Head of Commercial

JERA Nex is a company created by JERA to scale renewable energy for a sustainable future. JERA Nex combines the resilience of JERA, one of the world’s largest electricity producers, with the agility and focus of a dedicated renewables business that can act at the pace required to drive the global energy transition.

JERA Nex invests in, currently owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy assets, with a portfolio over 3GW that includes offshore wind, onshore wind and solar, as well as battery storage. This includes Parkwind, its wholly owned subsidiary. Headquartered in London, and with centres of excellence in Belgium, Japan, Taiwan and the US, our team of more than 300 renewable and energy industry experts combines global knowhow and experience with the local expertise and knowledge necessary to deliver successful projects.

In order to support JERA’s ambition in Renewables, the JERA renewables team manage a number of investment opportunities, tenders, M&A, greenfield developments and highly complex and capex intensive projects and joint ventures that sometimes include P2X.

The Head of Commercial will have a lead role in evaluating opportunities and in the execution of acquisitions, joint ventures and project development activities, in support of the ambitious plans of JERA Nex to grow a portfolio of high quality renewable assets and a network of strong relationships with quality partners and counterparties in the industry.

The Head of Commercial will also be expected to be a cohesive influence within JERA Nex, as the company grows, and to establish and maintain excellent relations with other parts of the JERA group.

The role will be based in London and will require travelling and frequent collaboration with other JERA Nex offices and with JERA HQ in Japan.

As a direct report to the VP Global Onshore Renewables, the Head of Commercial will be an effective contributor to the growth of JERA Nex towards the achievement of the 2035 target.

Job Description

• Take the lead, supervise, or collaborate as appropriate in acquisition, joint venture and project development activities as appropriate to support the growth of the JERA Nex onshore renewables portfolio. As required with the growth of the pipeline which currently aims to support two thirds of the anticipated ~17GW (net) of growth necessary to achieve the 20GW (net) target of projects at or beyond FID by 2035.
• Support internal initiatives, particularly those involving collaboration with other JERA affiliates and other parts of the JERA Nex business – recognizing that collaboration and cohesiveness will be important factors in the successful growth of JERA Nex.
• The Head of Commercial will have strong management and influencing skills, together with deep power industry experience, particularly international onshore renewables (solar PV, BESS and onshore wind).
• You will have the experience and approach necessary to understand complex commercial arrangements as relevant to the acquisition and/or development of international power projects and you will relish the opportunity to work across and manage activities across a rapidly evolving and growing energy business.
• This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced industry professional who actively wants to be part of a relatively small but high-performing team in growth mode.

What you will do

• Help to grow the portfolio in a selective way across JERA Nex, through bids or acquisitions, sell downs or green field development, in order to effectively grow the pipeline of the JERA Nex group at various development stages to secure the achievement of the 2035 target. As part of the above, work with the JERA Nex executive to identify strategic priorities.
• Establish and develop collaborative relationships with third parties (JV partners and others).
• Be responsible for due diligence, structuring and transacting projects and potentially platforms or portfolios at various stages of the asset life cycle, including acquisitions of equity stakes in existing projects in development, construction or operations and establishing development partnerships and preparation of bids in active tenders.
• Identify (or assist in the identification of) opportunities, contribute to negotiate and establish partnerships for projects at various development stages (joint bidding, joint development, co-investment agreements).
• Obtain regulatory and other market intelligence to inform strategy.
• Plan and implement bidding strategy and tender activities, providing bid director type roles or overseeing activities via chairing project or bid steercos.
• Manages public and private and national and local stakeholders, and takes part in relevant meetings, as JERA Nex representative.
• Very close collaboration with Tokyo head Office and other JERA Nex offices (and regional JERA offices supporting JERA Nex), including presenting opportunities and investment/divestment needs to the JERA Nex executive, IC and Board, as required.
• Likely to retain SPV / investee company board and steerco roles in relation to specific projects and initiatives.
• Regular reporting to the Global VP Onshore, JERA Nex executive and IC/Board.

• 10+ years of power industry experience, including renewables.
• Proven track record in the development and financing of power projects.
• Proven track record in M&A processes - Business / Project Development & Construction / M&A experience (large and complex projects).
• Proven track record in establishing and developing long-term joint venture and partnership relationships.
• Credibility with partners, investors and professional adviser, established through successful acquisitions, joint ventures, and/or development of renewables projects.

Who we are and what we offer

• Start-up and entrepreneurial environment in a company that is part of a larger, well-funded and long-term ambition to contribute to global decarbonization.
• Opportunity to define your workplace. We are starting out and every idea counts!
• A job that is part of making our world a greener and better place.
• International team that benefits from our different perspectives, backgrounds and experiences.
• We are high-performing and ambitious individuals who also enjoy our private lives. We hope you can identify with that.
• We believe in the benefit of flexible working hours and location and appreciate that we see one another in person regularly.
• We are not afraid to admit that we don’t know things but also proactively look to solve problems and work collaboratively.
• We work hard but also want to have fun at the same time, we’re on an exciting journey.

Established in 2015, JERA is an equal joint venture of TEPCO Fuel & Power, Incorporated and Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. JERA is a Japanese company with significant and global portfolio of international energy assets. It has industry leading expertise scaling the entire fuel and power supply chain, from upstream fuel investments to fuel procurement, trading and transportation, to power generation development, construction and operation. JERA’s mission is to contribute to an internationally competitive supply of power and energy and to invigorate the standard of living, industry and economy around the world. JERA Nex is a 100% owned subsidiary of JERA.