Hiring Company Overview:
Our client, the employer, is a global, trusted leader in testing and certification services across multiple product lines including solar and PV equipment, commercial and industrial equipment, household goods and electronics, automotive and marine, and healthcare products. With over 20,000 employees globally in over 500 locations across 50+ countries and with nearly $2.5B in annual revenue, this industry titan protects people and equipment worldwide and helps technical products reach their full potential.
Position Overview:
The Business Development Manager for Solar position will sit within the Solar division of the company. This division focuses on three areas:
- Supply chain consulting for solar farms
- Testing and certification of solar products such as PV modules, inverters, cables, etc.
- Technical due diligence
The Business Development Manager for Solar is part of a growing business unit for the U.S. market that will integrate with the global team for solar. In this role, you will be selling supply chain consulting services for prospective or existing solar farms. When an entity is building a new solar farm, it will inevitably need to procure solar modules which, for utility-scale projects, can cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. At this level of investment, if even 1 or 2% of your modules are delivered with defects, it can cost millions of dollars in repair or replacement costs.
In this scenario, there are a few ways to mitigate the risk and you, as Business Development Manager, will be providing those consultative services. Your teammates will be experts in testing, inspection, and certification of solar modules with broad knowledge of which manufacturers perform the best in different categories of modules and in different applications (ex: cold weather, warm weather, high winds, etc). Your teammates also include a testing laboratory in which manufacturers submit their equipment in order to achieve ratings such energy yield, fire resistance, and supply chain traceability. Sample testing of modules during the production process can also be mandated by the project owner, EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) firm, project developer, financier for the project, or insurance company.
Your role will be to bring this expert supply chain knowledge to the entities who procure solar modules, entities who have a financial interest in achieving the best possible performance of the solar farm, and other stakeholders who benefit from the solar farm having the least amount of warranty claims and down-time as possible.
You will also bring value to the market through interfacing with solar product manufacturers regarding testing and certification services. Product manufacturers may require these services when entering the U.S. market for the first time or when introducing new products in order to ensure equipment meets the minimum standards for safety, performance, reliability, or other standards. It can also be a competitive advantage for equipment manufacturers to undergo testing in order to receive ratings on efficiency, durability, and other optional performance metrics.
Finally, when an investor is seeking to purchase a stake in a solar farm or acquire it outright, they typically seek for a disinterested third party to perform a technical evaluation of the power plant to ensure bankability and feasibility. The technical due diligence manager will assess the project design, components, construction, and performance, noting any faults, non-compliant products or construction methods, safety issues, or other risks. You will sell this service to investors such as investment banks, pension funds, private equity firms, utilities, corporations, asset managers, and project developers.
Key Responsibilities:
- As this is a new product line for the U.S. market, you will be responsible firstly for market development including market analysis, strategic planning, developing a target customer base, conducting outreach, attending events, and creating a general go-to-market strategy.
- Work with the internal marketing team to develop materials to bring the brand and services to market.
- Conduct outreach, qualify leads, and close deals.
- Use the CRM to create goals, capture business development activities, track progress, create reports, and adjust business development techniques as needed.
- Use the CRM to find warm leads and look for opportunities to cross-sell to existing clients from different divisions.
- Create proposals and negotiate terms with clients.
- Liaise with global colleagues in functions such as inside sales, sales engineering, technical due diligence, testing laboratory staff, and legal as needed to answer customer inquiries and close deals.
- Keep abreast of developments in the market such as new manufacturing plants being built in the U.S., new product lines coming to the U.S., and activities related to solar plant mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.
- Keep abreast of regulatory changes, policy changes, tax incentive changes, and other market dynamics
Requirements:
- 5+ years progressive experience in sales, business development, and/or marketing roles in the solar sector (can have more experience overall but at least this much in solar)
- Proven network of solar industry contacts such as PV-related equipment manufacturers, solar project investors, solar project developers, and firms that procure PV-related equipment.
- Currently or formerly managed a book of sales in the $1-2 million range in the solar industry.
- Willing to travel up to 60%.
Benefits and Other:
- Six-digit base salary
- Fully remote role. Should be near a major airport.
- Variable bonus up to 10% of deal value brought in.
- 401(k) with matching up to 6%.
- Global team with cosmopolitan culture.
- Many training, certification, and continuing education opportunities.
- Multiple paths for career progression in this 20,000+ person firm.