Project Development Director

Project Development Director

Location: Singapore

Sector: Energy / Infrastructure

Employment Type: Permanent

The Opportunity

Our client is a rapidly growing climate technology company developing and deploying advanced technologies across the energy and industrial sectors.

As the business progresses the development of its first large-scale commercial projects in Asia, they are seeking an experienced Project Development Director to lead the development of complex energy and infrastructure projects from early-stage definition through to financial close.

Based in Singapore, the successful candidate will initially take responsibility for a major project under development in Southeast Asia, with the opportunity to support a broader pipeline of projects across the region.

This is a highly hands-on role requiring an individual who can operate across technical, commercial and financing workstreams, bringing together engineering teams, commercial counterparties, investors, lenders, advisors and government stakeholders to develop technically robust and bankable projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end development of complex energy and infrastructure projects from pre-feasibility / Pre-FEED through FEED, investment approval and financial close.
• Establish and manage an integrated project development plan covering technical, commercial, regulatory, financing and execution-readiness workstreams.
• Provide commercial and development leadership while maintaining sufficient technical depth to understand project design, challenge assumptions and translate technical considerations into commercial and financing implications.
• Oversee the technical development of projects, including feedstock strategy, process configuration, utilities, site requirements, operating philosophy, project economics, CAPEX, schedule and execution strategy.
• Coordinate internal engineering resources alongside external technology providers, licensors, EPC partners, consultants and technical advisors.
• Lead and support the commercial structuring required to establish project bankability, including feedstock, utilities, land/site, technology licensing, EPC, logistics and product offtake arrangements.
• Work closely with the Finance team to support equity and debt financing, including engagement with institutional investors, lenders, development finance institutions, export credit agencies and external advisors.
• Drive lender and investor due diligence, ensuring technical, commercial and operational assumptions are robust, appropriately documented and financeable.
• Identify key technical, commercial, regulatory, counterparty and financing risks and establish mitigation strategies required to progress projects towards investment.
• Build relationships with key government, industry and commercial stakeholders across Southeast Asia and ensure alignment between project partners throughout development.
• Prepare projects for investment approval and financial close before facilitating a structured handover into the project execution organisation.

Experiences Required

• Approximately 15+ years of relevant experience across project development, commercial development, project finance and/or major project leadership within the energy or infrastructure sectors.
• Demonstrated experience progressing large-scale capital projects from early-stage development through to financial close.
• Strong preference for individuals with project development experience across biomass, power generation, downstream energy, refining, petrochemicals or other process-intensive infrastructure.
• Experience developing biomass or other feedstock-dependent projects would be particularly relevant.
• Strong understanding of what makes a large-scale infrastructure or energy project commercially viable and bankable, including risk allocation, financing requirements and long-term contractual structures.
• Experience working across technical, commercial and financing disciplines rather than operating solely within one functional area.
• Sufficient technical understanding to challenge project assumptions and understand how engineering, feedstock, technology and execution decisions affect project economics and bankability.
• Familiarity with project finance, including lender due diligence, equity investment, debt financing and progressing projects through investment approval to financial close.
• Strong commercial negotiation skills with exposure to agreements such as feedstock supply, offtake, EPC, utilities, land/site, licensing or other long-term project contracts.
• Experience developing projects across Southeast Asia or wider Asia would be highly advantageous.
• Comfortable working within a high-growth, entrepreneurial environment, with the ability to remain highly hands-on while managing multiple parallel workstreams.

The Opportunity

This is an opportunity to join a growing technology platform at an important stage of its commercial development and take a leading role in developing complex, large-scale projects across Asia.

The successful individual will have broad ownership across project development, technical coordination, commercial structuring and financing, with responsibility for progressing projects from early development through to bankability and financial close.

This role offers significant exposure to senior leadership, investors, financing partners, strategic counterparties and regional stakeholders while helping establish the foundations for a growing portfolio of projects across Asia.