Business Development Leader - Locus Fermentation Solutions

Overview

Having just received TSCA registration for our Amphi® CL and CH sophorolipid biosurfactants, Locus is the only US manufacturer approved to manufacture and sell commercial quantities of biosurfactants.  We are looking to act fast on our first mover status and accelerate business development (BD) and market growth.

Press release:  https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/industrynews/news/55236934/epa-grants-locus-fermentation-approval-for-biosurfactants-production

We are seeking a dynamic and hungry BD Head to lead BD strategy creation and aggressively execute plans to rapidly develop target markets and drive short-term revenue growth for our innovative, sustainable, award-winning sophorolipid biosurfactants. This role will focus on expanding our market presence in industrial sectors with applications in cleaning, degreasing, biofilm remediation, metalworking fluids, lubricants, CASE, and agricultural adjuvants. 

The ideal candidate will have a strong track record in business development and technical sales, with a deep understanding of market dynamics, strategic marketing, and a proven ability to establish trust, close deals, and accelerate growth. This leader will be responsible for identifying new business opportunities, building relationships with key decision-makers, and positioning our novel, performance-boosting biosurfactants as the preferred choice for industrial applications.

This is a global role, and you will report to the SVP of the Locus Ingredients division with expectations to immediately develop market penetration strategies collaboratively with the team and execute on said strategies to build a robust opportunity portfolio and close/win new business.  

You will join a capable and growing team eager to define and create the market by embodying a culture of positivity over negativity, builds & demonstrates trust, respect & dignity, humility & collaboration, hunger & drive, and customer centricity & market intimacy.

The Candidate Must Have the Following for Consideration

·       Experience at a B2B specialty chemical company either as a direct manufacturer or distributor

·       Background and experience in technical selling, business development, or strategic marketing in the specialty chemical space

·       Background and experience in at least one key market:  I&I cleaning, CASE, metalworking fluids, agricultural adjuvants, lubricants

·       Minimum 5 years of industry experience in customer-facing roles

The preferred candidate will also have

·       A technical degree engineering, chemistry, or similar field

·       Experience selling or developing strategy for surfactant product lines or ingredients/additives

·       Preferably 10+ years of related experiences

·       Strategic marketing experience and has developed strategic market plans (TAM, value proposition, market/customer segmentation, value chain analysis, buying process, market activation plan, etc.)

·       Formal training in consultative sales (e.g., Wilson Learning Worldwide "Counselor Salesperson")

·       Global professional experiences

·       Knows how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) ethically to accelerate progress

Key Responsibilities & Tasks

·       Priority 1:  

o   Research target markets and segment customers to develop and then execute strategic BD plans 

o   Develop, test, and refine data-drive, performance-based value propositions and develop sales/communication tools

o   Proactive and aggressive prospecting to build a robust opportunity portfolio

o   Cross-functional collaboration with technical, marketing, finance, operations, etc., to communicate and influence the voice of the Ingredients' business unit to drive alignment for commercial success

o   Lead the end-to-end sales cycle from identifying an opportunity to contract negotiation and close.  

o   Drive near term wins and accelerate revenue generation

o   Create a standardized reporting structure to communicate progress, estimate forecasts, and capture gating items 

o   CRM reporting and vigilant/timely documentation - prepare business and sales reports, call reports, key account plans, budgets, travel schedules, customer presentations, and customer meeting agendas; maintain an up-to-date and documented CRM (HubSpot) with all communication activity and call notes 

·       A secondary is to assess previous partnerships for monetization opportunities beyond sales of our current commercial products (e.g., IP licensing, new product development, or other opportunities aligned with the division and corporate strategies)

·       Drive near-term commercial success – this person will be hands on from strategy creation to opportunity identification to closing/winning business.  You must be comfortable with ambiguity and wearing different hats along the way including cold and/or warm calls.  A successful candidate will have an entrepreneurial mindset.  

·       Ability to get up learning curves fast and is inherently curious; can work in ambiguity

·       Prepare and present technical presentations tailored to demonstrate Locus product offerings as solutions to customer challenges, teaching prospects and customers on the value in using sophorolipid biosurfactants

·       Gather, assimilate, and assess market information on an ongoing basis to assist in developing strategies and updating/modifying strategy in place

·       Market intimacy – has a pulse on the market through customers, competitive insights, industry organizations, and government agencies and communicates back to the organization on trends, key market or customer developments, competitive intelligence, and pricing

·       Utilize internal and external resources to improve technical knowledge of Locus technologies to articulate sources of value creation across multiple markets and applications. 

·       Seeks and provides clarity around priorities, desired outcomes, and the behaviors required to deliver those outcomes

·       Enjoys and facilitates constructive, professional debate

·       Builds and presents on BD execution plans and progress, key account plans, and territory plans

·       Manage contractual relationships with customers, tracking expiration dates and ensuring that all contracts needed are current and that terms and conditions of existing agreements are being met.

·       Represent Locus at tradeshows and similar events, utilizing the support of technical teams and marketing.

·       Perform a variety of sales functions to include in person meetings, virtual meetings, product demonstrations, networking with industry professionals, calling, etc.

·       Perform all other duties as assigned.

Key Qualities

·       Humble, hungry, people smart

·       Enough technical acumen to interact directly with engineers and technical teams at prospects and customers to influence adoption of Locus solutions

·       Self-manage; self-starter; can work independently, on a team, and as a cross-functional team leader

·       Comfortable in ambiguity

·       Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills

·       Strong organizational skills

·       Adaptability and can manage multiple opportunities, large and small, daily in a fluid environment

·       Attention to detail

·       Cross-functional team player (esp. with technical, operations, and marketing) and leader, building partnerships internally across the enterprise as well as externally across the value chain

·       Relationship builder – Locus internal and external with market and customers; will attend industry conferences and tradeshows and represent Locus 

·       Listens to understand

·       Optimistic, but a realist

·       Influence management

·       Accountability

·       Can build and demonstrate trust

·       Competitive and driven to results; moves fast and takes risks

·       Responsive and resilient

·       Curious and loves to learn

·       Ability to use team collaboration tools, MS Word, Excel, Outlook, PPT efficiently.

Travel 

·       This person prefers to build relationships face-to-face, travel up to 50% possible and could include international travel

Success in this role looks like the following:

·       Built and building a robust opportunity pipeline driving opportunities to close/wins while filling the funnel on the front end continuously 

·       First and foremost, sustainable growth as measured by revenue and profitability

·       Develops, presents, and updates on BD strategies, plans, and progress at a minimum quarterly 

·       Secondary success is identifying new partnerships for new fermented molecules, products to compliment the current Amphi sophorolipid biosurfactants, licensing IP, or other

Compensation

Competitive base salary with annual bonus and/or sales commission plan 

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly positioning themselves in various transportation vehicles including cars and planes. The employee spends long periods of time in front of a computer or moving through an office or lab environment. The employee will occasionally lift and or carry up to 25 lbs.  

Work Environment:

Work is typically performed in a temperature-controlled environment. Noise level is typically low to moderate.