or high-profile matters, and transition of permit obligations to construction and operating organizations.

Leadership Profile

• Owner-minded environmental leader who accepts accountability for strategy, decisions, risk, consultant performance, and outcomes rather than merely coordinating studies and applications.
• Practical strategist who protects compliance and permit defensibility while recognizing that solutions must also be safe, financeable, constructible, operable, and aligned with project economics and schedules.
• Decisive under uncertainty and willing to surface fatal flaws, quantify exposure, challenge optimistic assumptions, and recommend mitigation or exit before momentum overrides evidence.
• Credible relationship builder who earns trust with agencies, communities, Project Owners, functional peers, and consultants while creating scalable standards, tools, talent, and institutional knowledge.

Success Measures

• Timely, decision-quality environmental screening and permitting roadmaps, with material constraints and fatal flaws identified before significant capital or schedule commitments.
• Required permits and approvals obtained on defensible terms within approved schedules and budgets, with clear visibility into agency, public-process, mitigation, and compliance risks.
• Few avoidable late-stage surprises, redesigns, consultant rework cycles, or permit-driven delays caused by incomplete diligence, weak applications, missed study windows, or poorly managed interfaces.
• Environmental readiness at stage gates and FID, with permit conditions, mitigation commitments, costs, schedules, operating constraints, and continuing obligations reflected in project decisions, execution documents, and handoffs.
• Strong consultant performance, regulatory relationships, records, and executive communication.