Head of Talent

Blue Energy; Chevy Chase (MD); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Energy in Chevy Chase, MD is hiring a Head of Talent to own recruiting, compensation, HR partnership, and long-term workforce development. This role builds local talent ecosystems around project sites and aligns staffing with project milestones.

You will design internship, apprenticeship, and early‑career programs, partner with universities and training institutions, and ensure talent plans support cost and schedule success across multiple sites.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience across talent acquisition, workforce planning, or talent strategy.
• Experience staffing large infrastructure or industrial projects.
• Strong background in recruiting leadership and technical talent across multiple functions.
• Experience designing compensation structures, leveling frameworks, and talent planning processes.
• Proven ability to build partnerships with universities, technical colleges, workforce programs.

Responsibilities

• Own company-wide recruiting strategy across corporate and project delivery.
• Own compensation philosophy, bands, and leveling frameworks across corporate and field roles.
• Partner with Finance and leadership on annual planning and equity programs.
• Serve as HR partner to scale policies and organizational design.
• Design long-term workforce development strategies tied to project sites.

Skills

Talent acquisition

Workforce planning

Talent strategy

Recruiting leadership

Industry partnerships

Job description

Company Overview

Blue Energy’s mission is to unlock energy abundance, energy affordability, energy security, and turn-key decarbonization by developing the fastest path to deploying new nuclear MWs at scale. We are utilizing shipyard manufacturing supply chains and techniques from offshore oil and wind to reduce the cost of nuclear plants by over 60% and the manufacturing timeline to 24 months. Blue Energy is a platform technology that makes use of the latest NRC-approved reactors and is in negotiations with existing nuclear and industrial sites, enabling a much faster regulatory pathway to deploy our first unit. With our innovative centralized shipyard manufacturing approach, we can put nuclear power on a cost-reduction learning curve akin to wind, solar, and lithium-ion batteries.

The Opportunity

Blue Energy is scaling from ~50 people to 150+ in 2026, with construction starting later this year on the first project-financed nuclear power plant in U.S. history. That means hiring across corporate, engineering, and project delivery roles simultaneously, while building the workforce infrastructure for a multi-site, multi-decade construction program.

We're hiring a Head of Talent to own recruiting, compensation, HR partnership, and long-term workforce development. This is not a corporate-only talent role. Our success depends on building durable local talent ecosystems around project sites: engineers, technicians, operators, and project professionals. That work starts now, well before the first reactor goes online.

The right person has seen what it takes to staff large infrastructure projects and knows that talent decisions show up directly in cost, schedule, and execution risk.

What You’ll Own

• Recruiting and workforce planning

  • Own company-wide recruiting strategy across corporate, engineering, and project delivery. Partner with functional leaders to translate project schedules and development milestones into hiring plans. Build processes, tooling, and metrics that work for both headquarters growth and project-based ramp cycles.

• Compensation and leveling

  • Own compensation philosophy, bands, and leveling frameworks across corporate and field roles. Partner with Finance and leadership on annual planning, merit cycles, and equity programs. Make sure structures support retention and competitiveness in tight technical labor markets.

• HR partnership

  • Serve as a partner to the HR function as policies and practices scale. Support performance management, role clarity, and organizational design. Help the company mature from start-up norms to durable operating standards without adding unnecessary overhead.

• Local talent development

  • This is the part that makes the role unusual. Design long‑term workforce development strategies tied to project sites. Build partnerships with universities, technical colleges, and training institutions near development locations. Create internship, apprenticeship, and early‑career programs that feed directly into project staffing. Represent the company in workforce development conversations with municipalities, ports, and regional stakeholders.

• Scaling through the transition

  • Help the company go from early-stage to project execution mode. Build systems that support both corporate and site‑based teams. Anticipate talent bottlenecks before they become schedule risks.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience across talent acquisition, workforce planning, or talent strategy, ideally within infrastructure, energy, EPC, construction, or other industrial sectors.

• Demonstrated experience staffing large‑scale infrastructure or industrial projects, including planning and executing workforce ramp‑ups tied to project timelines.

• Strong background in recruiting leadership and technical talent across multiple functions

• Experience designing and managing compensation structures, leveling frameworks, and talent planning processes in growing organizations.

• Proven ability to build partnerships with universities, technical colleges, workforce development organizations, or apprenticeship programs to support long‑term talent pipelines.

• Experience operating in regulated or safety‑critical industries such as power generation, nuclear, aerospace, heavy industrial, or large‑scale construction environments.

• Ability to operate strategically while remaining hands‑on, with strong collaboration skills across executive leadership, finance, HR, and project teams.

Who Thrives Here

You’ve staffed large infrastructure or industrial projects and understand the difference between hiring for a software company and hiring for a construction program. You’ve worked in or around EPC, project development, or regulated industries. You’ve probably been the person figuring out how to get 200 qualified people to a job site in a specific county on a specific timeline.

Strong candidates will bring most of the following:

• Significant experience in project development and/or EPC environments

• Direct exposure to staffing large infrastructure or industrial projects

• Experience scaling early‑stage companies, project teams, or both

• Familiarity with regulated or safety‑critical industries: nuclear, natural gas, power generation, aerospace, heavy industrial

• Experience partnering with universities, technical programs, or community workforce initiatives

• Comfort operating across corporate HR and field‑based project realities

Start‑up experience is a plus but not required.

We look forward to your application and helping foster an era of safe, clean, affordable, and abundant energy.

Blue Energy is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t perfectly align with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this or other roles at Blue Energy now or in the future.