Head of Origination

About American Terawatt

American Terawatt is building a new industrial electric grid for the United States. Building it requires securing power on one end and customers on the other, and structuring novel transmission supply agreements between generation and load.

We design and deploy advanced power transmission systems, serving large industrial loads, hundreds of megawatts at a time. Our systems deliver electric power to everything from frontier AI datacenters to highly automated manufacturing, refineries, mines, and more.

We make interconnection fast, simple, and cheap. On our network, generation owners get their projects online faster, delivering abundant power at competitive prices.

The backbone of American Terawatt’s network is high power HVDC transmission, anchored by our unique terminal design. American Terawatt’s HVDC terminals are standardized, modular, and natively integrate energy storage. Each one is designed to expand to operate as a full node on our future HVDC transmission network.

We raised significant venture equity from leading firms, such as Altimeter, Founders Fund, Bessemer Ventures, and Zero Infinity Partners.

The Role

We are hiring a founding Head of Origination to secure the generation interconnection and customer transmission agreements needed to build American Terawatt’s network.

You will work directly with the Chief Business Officer, founders, and technical and commercial leaders and take ownership of originating generation partners, large-load customer opportunities, and the structuring and execution of the required document package.

This is a commercial leadership role for someone who wants to create first-of-their-kind energy transactions and help build a new category of energy infrastructure.

This is initially a hands-on senior individual-contributor role, with the opportunity to build and lead an origination team as the company scales.

What you will own

Origination of generation supply and customer offtakes

Own relationships with generation developers, IPPs, utilities, energy marketers, and other asset owners across the West, Texas, Rockies, and Plains.

Source gigawatt-scale generation that can serve our network. Prioritize projects that are stranded, curtailed, unsuitable for colocation or stuck in interconnection queues, where our private network can convert stranded MWs into firm, deliverable power.

Identify and originate transmission opportunities between generation and load.

Partner closely with the Chief Business Officer to develop opportunities with frontier AI labs, hyperscalers, neoclouds, and other large industrial power users.

Commercial structuring and execution

Negotiate full commercial package from opportunity through execution - joint development, term sheets, generation interconnection, including security, availability, and other key terms.

Translate a customer’s power requirements into a commercial and technical specification. Work with Engineering, Development, and Legal to make sure we can execute what you sell.

Build and maintain a ranked pipeline with clear stages.

Partner with Commercial Team, including energy analysts, to generate partners in high priority markets

Feed customer, generation, and market intelligence back into American Terawatt’s energy network planning

Evaluate counterparty credit exposure. Partner with finance to develop creative credit solutions and ensure proposed transactions are financeable

Represent AmWatt at industry events and conferences

Risk and cross-functional execution

Work with founders and relevant team members to ensure the company can deliver what is committed.

Identify and communicate commercial risks, trade-offs and execution requirements.

What success looks like

In your first month

Develop a clear understanding of American Terawatt’s commercial model, priority markets and target counterparties.

Develop partner archetypes and create an initial map of priority generation partners and large-load customer opportunities.

Build a pipeline, deal stages and a commercial-review process

Familiarize yourself with internal American Terawatt tools to move quickly on assessing and engaging with opportunities.

Take over conversations with our power generation partners

By month six

Build an active pipeline of high-quality generation and large-load opportunities across priority markets.

Advance priority opportunities into commercial negotiation stages.

Programmitize work. Create commercial templates, evaluation criteria and deal processes.

Executed term sheets and joint development agreement with priority targets.

Develop strategy and implement potential longer term initiatives, such as energy manager partnerships

What we are looking for

This is a senior role requiring deep energy commercial experience. You have carried a revenue or volume commitment, and been personally accountable for deal terms. You are equally credible to a generation developer or data center.

Required Experience

10+ years in commercial or BD-focused energy roles: origination, offtake, structuring, development, or trading, at an IPP, developer, utility, marketer, or large energy buyer.

Deep generation fluency. You understand how projects get developed, permitted, financed, dispatched, and priced. Comfortable reading legal docs and working in Excel.

Direct negotiation experience on credit and security: collateral, guarantees, surety, and letters of credit.

Comfort with first-of-a-kind commercial structures, where you create template and precedent

Willingness to travel frequently.

Preferred Experience

You do not need to check every box. We value relevant skills, sound judgment, and the ability to learn quickly.

Data center or large-load experience: frontier lab, hyperscaler, colocation, crypto, or heavy industrial.

Market depth in West/SW, Texas, or Rockies/Plains

Familiarity with private wire and behind-the-meter transactions; experience structuring transmission service agreements.

Experience at an early-stage company or as an early commercial hire

Experience recruiting and developing commercial talent.

Details

Travel: 25%

Reports to: COO

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation: Competitive compensation package commensurate with experience, including salary and material equity participation.

Healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage, including 75% coverage for dependents and spouses.

Wellness: Up to $300/month reimbursement for gym and wellness expenses.

Meals: Lunch provided daily when working from an office.

Time off: Unlimited PTO with manager approval, plus company-wide office closures for July 4 week and one week in December.

Additional perks: Laptop of choice provided, convenient NYC office (on Madison Square Park) or SF (Embarcadero) locations, and employee contribution 401(k) program.