Description
Where do you fit in?
AQUALIS is seeking an accomplished, results-oriented executive to serve as Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, this individual will have executive responsibility for developing, leading, and executing the Company's commercial strategy and driving profitable revenue growth.
The EVP will lead the Company's end-to-end commercial organization, including Regional Sales and Business Development, National Accounts, Estimating, and Marketing. This individual will be accountable for translating the Company's growth objectives into measurable commercial results while building the people, processes, systems, and customer relationships necessary to support AQUALIS's continued expansion.
This is not simply a strategic leadership position. The successful candidate must be an engaged, hands-on executive who can establish direction, drive execution, challenge performance, and personally engage in critical customer relationships and high-value sales opportunities.
This position requires extensive domestic travel throughout AQUALIS's national operating footprint. The EVP must be willing and able to maintain a significant field presence, regularly visiting regional offices, operating locations, customers, and prospective markets. Frequent overnight travel is expected and is fundamental to successfully leading the commercial organization.
The EVP will be expected to bring a disciplined, data-driven approach to commercial management while developing a high-performing organization that consistently delivers against revenue, profitability, customer retention, and market expansion objectives.
Key Responsibilities
1. Commercial Strategy & Business Growth
• Develop and execute a comprehensive commercial strategy aligned with AQUALIS's overall business plan and long-term growth objectives.
• Take ownership and accountability for achieving established revenue, gross profit, sales growth, market penetration, and customer acquisition objectives.
• Translate annual and long-range growth objectives into actionable commercial plans with measurable goals, timelines, and individual accountability.
• Identify new markets, service opportunities, customer segments, and geographic expansion opportunities that leverage AQUALIS's existing capabilities and platform.
• Drive profitable organic growth through increased market penetration, cross-selling, service-line expansion, and development of new customer relationships.
• Establish a consistent approach to identifying, qualifying, prioritizing, and converting opportunities across all regions and service lines.
• Work closely with executive leadership to evaluate strategic growth opportunities, including potential acquisitions, new service offerings, and commercial partnerships.
2. Sales Leadership & Execution
• Lead and develop the regional sales and business development organizations, establishing clear expectations for activity, pipeline development, customer engagement, and revenue production.
• Build a high-performance sales culture that emphasizes execution, personal accountability, responsiveness, and measurable results.
• Establish individual sales plans for each salesperson, including revenue and gross profit targets, pipeline requirements, customer development objectives, and performance metrics.
• Regularly evaluate salesperson performance and effectiveness, recognizing and retaining high performers while addressing performance deficiencies decisively.
• Establish consistent sales management routines, including pipeline reviews, opportunity assessments, forecast reviews, and individual coaching.
• Maintain direct involvement in major opportunities, strategic customer relationships, and significant contract negotiations.
• Ensure sales personnel are actively engaged in the marketplace, developing new relationships, strengthening existing accounts, and expanding AQUALIS's presence.
• Recruit, develop, train, and retain talented sales professionals capable of supporting the Company's growth objectives.
• Establish appropriate sales incentives and compensation structures that reward profitable growth, new customer acquisition, and achievement of strategic objectives.
3. National Accounts & Strategic Customer Development
• Develop and execute a comprehensive national accounts strategy focused on growing AQUALIS's most important customer relationships.
• Establish and maintain senior-level relationships with key decision-makers, including corporate executives, facility leaders, procurement organizations, and strategic business partners.
• Build customer-specific business plans that identify opportunities, objectives, service-line penetration strategies, and measurable growth targets.
• Expand AQUALIS's relationships beyond individual transactions and regional engagements to establish broader, enterprise-level partnerships.
• Identify opportunities to cross-sell services, expand geographic coverage, increase customer retention, and improve overall customer profitability.
• Personally lead or participate in strategic customer discussions, major presentations, and high-value negotiations.
• Work closely with operations to ensure AQUALIS consistently delivers on customer commitments and maintains strong customer satisfaction.
4. Commercial Operations, Forecasting & Accountability
• Own the commercial forecasting process and establish the discipline necessary to produce accurate, reliable revenue and gross profit projections.
• Implement consistent sales operating procedures, pipeline management standards, forecasting methodologies, and performance reporting.
• Establish clear visibility into the sales funnel, including opportunity qualification, probability of close, expected timing, contract value, and projected profitability.
• Ensure forecasts are supported by documented opportunities, customer activity, and realistic closing expectations rather than aspirational projections.
• Monitor sales performance against budget and develop corrective action plans when results deviate from established objectives.
• Establish appropriate key performance indicators and management reporting that provide visibility into sales productivity, conversion rates, pipeline coverage, customer retention, and profitability.
• Ensure that commercial resources are allocated effectively based on market opportunity, salesperson performance, and expected return.
• Partner with Finance and Operations to establish a consistent understanding of revenue, backlog, margins, pricing, and sales performance.
5. Pricing, Estimating & Profitability
• Provide executive leadership and direction to the estimating function, ensuring the organization maintains a disciplined, competitive, and profitable approach to pricing.
• Establish and enforce pricing strategies that balance market competitiveness with appropriate gross margin expectations.
• Improve estimating processes, bid quality, responsiveness, and consistency across regions and service lines.
• Ensure that commercial decisions appropriately consider operating costs, service delivery requirements, customer expectations, and contractual risk.
• Establish review and approval processes for significant bids, nonstandard pricing, and strategic customer contracts.
• Partner with Operations and Finance to evaluate historical job performance, pricing effectiveness, and opportunities to improve realized margins.
• Ensure growth is measured not simply by revenue production but by the quality and profitability of the business secured.
6. Marketing & Market Positioning
• Lead the Company's marketing strategy, ensuring alignment with commercial objectives, service-line priorities, and target customer segments.
• Strengthen AQUALIS's brand recognition and market position as a premier provider of comprehensive water management and infrastructure services.
• Develop marketing programs that generate qualified leads, improve customer engagement, and support regional and national sales initiatives.
• Establish measurable objectives for marketing investment, lead generation, conversion, and return on investment.
• Ensure consistency in the Company's messaging, customer value proposition, digital presence, and sales collateral.
• Leverage customer data, market intelligence, and competitive insights to identify opportunities and improve marketing effectiveness.
7. Executive Leadership & Cross-Functional Partnership
• Serve as a key member of the executive leadership team, contributing to the Company's overall strategic direction and business performance.
• Establish strong working relationships with Operations, Finance, Human Resources, and other functional leaders to ensure commercial objectives are supported by operational capabilities.
• Align sales commitments with operational capacity, service delivery standards, resource availability, and customer expectations.
• Work collaboratively with Operations to resolve customer issues, improve service execution, and strengthen customer retention.
• Develop and mentor commercial leaders, building a succession pipeline and organizational capabilities that can support a larger and more complex business.
• Create an environment that encourages ownership, transparency, open communication, continuous improvement, and high standards of performance.
• Provide timely and transparent reporting to the COO and executive leadership regarding commercial performance, opportunities, risks, and required actions.
Qualifications & Experience
• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, finance, or a related discipline; advanced degree or relevant executive education preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive sales and commercial leadership experience, preferably within business-to-business services, infrastructure services, environmental services, or related industries.
• Demonstrated success leading and scaling a multi-regional sales organization with responsibility for significant revenue and profitability objectives.
• Proven ability to develop and execute commercial strategies that translate into measurable revenue growth and improved profitability.
• Experience leading multiple commercial functions, including sales, business development, national accounts, estimating, and marketing.
• Demonstrated ability to recruit, develop, motivate, evaluate, and manage sales leadership and individual contributors.
• Strong financial and business acumen, including an understanding of revenue forecasting, gross margins, pricing, budgeting, and commercial performance metrics.
• Experience implementing structured sales processes, CRM discipline, pipeline management, and forecasting systems.
• Demonstrated success developing and managing strategic national accounts and executive-level customer relationships.
• Experience working within a mid-sized, entrepreneurial organization where executives remain close to customers, employees, and day-to-day execution.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on leadership and direct involvement in critical commercial activities.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, acquisitive environment where systems, processes, and organizational structures continue to evolve.
• Demonstrated stability and tenure in prior leadership roles, with a track record of building organizations and delivering sustained results.
Extensive Travel Requirements
• Extensive domestic travel is an essential requirement of this position. The EVP should expect to spend significant time traveling throughout AQUALIS's national operating footprint.
• Regular travel to regional offices, customer locations, field operations, and prospective markets is expected to maintain strong organizational alignment and direct customer engagement.
• Personally participate in key customer meetings, national account reviews, major sales presentations, strategic negotiations, and important business development opportunities throughout the country.
• Maintain regular in-person engagement with regional sales leaders and individual salespeople through ride-along, customer visits, regional sales meetings, and direct coaching.
• Travel regularly with operational leadership to develop an understanding of service delivery, identify growth opportunities, strengthen customer rel
