Director of Project Development

About Graphyte

Graphyte is a climate tech company on a mission to deliver the world's lowest-cost, highest-durability carbon removal. We compress and bury agricultural and timber biomass, locking away carbon that would otherwise return to the atmosphere, and sell the resulting carbon credits to buyers who need permanent, verifiable removal. We are a small team operating our first site and building the pipeline to scale to many more. The science is proven. We are storing biomass and selling credits. The challenge now is execution.

The Role

Graphyte's projects don't start in a conference room. They start in a county, with biomass supply to map, landowners to earn the trust of, permits to secure, and a community that deserves straight answers about what we're building and why it's good for them.

As Director of Project Development, you own that work. You'll identify and evaluate new project opportunities, secure land, build community and stakeholder support, drive permitting strategy, and structure the local agreements (land, biomass feedstock supply, logistics) that turn a promising region into a construction-ready, financeable project. You'll work alongside a fellow Director of Project Development, dividing a growing portfolio between you, and coordinating daily with our engineering, finance, and operations teams to keep every project moving on its critical path.

This is a senior individual contributor role reporting to our Chief Commercial Officer. You'll carry real ownership from day one: named sites with financing timelines attached, and new regions where you are the first Graphyte person anyone has met.

What You'll Own

Site origination & screening.

Find and evaluate new project regions against techno-economic criteria you'll help build: biomass supply, land, logistics, permitting complexity, community fit, and cost-per-ton impact.

Land acquisition.

Negotiate purchases, leases, options, and easements directly with landowners across active and prospective regions.

Community & stakeholder engagement.

Be Graphyte's face in the counties where we build. Earn and keep the local trust that our multi-site strategy depends on.

Permitting.

Own permitting strategy and execution across local, state, and federal jurisdictions for a first-of-its-kind storage category, managing environmental consultants and counsel.

Commercial development.

Structure the biomass supply, hauling, and community benefit agreements that make each project real and financeable.

What We're Looking For

7-10 years developing physical infrastructure or industrial projects (renewables, waste,

agriculture-industrial, or similar land-intensive categories), including taking projects from

greenfield through permitting to construction readiness or FID

Land acquisition experience: you have personally negotiated agreements with private

landowners, not just managed a land agent

Community engagement experience in rural communities, including public processes and

handling real local concerns

Permitting ownership: you'

ve built and executed permitting strategy, ideally where the

regulatory pathway was novel or ambiguous

Financially fluent in project development: you can defend site economics with a finance team

and produce development materials that survive diligence

Comfortable with early-stage pace and ambiguity: you build the playbook, not inherit it

Strong plus:

Experience with timber and agricultural regions in the southeast and western North America

Carbon markets, CDR, or biomass supply chain familiarity

Experience developing projects in a novel or emerging asset category

What This Is Not

This is not a desk-bound strategy role. You will spend real time in small towns, at kitchen tables, in county buildings, and on project sites, and the relationships you build there will determine whether Graphyte scales. If you're energized by owning hard, tangible problems end to end and you're ready to jump in the deep end and build something real, local, and climate beneficial, this might be your dream job.

Compensation & Logistics

Salary range is market rate with meaningful early-stage equity.

Standard benefits.

Full-time, remote.

Start date: ASAP.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.