VP of Projects
Candid Intelligence
Houston, TX · Posted April 16, 2026
Just laid off? Start here: a plan for the first weeks
Want recruiters in Energy & Utilities to be able to find you?
Roles at this level, like this one at Candid Intelligence, are often filled through recruiters.
See every open role at Candid Intelligence
More in Texas job market · Energy & Utilities
More roles at Candid Intelligence
- Senior Process Engineer (Power Generation / Gas-to-Power) · San Francisco, CA
- Senior Electrical Engineer (Power Generation / Gas-to-Power) · San Francisco, CA
- Senior Mechanical Engineer (Power Generation / Gas-to-Power) · San Francisco, CA
Where Houston, TX ranks
Where Houston, TX placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for manufacturing and industrial jobs887 openings · of 100
- #1Best cities for energy and utilities jobs704 openings · of 27
- #1Cities hosting the most energy & utilities conferences11 conferences · of 15
- #2Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the Southwest481 jobs · of 38
- #2Best cities for software and engineering jobs in the Southwest1,018 openings · of 33
- #2Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in the Southwest74 / 100 · of 15
About the job
About Candid
Candid is the AI execution layer for capital projects in behind-the-meter gas-fired power generation. We compress pre-FEED and FEED schedules by 30%+ at full engineering quality, run by senior PEs on top of a software platform built around how this work actually gets done. We recently closed a $6.5M round led by Schneider Electric and Yann LeCun. Active pipeline: 200 MW to 2.4 GW BTM gas projects serving AI factories, hyperscale data centers, and gas-to-nuclear bridge architectures across Texas and the Gulf Coast.
The Role
You lead Candid's engineering practice. Walk into the room with a 30-year nuclear-trained CEO or a Fortune 500 head of engineering and be a peer on day one. Hire the project directors. Stamp the deliverables. Defend Candid against incumbent EPCs (B&V, Bechtel, S&L, B&McD, Worley) on FEED bids. Shape what the platform team builds by feeding back what the work actually needs.
What You'll Do
- Lead engineering practice across BTM gas-fired power projects, 200 MW to multi-GW
- Serve as senior engineering counterparty to client CEOs, Heads of Engineering, VPs of Projects
- Stamp FEL-2 / FEED deliverables; defend Class 4 estimates with lenders, IC, incumbent EPCs
- Build and lead the engineering team — project directors, senior PEs, multi-discipline leads
- Architect Candid's dual-team execution model (Project Execution Team + FlowState platform team)
- Shape the platform roadmap with the AI engineering team
What You Bring
- 20+ years in power generation engineering, deep on combined-cycle and simple-cycle gas
- Directed engineering on at least two gas plants at FEED or EPC stage ($200M+ capex). Owned, not participated.
- PE-licensed in Texas (multi-state ideal)
- Background at a major power EPC (S&L, B&McD, Bechtel Power, B&V, Worley, Kiewit) or owner-operator (Vistra, Constellation, NRG, Talen, Duke, AES)
- Have run 10+ disciplines in parallel through HAZID, IDC, IFR, IFI cycles
- BTM / islanded / co-located generation experience — paralleling, redundancy mapping, microgrid architecture
- Tech-friendly without being naive. You see waste in conventional FEL execution and want to fix it.
- Houston-based or relocatable
Nice to Have
- Nuclear-adjacent BOP work (Vogtle, Palisades, NuScale, BWRX-300, Stone & Webster)
- Data center critical-power experience (Tier III/IV)
- ERCOT or PJM market familiarity
- Direct experience with project-finance / IC / lender engineering review
- Compensation
- Senior base + meaningful equity. Unlimited PTO. Medical, dental, vision. Daily lunch and dinner. $150/month wellness budget.