Meet a Solar Ready Vets Fellow: Brian Coulter

From 2019 through October 2025, IREC led the Solar Ready Vets Fellowship in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program. Offered at no cost, the fellowship matched solar industry employers with service members who are in transition from the military to the civilian workforce.

Brian Coulter: Senior Project Manager, Radiance Solar

Brian Coulter joined Radiance Solar as a Solar Ready Vets Fellow in January 2022, where he now serves as a Senior Project Manager.

Brian Coulter served in the Marine Corps for 22 years and retired as a Master Gunnery Sergeant (E9) in the artillery occupational field specialty. During his years in the military, he became skilled in planning and process improvement. He spent three years working at the Pentagon, where he led a service-wide program that allowed him to build on his military experience with more transferable civilian skills. In this role, he was responsible for acquiring and distributing military equipment. This experience led him to become interested in project management.

Brian reflects that he wanted to do something different after retiring from the Marine Corps and liked the idea of a career in which he would see tangible results at the end of the day. After exploring opportunities at many companies through the Hiring our Heroes Corporate Fellowship program, he landed at Radiance Solar. Given that Radiance is a smaller company, he finds that he is an influential team member who brings valuable military experience, rather than just a cog in the machine. As a project manager, he enjoys seeing solar projects come to fruition and benefit local communities.

Brian recommends that other service members pursuing a civilian career look into opportunities in the solar industry, citing its growth, resilience, and need for military-minded individuals. At Radiance, the operational planning experience he brings from the Marine Corps is appreciated and lends itself well to solar construction. He shares that solar energy is an interesting career to pursue, and his advice is to trust in your military experience.