Vice President Project Development - CO280 at BLANKSLATE Partners

Reports to: CEO

Location: Hybrid – North America (HQ: Vancouver, BC)

About CO280

CO280 is a leading developer of low-carbon industrial infrastructure projects. As a top 3 global BECCS developer, we hold more than $1B in signed CDR offtakes from buyers including Microsoft, Google, JPMorgan, Salesforce, and Stripe. We pioneered BECCS in North America, partnering with the continent's largest pulp and paper companies to retrofit mills with carbon capture and sequestration and deliver permanent carbon removal at scale.

We are now expanding to deliver low-carbon power solutions across the data center market, applying key advantages we already possess: trusted hyperscaler relationships, a portfolio of pre-qualified industrial sites, expertise in energy and CCS project development and access to capital. We've identified and pre-qualified more than 20 industrial sites representing approximately 6 GW of potential capacity — not just parcels of land, but strategic infrastructure platforms with existing industrial zoning, water rights, transmission access, and established host relationships that dramatically compress development timelines in a market where speed-to-power is everything.

This is the rare moment when a market this large is gated by a problem this specific. The AI buildout is the defining industrial expansion of the decade, and power is the constraint holding it back, with interconnection queues running four to seven years and the industry defaulting to unabated gas it does not want to burn. CO280 is building the platform that answers it.

You'll join a close-knit team of entrepreneurial, collaborative, and transparent operators who have developed, delivered, and scaled new technologies and industrial infrastructure across multiple verticals. We believe clean power must be practical, bankable, and scalable to move the needle on net zero and earn social license. If you want to help build the projects the energy transition is waiting on, this is a seat at the table.

The Role

The Vice President Project Development will build and lead CO280's low carbon power data center infrastructure platform — owning project origination, development strategy, strategic partnerships, and the project development organization. You will identify, originate, secure, and advance gigawatt-scale infrastructure opportunities from concept through Final Investment Decision (FID), working across utilities, industrial hosts, OEMs, EPCs, hyperscalers, AI developers, and capital partners to turn strategic sites into bankable projects.

This is a relationship-driven leadership role. Success will depend as much on the executive relationships you bring as the projects you've delivered. Existing relationships across hyperscalers, neoclouds, data center developers, utilities, power developers, OEMs, EPCs, infrastructure investors, and other strategic partners will enable CO280 to originate opportunities faster and build projects that competitors cannot.

Solutions may span gas-to-power + CCS, biomass, and solar with storage — owned and operated by CO280 and/or with partners. You own development through FID; at FID, the project engineering team leads execution, with your continued commercial support through construction to commercial operation.

This role exists because the AI industry has discovered that compute is no longer constrained by chips — it's constrained by power. Every major hyperscaler is competing to secure gigawatts of generation capacity while utilities face interconnection queues measured in years. CO280 is uniquely positioned to solve that problem by combining strategic industrial sites, deep customer relationships, and proven infrastructure development expertise. The Vice President Project Development will convert those advantages into one of North America's largest low-carbon infrastructure portfolios.

Your first 12–18 months will include:

• Building CO280's project development function and playbook.

• Converting pre-qualified host sites into data center-ready opportunities.

• Securing the company's first anchor AI infrastructure customers.

• Advancing the first one or two projects to Final Investment Decision.

Key Responsibilities

Origination & Development

• Drive new low-carbon power projects from origination through FID, then support the project engineering team commercially through construction to commercial operation.

• Develop CO280's project origination strategy by matching industrial host sites with hyperscaler demand, transmission availability, fiber infrastructure and regional power market opportunities.

• Own the development budget and project economics for each project through stage-gates to FID, including scenario and sensitivity analysis on key inputs.

Partnerships & Commercial

• Build executive relationships with utilities, industrial hosts, hyperscalers, neoclouds, data center developers, OEMs, EPCs, gas suppliers, and strategic partners across the project value chain.

• Negotiate contracts with project partners, working closely with project engineering, finance, legal, community engagement, and commercial teams.

• Partner with the commercial team to map the hyperscaler and AI-buyer channel end-to-end, translating buyer needs directly into project design and the development roadmap.

Cross-Functional Delivery

• Partner with engineering to develop technically robust, commercially attractive, and financeable projects, including coordinating studies, and building relationships with OEM and EPC partners.

• Align with finance to ensure projects are bankable, supporting project economic models and corporate/project financing activities.

• Manage the operating cadence — stage-gates, risk registers, development-budget discipline, and project economic performance.

Leadership & Strategy

• Build and lead the project development team: hiring, operating cadence, stage-gate process, and development budgets.

• Shape CO280's long-term infrastructure strategy as a member of the executive leadership team, defining where the business plays, how it wins, and how it scales.

• Serve on the executive leadership team and represent CO280 externally with customers, partners, investors, and industry stakeholders.

This is an opportunity to build one of North America's leading AI infrastructure development platforms at the point where energy, industrial redevelopment and hyperscale computing converge.

Location

Preference for Houston, Dallas, Denver or Vancouver but these locations are not a requirement.

At least 30% travel across North America

Requirements

Qualifications

We're looking for a leader who combines:

• A proven track record developing large-scale energy infrastructure projects through final Investment Decision.

• The entrepreneurial mindset to build a new business in a rapidly evolving market.

• The commercial, financial and relationship-building capability to originate, structure and finance bankable infrastructure projects.

Required

• 15+ years of relevant project development experience in power, energy infrastructure, or digital infrastructure, with a track record of taking projects from origination to FID and, ideally, to COD.

• An established executive network across utilities, Independent Power Producers, OEMs, EPCs, infrastructure developers, investors, or hyperscaler infrastructure teams.

• Demonstrated success originating and commercializing new infrastructure opportunities with sophisticated corporate customers and partners.

• Deep experience developing utility-scale power infrastructure: generation, transmission, interconnection, permitting, and site development. Experience supporting hyperscale data centers is highly desirable but not essential.

• Strong commercial, financial and engineering fluency, with the ability to structure bankable infrastructure projects and communicate effectively with technical, commercial and investment stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to contribute to term sheets and definitive agreements with sophisticated counterparties — hyperscalers, AI-native buyers, industrial hosts, midstream operators, or strategic investors.

• Experience building and running a development team, with clear views on stage-gates, risk allocation, and development budgets.

Benefits

Competitive salary and benefits