Director of Business Development, Central US
Role Overview
We are looking for a strategic and technical Business Development Director to own and grow Gridware's commercial presence across the Central Region of the US. You will be the primary point of contact for all utilities from the Upper Midwest to the Gulf Coast, with a focus on investor-owned utilities, leading full-cycle enterprise sales efforts with a heavy technical emphasis. This is a high-impact individual contributor role - you will work cross-functionally with teams including customer success, sales engineering, regulatory affairs, revenue operations, and field operations to land and expand key accounts.
Responsibilities
- Own and manage a defined territory of investor-owned utilities across the Central U.S., including Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and neighboring states.
- Build and maintain a robust pipeline of qualified opportunities.
- Develop multi-threaded relationships across utility organizations - field, engineering, operations, asset management, grid modernization, and C-suite stakeholders.
- Drive complex, technical, multi-stakeholder sales cycles from initial outreach through contract execution, typically ~18 months in length.
- Lead discovery, technical presentations, pilot structuring, and commercial negotiations with support from revenue leadership.
- Develop account strategies and territory plans; bring a disciplined, process-driven approach to forecasting and pipeline management.
- Partner with sales engineering and regulatory teams to define pilots that ensure prospects experience clear, measurable value.
- Represent Gridware at utility industry events and conferences (e.g., EEI, DistribuTECH) to build brand presence in the Central Region.
- Gather and synthesize market intelligence - customer needs, competitive dynamics, regulatory drivers - to inform product roadmap and GTM strategy.
- Work closely with marketing and product to develop region-specific messaging and materials.
Territory Ownership
Enterprise Sales Execution
Market Development
Required Skills
7+ years of technical sales or consulting experience directly with electric utilities.
Demonstrated ability to convey and respond to technical engineering questions without additional internal support.
Deep familiarity with the investor-owned utility landscape - procurement processes, regulatory environments, and key stakeholders.
Strong executive presence and ability to build trust with both senior leaders (VP/C-suite) as well as frontline individual contributors.
Experience managing long-cycle, technically complex sales processes involving multiple stakeholders.
Self-directed and resourceful; comfortable creating structure in an early-stage, fast-moving environment.
Willingness to travel 40-50% within the Central Region.
Bonus Skills
An engineering degree with 2+ years industry experience working with/for electric utilities on T&D planning/engineering projects.
Professional engineering licensure.
Experience selling hardware/software platform solutions (sensors, IoT, SaaS) into utilities or critical infrastructure.
Knowledge of distribution grid operations, engineering, protection, asset management, or wildfire mitigation programs.
Networked into several major Central Region IOUs