General Manager, Curation

At Good Carbon Co., we’re redefining what it means to build and manage housing. We focus on creating sustainable, energy-efficient, and affordable multifamily communities throughout Western New York. From concept to completion, we’re a team of innovators, builders, and changemakers committed to doing work that is not only smart, but good.

About The Role

Good Carbon is seeking an experienced General Manager of Curation to lead our real estate development function and move projects from post-acquisition through construction readiness. Reporting to the VP of Operations, this role is responsible for ensuring projects are properly scoped, designed, permitted, budgeted, and prepared for successful construction execution. The General Manager will lead the development team, manage a multi-project pipeline, strengthen development systems, and coordinate closely with Acquisitions, Construction, Finance, Legal, and Property Management.

This role will also help integrate energy efficiency and clean energy infrastructure—including geothermal systems, battery energy storage systems, and other technologies—into project design and development planning.

What You'll Own

• Lead development activities from acquisition handoff through construction readiness.
• Manage project timelines for design, entitlements, permitting, approvals, budgeting, and pre-construction planning.
• Establish clear milestones and maintain visibility into project progress, risks, decisions, and resource needs.
• Ensure development activities support company delivery schedules, financial goals, and portfolio priorities.
• Manage multiple projects with concurrent deadlines and competing priorities.

Construction Readiness and Project Handoff

• Ensure projects are construction-ready with complete drawings, specifications, engineering documentation, budgets, schedules, permits, and approvals.
• Establish and enforce development stage gates and readiness reviews.
• Partner with Construction leadership to confirm constructability, cost accuracy, procurement considerations, and execution requirements.
• Improve the quality and consistency of development-to-construction handoffs.
• Minimize late design changes, incomplete documentation, and avoidable construction delays.

Cross Functional and Development Coordination

• Partner with Acquisitions to evaluate feasibility, project scope, site considerations, and early development risks.
• Coordinate with Finance and Legal to align projects with underwriting assumptions, funding requirements, tax credits, incentives, and contractual obligations.
• Work with Property Management to ensure development decisions support long-term operations and resident needs.
• Provide company leadership with clear reporting on pipeline status, risks, decisions, and delivery readiness.

Budget and Financial Alignment

• Develop and manage development budgets and pre-construction cost estimates.
• Ensure project scope and design decisions remain aligned with underwriting assumptions and margin expectations.
• Identify cost risks early and recommend design, scope, or delivery adjustments.
• Partner with Finance on financial modeling, incentive planning, and funding compliance.
• Track budget performance and improve the accuracy of development-stage forecasting.

Energy Systems and Clean Technology

• Incorporate energy efficiency, electrification, geothermal, battery energy storage, and other clean technologies into development planning.
• Coordinate with Product, Engineering, Finance, and external specialists on system design, incentives, regulatory requirements, and operational considerations.
• Ensure clean energy systems are incorporated into project documentation, budgets, schedules, and construction-readiness requirements.
• Evaluate emerging energy technologies for potential use across the development portfolio.

Team Leadership

• Lead, develop, and hold accountable a team that may include development managers, project managers, and external consultants.
• Establish clear roles, goals, performance expectations, and decision-making authority.
• Coach team members and build internal capability in development management, project delivery, and clean energy integration.
• Support workforce planning, recruiting, onboarding, and succession planning as the development pipeline grows.
• Build a team capable of delivering consistent results without dependence on daily GM involvement.

Consultants and External Stakeholders

• Manage relationships with architects, engineers, consultants, permitting authorities, utilities, and other project stakeholders.
• Establish clear scopes, timelines, budgets, and quality expectations for external partners.
• Hold consultants accountable for complete and timely deliverables.
• Develop consistent methods for selecting, evaluating, and managing development partners.

Development Systems and Standards

• Implement standardized workflows, documentation requirements, stage gates, reporting, and project-review processes.
• Establish operating rhythms for pipeline reviews, milestone tracking, risk escalation, and decision-making.
• Use development data and project metrics to improve predictability and performance.
• Build scalable systems that reduce key-person dependency and support portfolio growth.

Requirements

• 8+ years of progressive experience in real estate development, construction, infrastructure delivery, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading projects from post-acquisition through construction readiness.
• Experience managing integrated design, entitlements, permitting, budgeting, and pre-construction execution.
• Experience delivering construction-ready packages that include complete drawings, specifications, budgets, schedules, permits, and engineering documentation.
• Experience managing a multi-project development pipeline with concurrent deadlines and competing priorities.
• Experience partnering across acquisitions, construction, finance, legal, design, and operational teams.
• Demonstrated development budgeting, forecasting, and cost-control experience.
• Experience managing architects, engineers, consultants, and other external partners against scope, schedule, quality, and budget requirements.
• Experience implementing structured development processes, stage gates, project reporting, and milestone tracking.
• Experience leading and developing project managers, development managers, or other professional team members.
• Exposure to energy efficiency, electrification, high-performance HVAC, sustainability, or similar building systems.
• Proficiency with project management, budgeting, scheduling, reporting, and document-management systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with multifamily, mixed-use, commercial, affordable housing, adaptive reuse, or other complex development projects.
• Direct experience with geothermal systems, battery energy storage systems, or advanced building-energy infrastructure.
• Experience integrating energy incentives, tax credits, or decarbonization programs into project delivery.
• Experience with MEP coordination and complex design integration.
• Familiarity with capital stacks, development finance, incentive-backed underwriting, or funding compliance.
• Experience building or scaling a development team.
• Advanced degree in Real Estate, Engineering, Architecture, Construction Management, Business, or a related discipline.
• LEED AP, PMP, PE, RA, AIA or comparable professional credential.

Salary Description

$135,000 – $185,000