Director of External Affairs, West (to Senior)

Director of External Affairs, West (to Senior)

Company Overview

Driven by our vision of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid of the future, Mainspring has developed a new category of power generation — the linear generator — that delivers onsite, fuel-flexible power to help accelerate the transition to the future grid.

The unique combination of attributes offered by Mainspring’s linear generator enables applications on both the customer and utility sides of the meter for the $816B global electricity equipment market. We serve a wide range of Fortune 500 customers across markets and industries as well as top-tier utilities and other gridside providers.

We are looking to build relationships with people who share our values:

• Pragmatic Optimism. Building a new category of world-class power generation requires the optimism of ambition and creativity, balanced with practicality to solve problems efficiently. The challenges that arise are opportunities for growth.
• Excellence without Ego. We bring expertise and commitment to creating the best customer experience, from sales to deployment and service, just as we apply deep technical rigor to building and delivering world-class products. We strive for excellence and behave as leaders with the humility to acknowledge our challenges, both collectively and as individual contributors.
• Proactive Collaboration. The integration and cross-disciplinary nature of Mainspring’s business requires intentionally seeking out others who bring different skills, perspectives, and priorities. Our culture of inclusion and respect extends beyond our team to interactions with our partners and customers.

Mainspring is based in Menlo Park and is backed by top-tier venture and strategic investors such as Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, American Electric Power, and Centrica Innovations.

Responsibilities

We are seeking a highly experienced and motivated Director, or Senior Director, of External Affairs to lead our advocacy and legislative initiatives in the western United States, with a particular focus on California. As a leader of policy in the West, you will play a critical role in promoting and supporting the rapid and widespread deployment of our linear generator technology. Residing in California, you will be responsible for leading our local, state, and regional advocacy projects, legislative initiatives, and building relationships with key stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

This role requires a seasoned policy professional with extensive power industry relationships and a proven track record of leading change within their prior and current organization(s), among regulatory and legislative bodies, and in the industry.

You will spend approximately half of your time directly engaging with external stakeholders to advance organizational goals to drive near-term and structural policy reform. The remaining time will be dedicated to leading key initiatives, general management activities, and collaborating with other organizational leaders on critical projects. Ideally, you will demonstrate a strong sense of urgency as it relates to problem-solving and is motivated by driving key results.

This role requires a combination of exceptional business acumen, policy expertise, industry knowledge, advocacy skills, and understanding of company strategy. Your managerial strength, excellent writing and oral presentation skills, and ability to work collaboratively will make you an invaluable asset to Mainspring.

Core responsibilities can be segmented into three main areas:

Driving policy initiatives

• Develop and execute comprehensive advocacy and policy strategies across various state and local jurisdictions to expand or create new market opportunities for our technology, defend against threats, and help expand and support the existing business
• Lead our participation in various legislative initiatives and coalitions in the Western states, providing strategic guidance and ensuring effective representation
• Manage external lobbyists and consultants to realize organizational goals
• Collaborate with Mainspring's business development, project delivery, legal, public relations, and product teams to prioritize issues, develop market strategies, and contribute to thought leadership initiatives

Developing strategic relationships

• Establish and maintain strong relationships with key advocacy organizations, industry groups, and industry peers at the local, state, and regional levels
• Proactively develop and leverage relationships with key stakeholders at the local, state and regional levels to increase awareness of Mainspring’s technology and its criticality to creating a clean and resilient grid
• Develop political engagement strategies and attend fundraisers throughout the region

Providing managerial and administrative leadership

• Prepare high-quality position papers, legislative testimony, and presentations based on thorough analysis and input from internal stakeholders
• Prepare regular written and verbal reports to senior management
• Prepare budgets, purchase orders, and ensure vendors are paid on time
• Coordinate, prepare, and file lobbying and other compliance reports. Ensure all political contributions comply with local and state laws

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree; JD, MPP, or MBA preferred
• 12+ years of policy or regulatory experience in electric utility and/or clean energy sectors
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment, thinking and moving quickly, with a proven ability to prioritize and juggle many different projects at once
• Demonstrated ability to build coalitions and drive consensus across a diverse set of organizations
• Demonstrated leadership and management skills to lead a team, collaborate with other departments, and communicate effectively
• Demonstrated ability to find creative solutions to complex issues, provide concise and business-focused advice, initiate on the ground strategies, and make sound risk-based judgments under tight deadlines
• Knowledge of emerging energy policies related to distributed energy resources, microgrids, grid reliability and resilience, utility resource adequacy and planning, interconnection strategies, and environmental permitting is desirable

The Bay Area salary for this role is $200k-$275k base + significant number of pre-IPO stock options + benefits. This position is remote. The salary will be adjusted to reflect local market conditions based on employee location as well as the experience of the employee.

Does your experience not meet all of our posted requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to positions unless they meet every listed requirement. At Mainspring, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, flexible, and collaborative environment, so if you want to help us transition the world to clean and affordable electricity, and don’t meet all posted requirements for a particular role, we’d still love to hear from you. Mainspring can sometimes be flexible enough to shift responsibilities for the right person, or otherwise identify open or upcoming roles that may better fit your professional background.

In more traditional words, Mainspring Energy, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.