Principal Project Manager

Are you ready to shape the future of energy by leading complex and high-impact M&A transactions across multiple energy technologies and helping grow strategic customer accounts?

Do you thrive at the intersection of technical expertise, commercial judgment, innovation and strategic deal-making, helping investors make smarter decisions in a rapidly evolving energy market?

DNV Energy Systems North America is seeking a Principal Project Manager with deep technical and commercial expertise in energy technologies (e.g. wind, solar, storage, electric-vehicle infrastructure, decarbonization, midstream infrastructure, thermal generation, data centers, or other emerging energy infrastructure), and/or practical experience with project financing for our Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Advisory Services team. The successful candidate will combine complex project delivery leadership with account growth, commercial ownership, and team capability development. Join us!

Our M&A team operates at the cutting edge of the energy industry providing technical due diligence and advisory services to diverse customers in the North American market and beyond, primarily in support of M&A transactions such as purchases, sales, divestments, and capital raises of projects and platforms. Our technical work contributes to the efficient functioning of the equity markets which are increasingly driving energy transactions in North America.

In this role, you will lead the most complex, high-value M&A engagements, serving as a trusted advisor on critical transaction decisions and a senior escalation point for customers and project teams facing complex technical, commercial, or delivery challenges. You will provide senior-level project management and technical advisory services, exercise judgment across technical, commercial, and delivery trade-offs, grow key customer relationships, serve as Project Sponsor or senior reviewer for selected engagements, develop Senior Project Managers (SPMs), Project Managers (PMs), and Associate Project Managers (APMs), and translate experience into repeatable methods, tools, and best practices.

Ideally, this position can be based out of any of our current advisory offices including Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; San Diego or Oakland, CA; Austin, Houston, or Dallas, TX; Medford, MA; Arlington, VA; New York, NY, presenting a dynamic hybrid schedule where employees will typically spend three (3) days per week working from either a DNV office or client location/site.

What you'll do

- Lead the most complex, high-risk, multi-discipline and multi-technology due diligence engagements, acting as the senior point of contact accountable for scope, schedule, budget, quality, customer confidence, and commercial outcomes. Identify technical risks and opportunities associated with potential investments, synthesize key findings, and clearly communicate their transaction implications to customers.
- Leverage experience, expertise, and creative thought to deliver customer-centric technical analysis for energy and infrastructure projects. Typical scopes include evaluation of project risks and upside potential through:

Review of key project contracts describing interconnection, revenue, construction, and operations and maintenance;
- Validation of technical inputs in project financial models including estimation and review of construction and operating costs;
- Review of project designs and technologies;
- Operational evaluations including site inspections and interviews (both on-site and virtual), and review of operating history and asset management approach; and
- Industry benchmarking analyses and development stage project screening studies.

- Serve as Project Sponsor on major engagements, providing senior oversight for due diligence execution, prioritizing QHSE considerations, ensuring alignment among transaction strategy, customer priorities, and quality expectations, and serving as the escalation point for the most complex technical and commercial project decisions.
- Lead and coordinate technical reviews among internal specialists, including civil and electrical engineering, energy assessment, technology, transmission, permitting teams, and other DNV disciplines; establish clear accountabilities and resolve cross-discipline delivery issues.
- Direct and provide senior-level review of the analyses most material to investment decisions, including contract and financial model review, technology, design, energy assessments, operating performance, and other complex technical matters with emphasis on the issues most material to the transaction
- Resolve technical issues in partnership with transaction stakeholders, including coordination of input on such issues from internal technical specialists, as necessary.
- Provide final review and approval of major deliverables, ensuring that findings are technically rigorous, decision-useful, aligned with client context, and communicated with clarity and credibility.
- Lead customer dialogues to understand their needs. Develop winning proposals for scopes of services related to due diligence work, including creative tailoring and sequencing of work to meet budget and timeline requirements. Identify opportunities for innovation and refinement to meet the needs of an evolving marketplace.
- Support priority customers through transaction execution, investment committee decisions, financing, and closing (as applicable), while strengthening long-term, high-value relationships and DNV’s position as a strategic partner.
- Define and champion improvements to methodologies, delivery approaches, digital tools, and service offerings that enhance quality, consistency, scalability, and customer value across the M&A practice.
- Partner with account leadership to develop and execute customer engagement strategies for priority accounts, identifying opportunities to expand relationships, anticipate customer needs, and strengthen DNV's market position.
- Serve as a recognized leader within the M&A practice by contributing to talent development, service-line evolution, strategic hiring priorities, thought leadership, and cross-functional collaboration across DNV.
- Adhere to the DNV system for quality management, including liaising with QHSE leadership on developing procedures, instructions, guidelines, and checklists in order to ensure quality of services produced by the M&A team.
- Mentor SPMs, PMs, and APMs through project-based coaching, review, and knowledge sharing; provide input to Team Leads on development needs, project assignments, and readiness for increasingly complex responsibilities.

What is Required

- Bachelor’s degree from accredited four-year university in a relevant field to include engineering, science, thermal generation, renewable energy, finance, business or other related areas.
- Typically, 10+ years of applicable technical advisory, commercial leadership, and complex project management experience in the thermal, solar, wind, storage, and/or energy infrastructure in North America. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) experience is preferred but not required.
- Knowledge of the energy project lifecycle and associated items which may include project contracts (EPC, equipment procurement, interconnection, PPA, etc.), technology and design, energy production assessments and performance, financial modeling and economics (CapEx and OpEx), operations and performance, transmission/curtailment considerations, and common technical risks.
- Demonstrated success leading the execution of large, complex, and time-sensitive due diligence engagements involving multiple technologies, disciplines, stakeholders, and competing transaction priorities.
- Demonstrated leadership to adopt, test, and improve digital and AI-enabled delivery tools, including using project experience to help translate workflows into scalable methods, templates, and quality controls.
- Demonstrated ability to provide senior-level technical and commercial judgment on critical decisions and to distinguish issues material to investment strategy from ordinary technical observations .
- Demonstrated success directing the commercial performance of complex engagements, including budget, margin, invoicing, scope control, change orders, and strategic customer positioning.
- Demonstrated success leading proposals, shaping scopes for complex transactions, and contributing to account or pipeline growth.
- Experience mentoring project managers or technical professionals and providing quality or sponsor-level oversight across multiple engagements.
- Proficiency in MS Office Suite.
- Ability to travel domestically and internationally to customer offices and sites, other office locations, and conferences, up to approximately 15% of the time.
- Excellent verbal and written communications skills in English.
- We conduct pre-employment drug and background screening

*Immigration-related employment benefits, for example visa sponsorship, are not available for this position*

Personal Qualifications and Skills

- Leadership skills, strong team mindset, and the ability to collaborate, motivate and lead by way of example.
- Recognized for sound judgment in ambiguous situations and trusted to advise on the most complex technical, commercial, and transaction-related issues facing project teams and customers
- Demonstrated ability to act as a trusted senior advisor to priority clients and strengthen strategic, high-value relationships in partnership with account and team leadership.
- Ability to work effectively and professionally with diverse customers and colleagues.
- Flexibility, resiliency and adaptability within a dynamic team environment.
- Continuous improvement mindset and enthusiasm for leveraging digital and AI-enabled tools to improve project delivery, quality, and efficiency.
- Drive to learn, and collaboratively identify opportunities for improvements to process, tools, and offerings.
- Strong technical and organizational skills.