Project Development Manager, Agriculture, Carbon Markets

Every day, we work together for what matters – bold, swift, and equitable climate action.

ABOUT THE ROLE

3Degrees helps organizations around the world implement renewable energy, transportation decarbonization, and other high-impact climate solutions to address their scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions To support the rapid expansion of our carbon and environmental attribute project portfolio, we are seeking an experienced, deal-oriented Project Development Manager – Agriculture & Food Supply Chain to serve as a core originator across agricultural and land-based decarbonization sectors.

In this role, you will act as a commercial hunter and partnership builder, identifying, evaluating, and closing long-term development and monetization agreements. You will focus on expanding our agricultural practice, including livestock projects (manure management, enteric fermentation, low carbon feed)), regenerative agriculture solutions for arable land, low carbon fertilizer initiatives to fulfill multi-year enterprise demand.

This is a full-time, exempt role reporting directly to the Senior Project Development Manager. The Manager will collaborate closely with 3Degrees’ technical Carbon Operations and MRV teams, legal counsel, and commercial sales teams who manage attribute offtake and corporate climate partnerships.

We value camaraderie, team collaboration, and the benefits of in-person connection, while offering flexibility. For this role, we strongly prefer candidates who can join us in a voluntary, flexible hybrid work style based out of our office hubs in San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Portland, ME, with an additional preference for candidates located along the US East Coast.

For exceptional remote candidates, we prioritize those located in states where 3Degrees is currently eligible to hire: CA, OR, NY, WA, ME, TX, CO, MI, FL, MA, MN, VA, DC, GA, UT, and IL. 3Degrees does not provide relocation assistance or visa sponsorship for this position.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• The Project Development Manager will function as a pure-play project originator, managing multi-stakeholder partnership development cycles across agricultural sectors from prospect identification through contract execution. Core responsibilities include:
• Proactive Agricultural Sourcing: Prospect and establish direct relationships with agricultural technology providers, dairy/livestock producers, ag co-ops, and aggregators to build a robust pipeline of high-integrity agricultural carbon assets.
• Flexible Commercial Deal Structuring: Negotiate tailored commercial structures and offtake agreements — including spot transactions, long-term revenue-sharing models, and fixed-price offtakes.
• Pipeline Ownership: Inherit, maintain, and expand existing key dairy industry relationships and ongoing project pipelines, driving deals through execution.
• Financial Modeling: Build and refine discounted cash flow (DCF) models, credit issuance projections based on herd size/acreage, and monetization frameworks to underwrite commercial viability.
• Protocol & Due Diligence Oversight: Lead commercial and operational due diligence on counterparties, agricultural technology, historical farm data, credit delivery risk, and protocol eligibility under existing carbon frameworks (i.e. CAR, Verra, Gold Standard)as well as emerging scope 3 / supply chain pathways.
• Cross-Functional & Field Engagement: Partner with Carbon Operations/MRV, agronomy leads, legal, and commercial sales to shepherd deals through Risk Management Committee approval, while representing 3Degrees at industry events.

Requirements

ABOUT YOU

You are a deal-oriented business development professional with deep expertise in the agricultural sector. You pair a commercial "hunter" mindset with a practical understanding of farm operations, livestock production, and agricultural carbon accounting. Qualifications include:

• 5–15 years of experience in agricultural carbon markets, agribusiness development, livestock/dairy project development, environmental commodity origination, or agricultural project finance.
• Proven Agribusiness Track Record: Demonstrated success originating, structuring, and closing commercial agreements, project partnerships, or joint ventures within agriculture, livestock, or food supply chains.
• Agricultural & Agronomic Acumen: Clear understanding of livestock manure management systems, methane recovery technologies, and regenerative farming practices
• Commercial Risk & Revenue-Share Mastery: Familiarity structuring revenue-share agreements, term sheets, DCF models, and navigating agricultural credit generation risk.
• Standards & Methodology Expertise: Familiarity with agricultural carbon protocols (e.g., CAR Livestock & Soil Protocols, Verra VM0042, Gold Standard).
• Stakeholder Engagement: Exceptional communication skills to build trust with family farm owners, agriculture technology companies, and corporate sustainability executives.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics, Animal Science, Environmental Sciences, or Business. An advanced degree or MBA is a plus.
• HOW WE DEFINE SUCCESS
• Within the first 30 Days: Systems & Workflow Mastery: Master internal CRM tools, MRV workflows, and project stage-gate tracking mechanisms to build operational fluency.
• Organizational Structure: Learn team structures and meeting cadences, understanding how origination interfaces with carbon operations, legal, and enterprise sales.
• Cross-Functional Connections: Build high-trust relationships with key internal stakeholders, including technical leads, legal counsel, and enterprise sales directors.
• Within the first 90 Days: Underwriting & Financial Modeling: Hone execution of DCF models, revenue-sharing structures, and techno-economic project feasibility analyses under senior guidance.
• Targeted Deal Sourcing: Launch targeted origination campaigns in key agricultural regions (focusing on dairy/swine manure management hubs and priority Scope 3 sourcing sheds), advancing qualified leads for review.
• Diligence & Methodology Alignment: Partner closely with MRV teams to evaluate counterparty Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) and carbon accounting methodologies.
• Pipeline Transition: Assume management of early-to-medium stage deals across agricultural decarbonization sectors.
• Within the first 6 Months: Strategic Growth Roadmap: Deliver a 12–24 month origination strategy aligning heavy industry and transportation pipeline targets with 3Degrees’ corporate goals.
• Term Sheet Execution: Advance vetted opportunities through commercial due diligence to negotiate and sign bilateral term sheets and offtake frameworks.
• Governance & Approvals: Prepare and defend comprehensive underwriting and risk-mitigation packages for Risk Management Committee approval.
• Commercial Demand Sync: Institutionalize feedback loops with enterprise sales teams to match originated Scope 3 attributes with contracted buyer demand.
• Within the first year: Contract Execution: Finalize multi-year development agreements and offtake contracts that deliver verifiable, high-integrity environmental attribute volumes.
• Supply-Demand Integration: Oversee early project delivery milestones, integrating verified attribute volumes directly into commercial corporate sales channels.
• Ecosystem Expansion: Establish 3Degrees as the partner of choice within clean industry alliances, trade groups, and buyer consortiums.
• Origination Optimization: Apply transaction learnings to refine contract templates, diligence playbooks, and pricing structures to accelerate future deal velocity.