Director of Business Planning

Director of Business Planning, Ceres Forestry

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, Fort Collins, Colorado, Boise, Idaho, Missoula, Montana or Washington, D.C.

(Relocation or regular in-office presence required)

Reports to: President, Ceres Forestry

Compensation Range: $160,000.00 - $220,000.00 per year, eligible for discretionary bonus

Benefits: Comprehensive package including medical, dental, vision, 401K with company match, paid time off and travel opportunities.

What We Are Looking For

The Director of Business Planning is a senior leader responsible for owning project conceptual phase to field readiness and implementation of Ceres Forestry’s work including early opportunity shaping and strategic planning through pricing, resourcing models, execution planning, and handoff to operations.

This role engages at the intersection of strategy, business development, and operations, ensuring that every opportunity Ceres Forestry pursues is well-planned, well-scoped, and operationally executable. The Director of Business Planning partners closely with the Director of Business Development, Director of Operations and President of Ceres Forestry to translate growth strategy into disciplined, repeatable, and scalable plans.

What You Will Do

Business Planning & Opportunity Structuring

• Own the planning lifecycle for forestry opportunities from initial concept through operational handoff.
• Translate growth strategy and market priorities into clear opportunity plans, scopes, and execution models.
• Develop standardized planning frameworks covering staffing, equipment, schedules, risk, and cost assumptions.
• Ensure early alignment on how work will be executed before commitments are made.

Pricing, Cost Modeling & Feasibility

• Lead development and validation of cost models, staffing assumptions, and production forecasts.
• Partner with Operations to pressure-test execution assumptions and identify risks early.
• Support pricing strategy by balancing competitiveness with operational and financial discipline.
• Surface tradeoffs, constraints, and risks clearly to leadership before go / no-go decisions.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Work in tight partnership with the Director of Business Development during pursuits and capture planning.
• Collaborate closely with the Director of Operations to ensure seamless transition from planning to execution.
• Serve as the connective tissue between Business Development, Operations, Finance, Equipment, Safety, and HR during planning phases.
• Ensure commitments made in proposals and negotiations are realistic, resourced, and executable.

Operational Readiness & Handoff

• Own structured handoff from planning into operations, ensuring clarity on scope, assumptions, staffing, and risks.
• Establish planning deliverables and readiness criteria required before work moves to execution.
• Support early execution phases to ensure plans translate effectively to the field.

Analytics, Forecasting & Reporting

• Develop and maintain planning dashboards, forecasts, and performance indicators.
• Track conversion from pipeline > awarded work > executed work.
• Provide leadership with visibility into planning assumptions, capacity constraints, and future demand.
• Standardize and improve planning processes across Ceres Forestry and subsidiaries.
• Help scale planning rigor as the forestry platform grows through new markets, services, and acquisitions.
• Lead and develop planning, analytics, or proposal support resources as the organization scales.
• Influence without authority across Operations, Business Development and support functions.
• Set expectations for disciplined planning, documentation, and accountability.
• Act as a trusted advisor to the President of Ceres Forestry on planning quality and execution risk.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in forest management, wildfire mitigation, environmental services, logging or similar field-intensive industries.
• Proven experience in business planning, operational planning, pricing, or complex project structuring.
• Strong understanding of how field operations are staffed, equipped, and executed.
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with both Business Development and Operations leaders.
• High financial and analytical acumen with the ability to translate numbers into decisions.
• Clear communicator comfortable operating at executive and field leadership levels.
• Bachelor’s degree in Forestry, Natural Resources, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting proposals, pursuits, or capture strategy in competitive environments.
• Familiarity with federal, state, or utility-driven forestry and environmental work.
• Experience building planning functions in growing or newly integrated organizations.
• MBA/Masters

What To Expect

This role is ideal for a strategic, execution-minded planner who understands that winning work is only valuable if it can be delivered safely, profitably, and predictably. You will play a critical role in shaping how Ceres Forestry grows, bringing discipline to the front end of the business, strengthening the bridge between planning and execution, and enabling the operations team to succeed once work moves from conception to execution.

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