Aviation faces an existential crisis due to its climate impact, with no apparent roadmap for meaningful carbon reduction, let alone meeting Paris Agreement emissions targets. That is where Universal Hydrogen (UH2) comes into play. Our aspiration is to fuel the global aircraft fleet with our revolutionary hydrogen modular capsule-based logistics network, which seamlessly links green hydrogen production with consumption without costly fixed infrastructure.

With over 200 hydrogen fuel cell regional aircraft under LOI across 16 operators, UH2 is on track to be among the single largest global purchasers of green hydrogen. You are the deal maker that will connect our airline customers with hydrogen producers worldwide. With long-term, high volume contracts you have the opportunity to help create a new global market for green hydrogen.

To fuel our aircraft with the most economical liquid hydrogen, you will develop our liquid hydrogen offtake and sales strategy across most regions globally. Transitioning aviation to hydrogen will define how fuel service needs to evolve, versus the current way jet fuel is exchanged. You will define and negotiate trading mechanisms, risk management strategies, and global partnerships that need to be setup to support the exponential growth planned for our entry into service and beyond. You and your new team will work closely with the wider operations team and the global sales organization to develop the clean hydrogen trading business that will be implemented globally, spearheading the execution of the wider value chain. This is your opportunity to play a critical role in the decarbonization of aviation this decade.

About the Role

• Translate clean hydrogen demand to offtake and sales strategies specific to the regions of operation.
• Negotiate clean hydrogen offtake agreements, and support sales activities to ensure terms, conditions, and pricing is optimal for UH2.
• Develop innovative mechanisms, contractual terms, and hedging strategies to manage UH2 financial risks associated with clean hydrogen trading.
• Make continuous improvements to the trading strategy and terms to ensure that hydrogen is competitive with fossil fuels.
• Develop clean hydrogen offtake, trading, distribution, and sales marketing research and strategy.
• Build a team of hydrogen fuel purchasing, trading, and pricing experts. 

About You

• Demonstrated expertise in negotiating energy purchasing/offtake agreements at the decision-maker and C-suite level, preferably with international experience.
• Extensive leadership background in clean hydrogen, renewable energy, or LNG, as well as a wealth of experience in the energy industry (exposure to aviation fueling is a plus).
• Experience in DOT/PHMSA certification of storage/distribution of dangerous goods; exposure to surface transportation of liquid hydrogen highly preferred.
• In-depth knowledge and experience with industry-leading risk management, hedging, and energy trading practices.
• Expertise to develop a completely new business setup for aviation hydrogen fuel management and be comfortable with challenging existing jet fuel and hydrogen reselling standards.
• Ability to work effectively across international borders and time zones, with a focus on our entities in France and California.

About Us

On the backs of completing the world's largest flight on a fully-hydrogen-powered Dash 8 aircraft, we are now ready to scale this solution worldwide. We're stitching together an end-to-end hydrogen value chain, from capture, to transport, to fueling. 

As a California-based startup with a burgeoning engineering center in France, we provide solutions for both the hydrogen supply chain and aircrafts. On the supply chain end, this includes a transport and logistics network that moves hydrogen from production facilities to airports over the existing freight infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly new pipelines and storage facilities. For aircrafts, we are also developing powertrain conversion kits to retrofit existing airplanes and enable new airplanes to fly on hydrogen. Founded by former executives from Airbus, United Technologies, Google, and DARPA, and backed by investors such as Playground Global, JetBlue, Toyota, and Airbus, we are convinced that hydrogen is the best and only scalable solution to truly decarbonize aviation. And we want to bring it to market decades sooner—by 2025.

We're cultivating an atmosphere that encourages bold thinking, climate change driven action, and goal-achieving collaboration. We recognize that people have a diverse set of preferences for work conditions and hours that optimize for their overall productivity and wellness, and both our cloud-based IT setup and flexible work policy reflects this. However, because we are building physical products, most roles will require working at one of our facilities at Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles or Toulouse, France.

Our compensation and benefits package promotes transparency, equitability, and long-term employee well-being while rewarding individual and team performance. This includes significant equity participation for employees, a pet-friendly office, catered lunches, paid holidays, and generous parental leave. As a young company, we are actively working to expand the benefits and we’re always open to feedback on what’s most important to you.