Job Description

Background to Aukera

Aukera is a leading pan-European renewable energy developer and Independent Power Producer (IPP), dedicated to accelerating the energy transition across the continent. Headquartered in Belgium, we have offices in Brussels, Bucharest, London, Edinburgh, Rome, Berlin, Madrid and Seville. Aukera manage a diversified pipeline of over 15 GW in onshore wind, solar, and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects.

We pride ourselves on our values and our collaborative, supportive working environment. Our team is friendly, caring, highly professional, and deeply committed to making a real impact on the planet. As a rapidly growing company, we seek high performers from all backgrounds who are self-motivated, take ownership, and are passionate about driving improvements. We value diversity and are proud to have an international team representing 14 nationalities, with approx. 30% female employees. At Aukera, mutual respect and effective collaboration are at the heart of everything we do.

Job Location: Bucharest

Reports to Head of Closing, Aukera

We are seeking an experienced and highly collaborative Senior Development Manager to drive projects from the Ready to Build stage (RTB) to Financial Close (FC). This role is critical in ensuring that all regulatory, technical, and commercial conditions are met to transition projects from development to execution. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in land & permitting processes, stakeholder management, and project finance support, particularly in the renewable energy or infrastructure sectors.

This is an opportunity for someone to help establish the processes and ways of working, to help build a financial close process for Aukera that is agile, well managed, and repeatable.

Key Responsibilities

The core of this role is hands-on project management from RTB to FC.

This person needs to have a full understanding of what is required to bring the project through this development stage, and be capable of stepping into the detail if needed.

The key areas of responsibility include:-

Project initiation – setting up the project for success from day 1

• Engaging the Aukera teams from across the business, agreeing roles and responsibilities.
• Build and run the project plan, identifying key stages, milestones, and timescales.
• Coordinate with development, engineering, legal, procurement, construction, grid and investment teams to identify all requirements, and build them into the project plan with appropriate dependencies to ensure all conditions precedent are met.
• Build the project plan.
• Ensuring 3rd party advisors and consultants are identified and engaged.

Day to Day Project Management

• Track and manage project timelines, risks, and deliverables related to project closing.
• Design and operate an efficient reporting process to provide regular updates to senior management on land, permitting progress, risks and Financial Close progress.
• Maintain accurate records of all land, permits, conditions, and correspondence.
• Stakeholder management processes.

Land & Permitting Project Deliverables

• The candidate should have extensive experience in land and permitting management and should understand all the intricacies for the project they are managing.
• The existing development team are responsible for all land and permitting, however they may not have the capacity required to bring projects to financial close without further support
• The Candidate should be prepared to step in to coach, support or lead on development activities which may include:-
• Further negotiations on land rights, grid, planning and PPAs where required.
• Managing resolutions to red-flag reports.
• Coordinating the completion of secondary permitting activities.
• Ensuring compliance with all regulatory conditions attached to primary permits.
• Liaising with local, regional, and national authorities to secure outstanding approvals.
• Managing environmental, archaeological, and technical studies required for final permits.
• Stakeholder Management: Maintaining strong relationships with permitting authorities, consultants, and local communities.

Bus Driver for the Financial Close Process

• This role is responsible for bringing the project to financial close. The candidate should have expertise across both Development and Financing. They should understand all the dependencies between them, and potential issues and solutions.
• Provide the interface between development and project finance.
• Provide land & permitting-related inputs for due diligence.
• Support the preparation of data rooms and respond to investor or lender queries.
• Ensure all permitting milestones are aligned with financial close requirements.
• Work closely with the Development and Construction teams to finalise the budget to be presented for approval to the Lenders and the board.

Post Financial Close

• Responsible for closing this phase of the development, ensuring there is ownership for any outstanding actions, the documentation is complete, accessible and well organized and ensuring a smooth handover to construction.
• Identifying any outstanding actions, potential risks, and ensuring the next bus driver has a full understanding of the project.

Skills & Experience

Required Experience

• 5+ years of experience in bringing energy infrastructure projects from Ready to Build to Financial close in this country.
• Proven track record of managing land permitting processes through to financial close.
• A Strong understanding of regulatory frameworks and permitting authorities in the country.
• Very strong communication and negotiation skills, able to build strong working relationships and connect easily with both internal and external stakeholders.
• We would also prefer:-
• Experience in renewable energy (solar, wind, storage) projects.
• Familiarity with land acquisition, grid connection, and environmental impact processes.
• Knowledge of financial close procedures and lender requirements.

Required Skills and Approach

• An excellent people manager, with the ability to engage and motivate a high performing project team, often working remotely and working on multiple projects.
• A natural problem solver, able to apply their experience, communication skills and creativity to find effective solutions.
• Highly organized and process orientated, while understanding how to embed flexibility and deal with unexpected issues.
• A drive for autonomy, excellence and continuous improvement – keen to create reliable and efficient ways of working and collaborating.
• Fluency in English as well as the local language
• Proficiency in project management tools (e.g., MS Project, Primavera, or similar).