Solar Development Engineer Jobs in Chestnut Hill, MA

At Active Surfaces, our mission is bold: to unlock clean energy in places traditional solar can't reach. Our technology, born from nearly a decade of materials science research at MIT, enables ultra-lightweight, flexible solar modules that install on rooftops, walls, and industrial surfaces once considered off-limits. With our platform, the built environment itself becomes a source of clean power.

Since our founding, we've rapidly emerged as one of the most exciting startups in climate tech, merging breakthrough science with advanced manufacturing. Backed by leading global investors and strategic partners — including J-POWER, Sabancı, and Lendlease — and having already deployed a paid pilot with a Fortune 500 partner, we're scaling quickly to support a growing pipeline of deployments and commercial opportunities through 2028.

We're expanding our team to support this next phase of rapid growth. These key hires will join a world-class group with deep expertise in semiconductor and perovskite research, roll-to-roll manufacturing, and commercial leadership across the energy sector.

Let's be direct about what this is. We're a small team taking on a genuinely hard problem—and we hire accordingly. This is a high-intensity, early-stage environment where the pace is fast and the work you do is load-bearing: it directly determines whether we scale or we fail. We look for people who hold themselves to an exceptionally high bar, want deep ownership, and are energized rather than daunted by the ambiguity of tough problems. The work is demanding; the upside—in impact, in career growth, and in equity—is meant to match it. Few people get to materially change whether clean energy reaches places solar never could. If that's the room you want to be in, you'll be surrounded by people who feel the same.

How we work:

• Tackle hard problems first — we front-load the hardest work to minimize wasted iteration cycles and accelerate learning.
• Stay curious and creative — we thrive in ambiguity and push the boundaries of innovation and are always questioning the status quo.
• Thrive on feedback — we use it to grow quickly, as individuals and as a team - to make ourselves and our products better.
• Act today, not tomorrow — we move with urgency and a bias toward action, after all, climate change isn't slowing down.
• Trust the team and be trustworthy — we communicate openly and show up reliably for one another. We strive to make all our contributions perfect so that our peers and colleagues can do the same.

If you hold yourself to that bar and want to shape the future of solar alongside us, we want to meet you.

As Director of Business Development, you will own the commercial engine that turns breakthrough technology into deployed megawatts. You will build and drive our pipeline of rooftop, façade, and industrial-surface projects, structure the partnerships that scale them, and shape how Active Surfaces goes to market through 2028 and beyond. Reporting to the Founder & CEO, you will sit at the center of our commercial strategy: identifying targets, running deals end to end, and translating customer and partner needs back into the roadmap.

We are looking for someone who operates with the rigor of a top-tier consultant or investor and the urgency of an early-stage builder. You will move between a CFO's diligence questions, a developer's project economics, and a strategic partner's term sheet, often in the same day. Above all, we value someone who is a quick, structured thinker, a relentless closer, and comfortable building the function as they run it. As our commercial capabilities scale, we want a leader who can grow and scale with us. This role is located full-time on site in Woburn, MA at our Headquarters and Manufacturing Development site.

• Build, prioritize, and drive a pipeline of commercial deployments across rooftops, walls, and industrial surfaces, owning each opportunity from first contact through signed agreement.

• Structure and negotiate commercial agreements, pilots, and strategic partnerships, and build the deal models, project economics, and terms that make them work.

• Develop the go-to-market strategy: segment markets, size opportunities, and decide where to focus given our manufacturing ramp and product roadmap.

• Translate customer and partner requirements back to the engineering and product teams so what we build matches what the market will pay for.

• Build the commercial infrastructure, CRM, pipeline reporting, and deal processes that let a fast-growing team move with discipline.

• Represent Active Surfaces to customers, investors, and strategic partners, and help extend relationships with partners such as J-POWER, Sabancı, and Lendlease.

• Be data driven and intellectually honest: ground decisions in economics and evidence, not optimism, and hold peers to the same.

• 5-8 years in a high-performance, high-velocity environment: management consulting (MBB), investment banking, private equity, venture capital, or a fast-paced startup, with a strong track record of driving outcomes in a team.
• Demonstrated ability to run complex, multi-stakeholder deals or engagements end to end, with real ownership of the result.
• Exceptional organization and structure: you manage many parallel workstreams, keep a pipeline clean, and never let a thread drop.
• Strong commercial and quantitative instincts: you build and defend financial models, project economics, and business cases from first principles.
• Familiarity with energy, energy security, power markets, real estate, or infrastructure, and a genuine interest in the clean-energy transition.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; you can move a Fortune 500 procurement team, a developer, and a strategic partner with equal ease.
• Eager to build in ambiguity: you thrive in a collaborative, dynamic, fast-paced startup and are energized rather than daunted by open-ended problems.
• A strong, almost perfectionist attitude toward process and follow-through.

• Direct experience in solar, storage, or distributed energy resources.
• Experience selling to or partnering with Fortune 500 companies, real estate owners, or industrial off-takers.
• Familiarity with project finance, PPAs, or infrastructure deal structures.
• An existing network across energy, real estate, or climate.
• Comfort with CRM and analytics tooling (Salesforce, HubSpot, SQL, Python) to run a data-driven pipeline.
• Fluency in a second language relevant to our international partners.

All full-time employees are eligible for an annual performance bonus of up to 50% of base salary, assessed and dispersed every six months. The structure is intentionally non-linear — top performers earn disproportionately more, and we want it that way. This isn't stack-ranked: if everyone is exceptional, everyone earns at the top. Your individual contribution is the primary driver, with additional bonuses tied to both department and company outcomes. If you're a top performer, this is where we want that to pay off. Consistent high performance also influences base salary increases, with similar non-linear structures — so the compounding effect over time is significant, and can result in very quick salary and professional growth.

Base salary offers are given based on the experience level of the candidate but applicants should expect base salary levels in-line with their experience level for the Boston area. We are willing to hire multiple exceptional candidates with this posting.

• Top-tier health, dental and vision insurance (90% covered)

• 15 days vacation (20 once seniority is reached). Unlimited sick leave

• Commute reimbursement (75%)

• Wellness program ($50/month)

• Cell Phone Reimbursement ($50/month)

• 401K Matching (up to 5%)

• Equity + re-ups based on performance