Founding Commercial Lead

Rockstar; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Rockstar in San Francisco is searching for a founding operator to help build a market-infrastructure platform that accelerates procurement and contracting for clean energy projects. You will shape commercial strategy, drive offtake negotiations, and translate buyer needs into product requirements.

You thrive in early-stage environments, own end-to-end execution, and are excited by equity upside as the company scales with strong backers and a mission to decarbonize heavy industry and data centers.

Qualifications

• Led or supported PPA negotiations for corporate or developer customers.
• Experience shaping terms, risk allocation, and bankability for complex deals.
• Understanding project finance blocks and how investors evaluate risk.
• Experience at intersection of commercial strategy and energy project development.
• Founding or early-team experience at a mission-driven startup.

Responsibilities

• Lead offtake and PPA strategy from conversations to contract-ready terms.
• Shape GTM strategy, originate and close deals.
• Standardize project diligence with templates and data rooms for bankability.
• Bridge commercial needs with product requirements and de-risk contracts.
• Be a founding operator balancing strategy with day-to-day execution.

Skills

PPA negotiations

Offtake contracts

Commercial structuring

Project finance basics

Energy market knowledge

Job description

Rockstar is recruiting for a market infrastructure company that accelerates the commercialization of clean energy and industrial technologies. The client helps scale solutions in clean firm power, fuels, industrial heat, cement, and steel, sectors responsible for over one-third of global emissions. They are building an AI-native platform that connects energy suppliers with hyperscalers and data center developers, automating diligence, structuring deals, and helping both sides move from evaluation to signed agreements faster. Their first vertical and product focuses on clean, reliable power for data centers, the binding constraint today. The same platform will expand to other critical industrial inputs over time. They believe the bottleneck in scaling energy infrastructure isn’t the tech. It’s capital flow, coordination, and contracting.

Why Join Now

• High-ceiling climate impact: Industrial decarbonization is responsible for over one-third of global emissions, and energy systems are the shared constraint underneath it. The client is going after the intersection: powering industry and data centers with clean, reliable electricity.
• True founding ownership: This is a founding role with high leverage. The individual will shape what they build and how they build it.
• Work on the real constraint: Power is the binding constraint for data centers today. The individual will build the tooling that turns messy infrastructure reality into decision-grade diligence.
• Meaningful upside: Get meaningful equity and compensation that scales with funding and traction.
• World-class backers and community: They are backed by leading climate investors and advised by individuals from the DOE and leading energy infrastructure investment firms.
• Strong early traction: They have closed deals and facilitated connections between leading data center developers and clean energy projects.
  

What You’ll Do

• Lead offtake & power purchase agreement strategy: Own strategy and execution for corporate offtake agreements, fuel contracts, and innovative procurement structures, bridging the gap between early buyer conversations and contract-ready deal terms, timelines, and requirements.
• Shape GTM strategy, originate & close deals: Build relationships with sustainability teams, project developers, and investors. Bring deals from sourcing to signature.
• Standardize project diligence: Help define the templates, data rooms, and commercial terms that unlock bankability for new tech.
• Bridge commercial background and product management: Translate buyer pain points into product requirements that streamline contracting and de-risk transactions. Stay plugged into product management and operations work so they ship what customers need and execute reliably.
• Be a founding operator: Exhibit an “owner’s mindset,” ready to pivot quickly from executive-level strategy to granular operational tasks or customer-facing support in a fast-paced environment.
  

Who You Are

• Have led or supported PPA, offtake, or long-term fuel contract negotiations (corporate or developer side)
• Bring commercial structuring experience, including shaping terms, risk allocation, and bankability for complex deals
• Understand the building blocks of project finance and how investors evaluate risk
• Have worked at the intersection of commercial strategy and energy project development
• Have an investment and/or operations background (e.g., infra investing, project development ops, strategy & ops) that helps execute end-to-end
• Thrive in ambiguous, early-stage environments and want to build something from scratch
• Excited to be a founding member or very early team member at a mission-driven startup
• Maintain a “player-coach” mindset, balancing high-level strategic leadership with a willingness to execute day-to-day operations and resolve customer escalations as needed to ensure team and customer success
  

Bonus Points

• Strong network in the decarbonization ecosystem (corporate buyers, project developers, infrastructure funds)
• Experience on the legal or commercial side of large, complex transactions; if legal, experience working with or across from top-tier firms (e.g., Orrick) and/or hyperscaler counterparties
• Strong product instincts
• Understanding of marketplace infrastructure and business models
  

What the Client Is Looking For

The client is looking for someone who is deeply motivated by climate impact and energized by the challenge of building from zero to one. An individual might be a fit if they are:

• Wildly driven and curious, and excited to throw themselves into the fire of an early-stage startup
• The kind of person who keeps building and learning outside of work because they genuinely cannot help it
• Someone with deep, niche intellectual obsessions who loves going down rabbit holes until they understand the thing better than almost anyone else
  

Company Values

An individual will thrive at the client if they:

• Exhibit high agency and take ownership end-to-end
• Are highly collaborative and bring a low-ego, team-first approach
• Bring compassion and deep care for the people they work with, and help create a supportive, high-trust community
• Have real comfort with ambiguity, and can create structure where none exists