Permitting Specialist - Water Rights and UIC

Title: Permitting Specialist - Water Rights and UIC 

Hours: Full-time; Salaried

Location: Salt Lake City, UT 

Pay:  $$$

Benefits Eligible: Yes

Manager: Head of Land

Geothermal energy is the most abundant renewable energy source in the world. However, historically it’s been hard to find and expensive to develop. At Zanskar, we’re using better technology to find and develop new geothermal resources in order to make geothermal a cost-effective and vital contributor to a carbon-free energy future. We are revolutionizing the exploration process, setting new industry standards for discovery rates and finding new prospects at an unprecedented scale. The growing development team at Zanskar is advancing a multi-gigawatt portfolio of firm, carbon-free energy projects, and needs a Permitting Specialist to coordinate all permitting related to water. 

Operationally, the Permitting Specialist - Water Rights and Underground Injection Control will work in close coordination with the cross disciplinary exploration, development teams at Zanskar and expert third-party consultants to obtain key state or federal permits pursuant to Office of State Engineer and Water Rights agency requirements and the Bureau of Land Management, when necessary, that allow Zanskar to expand its pipeline of late stage projects into drilling and flow testing phases. The Permitting Specialist for Water Rights will work closely with geologists, drilling engineers and land professionals to ensure seamless integration for exploration and development execution. 

This is a time of both changing industry regulations and Zanskar growth. In addition to obtaining temporary water permits, a successful Permitting Specialist - Water Rights and UIC will assist our Government Affairs team to improve the permitting process to increase speed and scale of permitting Zanskar operations. This requires creative thinking, in-person engagement and partnership with internal and external subject matter experts, and top-notch communication skills across a wide range of project stakeholders.

The ideal candidate should demonstrate:

• Ability to work with third-party consultants to avoid, minimize, and mitigate potential community/ water right impacts, with the end goal of accelerating scalable data collection campaigns

• Strong project management, team leadership and technical writing/communications skills

• Entrepreneurial thinking to create new processes and systems, collaborative spirit, team-player mentality with strong attention to detail

• A high degree of business acumen and experience with stakeholder engagement, particularly within the energy industry

• Ability to effectively engage directly with federal, state, and local jurisdictions with authority and community leaders

• A strong understanding of laws, regulations, and processes governing water rights in states throughout the west.

• An extensive background and expertise in hydrology, civil engineering or related disciplines. 

• Demonstrated cross team disciplinary team expertise, specifically working with drilling engineers, geologists and land teams. 

All candidates require:

• BS in related field; civil engineering with water resources focus preferred 

• 5+ years of relevant experience in; water right mapping,  environmental consulting, in-house energy development, permitting experience, and/or agency employment in the western United States. 

• Working knowledge of water rights ownership and permitting in the Western US

• Working knowledge of Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Control regulation, specific to Class V wells