Asset Manager (Energy Storage Assets)

Description

ABOUT LIGHTSHIFT ENERGY

Lightshift Energy develops, owns, and operates battery energy storage systems (BESS) for municipal utilities, cooperatives, investor-owned utilities, and large energy users across the U.S. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Lightshift has operating projects in Virginia and Massachusetts and a multi-gigawatt development pipeline.

The Asset Management team owns every project once it reaches commercial operation. We are the long-term point of contact for offtakers, investors, lenders, landowners, and O&M providers, and we are accountable for each asset delivering its contracted and modeled value over its full life.

ROLE OVERVIEW

The Asset Manager is the owner’s representative for a portfolio of operating BESS projects, accountable for their commercial, financial, and technical performance from commercial operation (COD) through end of life. You will make sure every project meets its contract obligations, hits its budget, and performs to its warranties and guarantees.

Works closely with: the O&M Manager, Finance and Accounting, Legal, Engineering, Development, and Commercial teams, plus external O&M providers, OEMs, offtakers, tax equity investors, and lenders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Commercial Asset Management

• Administer project agreements after COD, including energy storage services agreements and other offtake contracts, interconnection agreements, site leases, O&M and long-term service agreements, and insurance policies.

• Maintain a covenant and obligations register for each project, tracking every recurring deliverable, notice, consent, and deadline owed by or to the project company.

• Serve as day-to-day contact for offtakers (including municipal utilities and cooperatives), landowners, and host communities; resolve disputes and negotiate amendments, extensions, and change orders.

• Coordinate dispatch and operating plans with offtakers and scheduling parties so that cycling, state of charge, and temperature stay within warranty and design limits.

• Manage permit, regulatory, and interconnection compliance, and support insurance renewals and claims.

Financial Asset Management & Tax Equity

• Own each project’s annual operating budget and long-term forecast; run monthly variance analysis on revenue, OPEX, and availability-driven adjustments.

• Manage project-level financial operations: invoicing, receivables, vendor payments, reserve accounts, and cash distributions through the waterfall.

• Act as the sponsor’s operating point of contact for tax equity investors and lenders. Prepare monthly and annual investor reports, operating budgets for approval, and compliance certificates.

• Track tax equity partnership obligations: approval and consent rights, major-decision requirements, distribution calculations, flip-date and buyout timing, and reporting deadlines.

• Protect the investment tax credit (ITC) by flagging any event that could trigger recapture or adjustment, such as a casualty loss, long outage, equipment removal, change of control, or transfer, before it happens.

• Provide Finance, Tax, and outside advisors with project data for K-1s, capital accounts, depreciation, audits, and model updates. Support refinancings, portfolio financings, and diligence on project acquisitions and sales.

Technical Performance Management

• Monitor portfolio KPIs against contractual guarantees: availability, round-trip efficiency (RTE), degradation, and cycle counts.

• Prepare and pursue warranty and performance-guarantee claims with battery, PCS, and EMS suppliers, backed by SCADA, BMS, and maintenance records.

• Oversee third-party O&M providers against their service levels, response times, and preventive maintenance plans; schedule planned outages to avoid high-value periods. Partner with the O&M Manager on field execution.

• Run root-cause analysis on major outages and equipment failures and drive corrective actions to closure.

• Champion safety: track fire-safety and emergency-response readiness, incident reporting, and code compliance across sites.

Reporting & Systems

• Produce monthly portfolio reports for internal stakeholders, investors, and lenders.

• Help build and improve asset management tools, dashboards, and data pipelines (SCADA and asset performance platforms, obligations trackers) as the portfolio grows.

Requirements

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, finance, business, or a related field.

• 3+ years in renewable energy asset management, project finance, or operations.

• Working knowledge of tax equity partnership structures (partnership flip and similar), ITC rules including recapture, and project debt.

• Experience administering commercial contracts: offtake, O&M or long-term service, interconnection, and leases.

• Fluency with BESS performance metrics (availability, capacity, RTE, SOC, degradation) and the warranty and guarantee terms built on them.

• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills; comfortable with budgets, cash flow, waterfalls, and variance analysis.

• Clear writer and communicator who can report to investors and hold vendors accountable.

• Willing to travel to project sites, roughly 15–25% of the time.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with operating BESS or hybrid solar-plus-storage projects.

• Experience with distribution-connected storage, municipal or cooperative utility customers, or New England, PJM, and MISO markets.

• Experience with SCADA and asset performance platforms.

• Enjoys building: experience at a growing developer, owner, or operator, shaping processes and tools rather than inheriting them.

LOCATION

• Strong preference for candidate to report to Lightshift’s Arlington, VA headquarters. We will consider remote employment for exceptionally qualified candidates.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Salary range: $130,000 - $150,000

• Full benefits package, including 401k, health/dental/vision insurance, paid vacation, paid sick leave, paid holidays, and short-term disability.