Business Development Manager - United States

Job Description

First Solar reserves the right to offer you a role most applicable to your experience and skillset.

Basic Job Functions:

This position is a cross-functional role that integrates several independent teams and functions while seeking to recognize cross functional synergies between them. The position requires a strategic development perspective combined with a Markets origination focus to drive the organization’s performance within the US. This role is key to coordinating customer activity within and across those regions, and more globally.

The Manager is responsible for the support and development of growth and customer relationships in First Solar’s US region. The Manager will help drive implementation through preparation and opening of assigned new markets or segments and evolving this network. They will identify market entry points, develop opportunities, and ensure the best strategy is employed to develop a sustainable value proposition and in turn help grow the business.

The successful candidate will further identify companies headquartered in the US region that develop and own utility-scale PV power plants across this region. The candidate will successfully develop and support establishing strong relationships to support these customers. Strong cross-functional coordination and internal/external relationship building will be essential to success.

This position requires analyzing challenging situations and driving clarity while maintaining complex alignment across the decision-making processes. Key aspects of this role will be strategy development, commercial contract execution, managing cross functional relationships and the ability to obtain executive management support and approvals.

Education/Experience:

• An undergraduate degree is required; MBA or Masters is a plus.
• 5+ years of work experience in business development, engineering, sales, project management or other relevant technical experience.
• Minimum of 3+ years of experience in the energy, alternative energy and/or utility sectors.
• Prior experience in utility-scale solar energy industry is required.
• Prior experience living and/or working in multiple geographies is preferred.
  
  

Required Skills/Competencies:

• Leadership Skills:
• Demonstrated experience navigating complex situations in a fast changing internal and external environment.
• Demonstrated experience in identifying, implementing, originating, negotiating, and executing commercial contracts.
• Experience leading cross-regional and/or cross-functional high performing teams, with demonstrated results.
• Analytical Skills:
• Demonstrated experience in the core product management analytics:
• Market/Customer Segment Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Positioning Analysis
• Economic Value Analysis
• Business Case Analysis
• Understanding of global power and utility markets structures and decision making. Analytical skills to assess the impacts of regulatory changes.
• Highly detail-oriented and productive.
• Customer/Market Engagement Skills:
• Demonstrated expertise in engaging targeted customers to:
• Acquire and validate key success factors and solution needs.
• Identify market hypothesis/needs.
• Establish commercial and technical long-term partners.
• Negotiate and close commercial agreements.
• Communication Skills:
• Excellent written, oral, and executive level communication skills.
• Demonstrated excellence in defining/aligning organizational priorities with multiple internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated excellence in communication of status to objectives; up, down, laterally, and diagonally across the organization.
  

Essential Responsibilities:

• Lead origination and negotiations resulting in executing commercial contracts with a number of new and existing customers.
• Develop and manage long-term strategic partnerships and framework agreements.
• Being a trusted advisor to the head of strategic accounts, in market segmentation, origination strategies, and collaboration with leadership to implement.
• Facilitates and supports the collaborative development and alignment of the global business plan and strategy for identified market segments or channels.
• Development of a multi-year, multi-segment Market Strategy that includes an integrated segmentation strategy and product application/solution roadmap.
• Participate in the annual planning process, provide updates in regular review meetings, and document/manage approvals for the plan.
• Host recurring meetings with key stakeholders to align strategies.
• Lead product adoption ensuring the business success of the product and its applications.
• Manage market entry timing of phase-gated process via product line team format.
• Ensure segment models meet market needs for product applications, resources, skill, process, documentation etc.
• Execute plan to develop and deliver documentation.
• Lead the development of strong and intimate relationships across multiple levels and customer accounts by ensuring:
• Close collaboration between all key-account managers and subject matter experts engaging with the customer.
• Responsibility for supporting supplier qualification and development/maintenance of overarching framework agreements.
• Provides cross-functional and executive reporting of key business metrics and corrective action plans to achieve key performance metrics.
  
  

Reporting Relationships:

• Reports to Vice President- Business Development
• This position will have direct reports
  
  

Travel:

• 10% - 20%
  
  

Estimated Salary Range:

• $80,000-$115,000 Annually
  
  

US Physical Requirements:

Office Physical Requirements:

All positions in our office require interaction with people and technology while either standing or sitting. To best service our customers, internal and external, all associates must be able to communicate face-to-face and on the phone with or without reasonable accommodation. First Solar is committed to compliance with its obligations under all applicable state and federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. In keeping with this commitment, it attempts to reasonably accommodate applicants and employees in accordance with the requirements of the disability discrimination laws. It also invites individuals with disabilities to participate in a good faith, interactive process to identify reasonable accommodations that can be made without imposing an undue hardship.

Potential candidates will meet the education and experience requirements provided on the above job description and excel in completing the listed responsibilities for this role. All candidates receiving an offer of employment must successfully complete a background check and any other tests that may be required.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement: First Solar is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values and respects the importance of a diverse and inclusive workforce. It is the policy of the company to recruit, hire, train and promote persons in all job titles without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We recognize that diversity and inclusion are a driving force in the success of our company.