Chief Strategy Officer — Renewables Construction Book

The mandate

A privately held renewables construction group has produced successive strategies with attractive market themes but few explicit resource consequences. A proposed expansion into public-private partnerships now requires choices about development capital, technology, partners, country exposure and construction capacity. The board seeks a Chief Strategy Officer who can turn competing aspirations into a small number of funded positions and define when evidence should stop a pursuit.

The perimeter covers approximately AED 23,050 million in projects and operating assets and 525 employees and material partners. Accountability includes enterprise strategy, portfolio choices, market intelligence, strategic finance, partnership thesis, scenario planning, resource allocation and strategy execution. Business leaders own delivery and the investment committee retains capital approval. The CSO owns the coherence of choices, the evidence behind them and the removal of resources from priorities the board has not selected.

Renewable PPPs combine development rights, public objectives, power or service economics, land, grid, technology, financing, construction and long-term performance. An attractive demand forecast does not establish a viable position. The CSO must show where the group has a distinctive right to win and which risks should remain with partners or counterparties.

Strategy will be judged by decisions that alter people, capital and pipeline. A presentation that lists all growth markets as priorities has failed, even if each observation is individually correct.

Why this seat is open

The previous CSO is leaving through an accelerated but orderly transition. Interim analysts preserve current reviews, but PPP expansion requires permanent executive judgement within six to eight weeks. The succession is not linked to an undisclosed investment or conduct issue. Confidentiality protects live partners and internal leadership until the appointment is agreed.

What you will own

• Define the few markets and PPP positions worthy of enterprise commitment.
• Connect strategy choices to capital, talent and construction capacity.
• Establish entry, bid, partnership, scale and exit gates.
• Build scenarios around tariff, grid, financing and delivery exposure.
• Run portfolio reviews that remove resources from weak theses.
• Develop strategy leaders able to challenge business sponsors.

Market theses will begin with the decision environment. The team will examine procurement route, offtaker quality, tariff or payment mechanism, land and grid access, local content, financing depth, competitor behaviour and public-policy durability. Evidence will be dated and owned. Relationship access and memorandum activity will be recorded as inputs, not confused with a bankable position.

Resource allocation will expose opportunity cost. Each priority requires development spend, executives, engineering authorities, bid teams, guarantees and balance-sheet capacity. The CSO will reconcile simultaneous plans and recommend where sequencing, partnership or withdrawal is required. Functions may disagree with the answer, but cannot keep unapproved work alive through dispersed budgets.

Partnership strategy will state the contribution needed: local access, capital, technology, construction, operations or risk absorption. Governance, exclusivity, information rights, reserved matters and exit must be designed before relationship momentum narrows alternatives. The board will see how value and downside change if a partner underperforms or leaves.

Scenarios will connect rather than isolate variables. Higher funding cost may coincide with currency pressure, delayed grid access and lower supplier appetite. Technology or storage assumptions will reflect degradation, warranty and operating evidence. The CSO will present signposts and predetermined responses, allowing leaders to act before the central case is visibly broken.

Execution reviews will focus on assumptions and commitments. When evidence changes, the team will recommend increase, pause, reshape or exit. Sponsors must not relabel missed gates as timing shifts indefinitely. Strategy staff will spend time with bids, sites, customers and partners so challenge remains grounded in operating reality.

The first 12 months

Within 75 days, the CSO will re-underwrite the eight largest PPP positions, reconcile enterprise resource demands and assess the strategy team. The investment committee will receive immediate stop, stage and accelerate recommendations with clear evidence gaps.

By month eight, three market strategies should have approved entry and exit gates, two partnership structures should reflect defined contributions and at least one unsupported pursuit should release capital or scarce capacity. Portfolio reviews will use common scenarios and dated assumptions.

At year-end, 90% of development expenditure should sit behind approved gates, strategic initiatives remain within 10% of allocated resources and every priority PPP carry a funded capacity plan. Two major positions should reach a documented scale-or-stop decision on time, with no material bid submitted using an expired core assumption.

What the board will measure

• A small number of genuinely funded strategic choices.
• PPP positions grounded in market and delivery evidence.
• Partners selected for explicit contribution and governed downside.
• Early action when scenarios or assumptions deteriorate.
• Independent strategy talent respected by operating leaders.

The person

You are a Chief Strategy Officer, infrastructure strategy executive or portfolio leader with 22–28 years of experience. You have carried at least AED 13,350 million in accountable scope and led 375 or more people. Your record includes renewables, power or complex infrastructure PPP choices with real capital and operating consequences.

The board will examine a market you exited despite a positive headline, a partnership you restructured after testing contribution and a strategy cycle that removed resources from non-priorities. You must distinguish analytical elegance from a decision system. References should confirm sustained portfolio consequences after the initial recommendation.

This hybrid Dubai role requires extensive customer, authority, partner, project and investor travel.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is AED 1.3–1.8 million plus annual incentive. Measures include choice quality, capital gates, partnership outcomes, resource discipline, scenario action and succession. Final terms follow the confirmed strategic scope.

Confidentiality

The group, projects, public counterparties, partners and market choices remain confidential. Details follow reciprocal qualification and an undertaking. Composite facts ensure the portfolio cannot reasonably be identified.