Manager, Land Development

At Algonquin-Liberty, we hire passionate people who care about doing the right thing for our customers. We are entrepreneurial, creative, and outcome-focused. Here, your natural talent and achievements will flourish in an inclusive environment of teamwork, trust and continuous learning. We are always pursuing excellence to exceed our ambitions goals, rewarding both the goal outcome and how we achieve it.

Purpose:

The objective of the role of “Land Manager” is to lead and manage in-person engagement, negotiations, and strategic management of Liberty Power’s major renewable projects in order to successfully (i) gain land tenure on all needed land and (ii) build strong relationships with various stakeholders. The role will be most active during project origination, through development and planning (PSG 0-3). During construction execution (PSG 4/5), the Land Manager will remain involved as an agent for Liberty Power on these matters.

Because of experience in the fields of real estate and stakeholder engagement, the Land Manager is a subject-matter expert in project development and land management. The Land Manager is accountable for the operational planning and prioritization of tasks supporting approved projects with a clear view to required land and stakeholder success and community engagement activities. This position will be accountable for securing all land tenure on required land, including supporting public outreach, community relations, procedural improvement and associated regulatory applications. The employee in this role is a subject matter expert and requires strong interpersonal, relationship building, and negotiation skills as they will be interfacing with various stakeholders day-to-day, while traveling between 50%-80% of their time. The Land Manager will receive overall guidance from the Senior Manager – Land and Stakeholders, but is expected to initiate, lead, evaluate and execute all significant land management steps, including communication with project leadership, to secure land control on time and on budget.

This role will require travel throughout North America. The Land Manager will require a Canadian Passport and be capable for applying for a working Visa for the USA.

Accountabilities:

• Collaborate with the permitting and planning team to investigate and recommend and manage new land agents in the new business development jurisdictions for Liberty.
• Retain and manage 3rd party land agents to act in the same capacity when workload demands or logistics require 3rd party services,
• Initiate property owner and stakeholder outreach through mailouts, property research, contact research, property record and title searches.
• Proactively develop new products, processes, standards or operational plans for land management and real estate control,
• Present plans and results on different real estate initiatives and challenges to senior management.
• Proactively develop new relationships with landowners, serving as a primary contact person for Liberty.
• Working independently on assigned projects, traveling to project areas and leading the execution and securing of required land packages for the project, overseeing both internal and external resources.
• Negotiate and implement various agreements with landowners, such as options, leases, easements, or other real estate-related items.
• Proactively identify and manage opportunities and risks and communicate these items to the broader project team for action and mitigation.
• Ability to draft, review, and amend contracts for the land and permitting teams.
• Maintenance of thorough records to support application processes and potential legal challenges.
• Ability to travel to in-person meetings and project events across North America.
• Develop and coordinate ‘hand over’ plans to guide transition of project from origination to development, and development to construction, in regards to land acquisition rights obtained, and property owner commitments and communications.
• Meet and/or communicate with existing landowners and stakeholders to maintain/build relationships with Liberty Power, including documenting all landowner interactions and commitments.
• Facilitate introductions of key project landowners to PSG 4 construction team.
• Upon assignment, support due diligence tasks associated with property and land agreements.
• Work with BD acquisition team on Due Diligence reviews of land tenure documentation and provide opinion related to critical issues analysis specific to this topic
• Leadership in building in-house knowledge and the continuous improvement of processes for the Land Acquisition team (ex. learning new regulatory requirements where Liberty enters new businesses or regions)
• Manage the preparation and implementation of BD project real estate transactions and leases.
• Assist Business Development with interdivisional coordination with many company departments including Operations, Legal, investor relations and Asset Management as it relates to project land management, in the origination (PSG 0-1), planning and development (PSG2-3), construction (PSG 4) and turnover (PSG5) project stages.
• Build and manage initiatives to demonstrate to communities that Liberty originates, develops, constructs and operates renewable projects, leading to short-term and long-term benefits to stakeholders and communities.
• In partnership with permitting and planning team, provide assistance, and review work from team members related to land acquisition, as required to; manage the land zoning security for new development packages; research applicable regulations, prepare re-zoning applications, meeting municipal staff, elected council officials, and defending and expediting applications Provide recommendations for execution and improvements as well as supporting community building events with local stakeholders and landowners
• Supervise and coach other Land Development Specialists to act in the same capacity.

Education and Experience:

• College or professional program of 3 years/University Degree
• 10+ years of relative experience
• 5+ years of leadership experience
• Valid driver’s license and passport with ability to travel internationally as requested.
• Ability to travel (minimum 50% - 80% of time) and meet with various landowners and project stakeholders,
• Broad knowledge of the various legal and commercial aspects of land tenure, specifically related to the renewable power generation industry required, (leases, rental agreements, royalty payments, easements, land registry, deeds and title, etc.),
• Broad knowledge of provincial/state/municipal government structures and function working systems.
• Ability to travel throughout North America (passport required)
• Ability to apply for an appropriate USA Work Visa

On August 10th, our company announced its intent to pursue a sale of our Renewables Energy Group and position ourselves as a pure-play regulated utility company. For more on this announcement, you can read the press release .

Our purpose is sustaining energy and water for life, and it is demonstrated in everything we do as a business and as an employee team.

Our Mission:

We provide safe, secure, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable energy and water solutions. Our mission is how we create value as an organization—it is what drives us every day to fulfill our purpose.

Our Vision:

We better the lives of our customers and communities. Our vision is what we see as possible. It's where we aspire to be, what we want to achieve and how we'll make animpact. It guides and keeps us on the right path as we work towards fulfilling our purposes.

Our Guiding Principles:

• Customer Centric
• Integrity
• Entrepreneurial
• Teamwork
• Owner mindset
• Outcome focused
• Continuous learning

What We Offer:

Collaborative environment with a genuine flexible working policy

Share purchase/match plan

A defined contribution savings plan

Leadership Development Program

Volunteer paid days off

Employee Assistance Program

Achievement fund

Group Benefit Plan

Variety of Health & Wellness programs

Discount and Perks program

We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you are excited about this role and are not confident you meet all the qualification requirements, we encourage you to apply to investigate the opportunity further.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value each person's unique background, diversity, experiences, perspectives and talents.

Full participation of all employees in a safe, healthy and respectful environment is key to individual and company success. We are committed to fully utilizing the abilities of all our employees and expect each of our employees to honour this commitment in their daily responsibilities.