Senior Director, Business Development-Superconductors

Responsibilities

• Manage and grow a portfolio of key commercial, industrial, academic, and government-funded customer accounts.
• Identify, qualify, and pursue new business opportunities aligned with product and market strategy.
• Serve as the primary commercial interface from initial customer inquiry through quotation, order placement, and delivery.
• Develop and maintain long-term customer relationships with technical, procurement, and executive stakeholders.
• Support customer negotiations, contractual discussions, and key account agreements.
• Ensure timely order placement, revenue generation, and on-time fulfillment in coordination with operations, quality, and logistics teams.
• Develop cost models, pricing strategies, and customer quotations.
• Manage open bids, proposals, and customer requests for quotation (RFQs).
• Maintain customer pricing files and ensure adherence to agreed commercial terms.
• Provide regular reporting on account performance, forecast, orders, and customer trends.
• Act as the primary sales and business development representative at the Carteret site, closely coordinating with manufacturing and technical teams.
• Ensure internal alignment across sales, operations, engineering, quality, logistics, planning, and costing functions.
• Support execution of internal sales processes including order handling, issue resolution, and complaint management.
• Participate in and support annual strategy and budget planning processes.
• Actively contribute to continuous improvement and change initiatives affecting sales and customer-facing processes.

Qualifications

• PhD in Physics, Materials Science, Chemistry, or a related technical field required.
• A minimum of 15 years of sales, business development, applications or technical commercial experience within advanced materials, superconductors, physics-based technologies, or high-tech manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated experience working with industrial, academic, and government-funded customers.
• Experience working in or with multi-national organizations is strongly preferred.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong commercial judgment and customer-negotiation skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical and commercial topics clearly and professionally.
• Prowess in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word).
• High proficiency in ERP systems (e.g., SAP) preferred.
• Self-driven, organized, proactive, and comfortable managing multiple priorities.
• Professional, collaborative, and confident when engaging with customers and internal stakeholders at all levels.

Working Conditions

• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally approximately 30-40%, including multi-day trips.
• When not traveling, the role is expected to be on-site, in the office.