Director, Commercialization & Growth- SFBUE

Position Overview

Reporting to the Vice President of Strategy & Operations, the Director, Commercialization & Growth leads development and execution of SFBUE's go-to-market strategy across enterprise products, Capability Management, Capability Science ecosystem initiatives, services, strategic partnerships, and category development. This hands-on 0-to-1 leader converts emerging science, methodologies, technology, and university innovation into clear market propositions, qualified enterprise demand, repeatable commercial offerings, and durable external relationships. This is an exempt, full-time hybrid position, with up to 50% travel expected for in-person collaboration in Fremont, California, as well as for external business activities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Own and continuously refine the phased go-to-market strategy, customer segments, ideal customer profiles, buyer personas, priority use cases, market-entry hypotheses, and commercialization roadmap.
• Develop positioning, packaging, pricing, pilot structures, commercial proposals, land-and-expand pathways, and conversion models that balance near-term services revenue with recurring platform growth.
• Lead executive customer discovery, design-partner recruitment, pilot development, early customer conversion, and structured feedback loops that inform product and methodology development.
• Build and manage the early enterprise pipeline and opportunity process from discovery through proposal, contracting support, and handoff into implementation or customer success.
• Develop relationships with senior enterprise buyers and influencers across workforce strategy, talent, learning, AI transformation, technology, strategy, and business leadership.
• Identify and develop strategic alliances, technology relationships, channels, research partnerships, and ecosystem relationships that strengthen market access, credibility, evidence generation, or adoption.
• Develop the participation, value proposition, recruitment, and launch strategy for the Capability Science Consortium or related research/industry ecosystem initiatives.
• Own the integrated marketing and category-development plan, including product marketing, thought leadership, digital content, events, executive communications, case studies, partner marketing, and market education.
• Establish commercial operating discipline, including CRM, pipeline stages, forecasting, opportunity reviews, KPIs, marketing effectiveness measures, and executive reporting.
• Partner closely with product, technology, research, academic operations, finance, legal, SFBU stakeholders, and leadership so commercial commitments are feasible, appropriately governed, and aligned with brand and intellectual-property requirements.
• Support annual operating planning, revenue forecasting, sales and marketing budget development, and recommendations on when to invest, productize, expand, partner, pause, or change direction.
• Perform other duties as needed.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

This role may manage external agencies, contractors, consultants, and future commercial team members. The Director is expected to lead cross-functional commercialization work while supporting the establishment of a mature sales and marketing organization.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, strategy, technology, organizational development, education, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience across commercialization, enterprise go-to-market, business development, product marketing, enterprise sales, strategy, consulting, or related roles.
• Demonstrated success taking a new B2B product, service, offering, or business line from concept through market validation and early commercial traction.
• Strong enterprise customer-discovery and consultative-selling skills, including experience engaging senior executives and translating ambiguous customer problems into structured opportunities.
• Experience developing positioning, packaging, pricing, pilots, proposals, and go-to-market plans for complex offerings.
• Ability to build or source commercial infrastructure from scratch, including CRM discipline, pipeline management, forecasting, metrics, and operating cadence.
• Strong written communication and narrative-development skills across executive, commercial, product-marketing, and thought-leadership contexts.
• Demonstrated comfort operating in an early-stage environment with ambiguity, limited resources, and a high degree of personal ownership.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience commercializing enterprise AI, workforce transformation, HR/talent technology, learning technology, workforce analytics, or other complex enterprise software and services.
• Experience with category creation, market education, or commercialization of an emerging methodology, research concept, or management discipline.
• Experience developing research partnerships, industry consortia, advisory networks, or university-industry collaborations.
• Existing relationships with enterprise leaders in workforce strategy, talent, learning, AI transformation, strategy, technology, or related functions.
• Experience balancing professional services, implementation, research partnerships, and recurring software within a land-and-expand commercial model.
• Master's degree, MBA, or other relevant advanced degree.
• Bay Area presence and ability to work in person with SFBU/SFBUE stakeholders and external partners on a regular basis.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong 0-to-1 commercialization judgment and ability to distinguish market hypotheses from validated, repeatable commercial evidence.
• Ability to sell and build relationships credibly before every aspect of an emerging offering is mature, without overpromising product or scientific readiness.
• Strong executive communication, customer discovery, consultative selling, negotiation, and partnership-development skills.
• Product and services fluency, including understanding of implementation boundaries, product readiness, customer value measures, and recurring-revenue economics.
• Ability to translate complex scientific, technical, academic, or strategic concepts into clear buyer value and coherent market narratives.
• Data-driven commercial discipline, including pipeline quality, forecasting, conversion, market validation, and marketing effectiveness metrics.
• Demonstrated strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Salary Range:

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $185,000-$215,000 annually, depending on experience, qualifications, and scope. The role may also be eligible for performance-based incentive compensation and long-term incentive participation, subject to applicable plans and approvals.

Anticipated Start Date:

To be determined.

Application Process:

1. For full consideration, please submit your completed application, letter of interest describing your experience based on the stated responsibilities, your leadership approach, a current CV/ resume, and the names and contact information of three references.

This position description is not intended to cover or contain a comprehensive list of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time, with or without notice.