Corporate Development Associate
Chestnut Carbon
Full-time
On-site
New York, New York, United States
Who We Are:
Chestnut Carbon is a leading developer of nature-based carbon removal solutions, focused on generating high-quality, U.S.-based forest carbon projects that are additional, verifiable, and designed to accelerate the path to net zero. Founded in 2022 with the support of energy-focused alternative asset manager Kimmeridge, Chestnut uses a proprietary, technology-enabled approach to restore and conserve forestland—maximizing ecological value and long-term climate impact.
To date, Chestnut has planted over 17 million trees across 30,000 acres and enrolled more than 175,000 acres of privately owned forestland in its improved forest management program. Our projects deliver measurable environmental benefits, including enhanced air and water quality, biodiversity, and wildlife habitat.
Chestnut has executed landmark carbon removal agreements with Microsoft and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. Chestnut recently executed a first-of-its-kind $210 million non-recourse project financing and closed a $250 million Series B round led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, with participation from Cloverlay, DBL Partners, and Kimmeridge LPs. Chestnut was named one of TIME Magazine’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2025 and received both the FSC President’s Award and the distinction of being the first U.S. project verified through FSC’s Verified Impact program for Biodiversity Conservation.
At Chestnut, we are pioneering conservation for profit—scaling ecological restoration through market-driven solutions—and driving innovative climate financing to unlock the full potential of nature-based carbon removal.
Position Summary:
As the Corporate Development Associate at Chestnut Carbon, you will play a critical role in enabling strategic decision-making across the organization. You’ll work closely with the Executive Team, including the CEO and CFO, to support key initiatives such as financial modeling, capital raising, investor relations, market research, due diligence, and strategic planning.
This is a high-impact role at the intersection of finance, strategy, and sustainability, offering exposure to senior leaders across the organization and Kimmeridge. You’ll be instrumental in driving Chestnut’s growth trajectory, which may include a future public offering. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and is eager to take ownership of complex, cross-functional projects.
The role is based in New York, NY at Chestnut’s headquarters and is expected to be in-person, with modest travel.
Responsibilities:
- Develop a strong understanding of our company, strategy, and industry.
- Play a key role in supporting our consolidated strategic and financial planning processes, data management, and evolving the underlying integrated financial forecast models, systems, and tools.
- Support fundraising and financing activities by building and maintaining long-term financial models, capital structure, and scenario planning forecasts and managing deal databases to support transactions.
- Utilize financial modeling skills to determine financial viability of early-stage projects in Chestnut’s development pipeline.
- Prepare board-level presentations and updates for internal and external stakeholders.
- Work cross-functionally with key stakeholders to drive the execution of Chestnut Carbon’s corporate goals.
- Help screen potential M&A and partnership opportunities and provide valuation analysis for senior management.
- Assist in strategic projects and analysis, provide clear transparency on progress ensuring effective communication across senior leaders at Chestnut and other key stakeholders.
- Support on market research and competitive benchmarking.
- Collaborate across the organization to overcome problem areas/features.
- Gather information, identify linkages/trends and apply findings to analyses.
Desired Qualifications and Experiences:
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business, Accounting or related discipline.
- 2+ years of related experience in a finance/strategy role across investment banking, project finance, corporate development, consulting, or equivalent.
- Excellent financial modeling skills with strong knowledge of financial statements.
- Project and/or corporate finance deal experience preferred.
- Intellectual curiosity and passion for climate, nature-based solutions, or carbon markets.
Skills & Attributes:
- Advanced analytical skills with high proficiency in financial modeling (Excel), including the ability to model complex capital structures.
- Highly organized, with the initiative and ability to work with limited supervision.
- Effective project management abilities.
- Strong communication skills within all levels of the organization and ability to present complex information in a clear and concise manner.
- Able to work independently and on a team in a fast-paced and high-volume environment with emphasis on accuracy and timeliness.
- Strong work ethic, positive attitude, and attention to detail with the ability to work in a tight timeframe and shift priorities as needed.
- Ability to think strategically about implications of allocating capital across different opportunity sets with a focus on maximizing value for the company.
- Hands-on, roll-up your sleeves mentality, mentally agile and able to be both strategic and tactical.
- Must be a self-starter, willing to step up where needed across a flat and dynamic organization.
- Builds trusted, collaborative relationships at all levels of the organization and across different teams, divisions and locations.
- Demonstrates a high degree of commercial and strategic acumen.
- Is adaptable, resilient, and comfortable with ambiguity and complexity.
- Passionate about sustainability.
- Ability to thrive in a high growth and fast-paced environment, work well under deadlines and adapt to changing business priorities.
- Strong team-building skills, adept at forging positive relationships across the business.
- Some travel is required.
- Authorized to work in the United States.
Location:
- New York, New York (headquarters).
- Candidate must be willing to live in the New York City area full-time and work in-person in the New York office.
$110,000 - $140,000 a year
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to everything we do. Chestnut Carbon thrives on and celebrates different views, beliefs, and values. We are committed to our talented team and partners, regardless of background or affiliation, and to actively promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout our business. We strive to be a place where you can be you and bring yourself to work.
Chestnut Carbon is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to affirmative action planning and encourages diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, veteran, or marital status.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.