Leads national sales for air pollution control systems, services, retrofits, and upgrades. Develops strategic accounts and complex engineered-system opportunities, manages pipelines and forecasts, leads proposals and negotiations, and coordinates engineering, estimating, finance, legal, supply chain, and project teams. Builds customer relationships across utilities, industrial companies, EPCs, OEMs, and partners while achieving bookings, revenue, margin, backlog, and aftermarket growth objectives.
Director - National Sales, Air Pollution Control Position OverviewEducation and ExperienceKnowledge, Skills and AbilitiesKey Measures of SuccessLeadership Profile
The Director of National Sales - APC is a senior, hands-on sales professional responsible for generating profitable growth for Fuel Tech's Air Pollution Control business. This is a strategic and tactical individual-contributor role focused on personally developing, qualifying, advancing and closing complex engineered-system project opportunities across the United States and assigned strategic accounts working closely with the APC team and Proposal Management Team.
This position will lead customer pursuits through influence, value selling and cross-functional coordination. The role partners closely with engineering, estimating, project management, finance, legal, supply chain and executive leadership to develop technically sound, commercially competitive and executable solutions.
Primary Responsibilities- Own and execute the national sales plan for APC systems, services, retrofits and upgrades, aligned with company bookings, revenue, margin and backlog objectives.
- Personally identify, develop and qualify opportunities with utilities, industrial end users, engineering firms, engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) contractors, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and strategic partners.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with customer executives, plant leadership, engineering, operations, environmental, procurement and other decision-makers.
- Develop an account and pursuit strategy for each priority opportunity, including customer needs, buying influences, competition, technical fit, funding, schedule, probability of win and next actions. Build a pipeline of project opportunities and continue to expand the pipeline to targeted customers/segment to achieve a high bid/win ratio.
- Lead customer discovery and value-based selling by translating Fuel Tech's technical capabilities into operational, regulatory, financial and performance benefits.
- Drive major pursuits from early opportunity development through proposal, technical and commercial clarification, negotiation and contract award.
- Make or recommend disciplined bid/no-bid decisions based on strategic fit, win probability, resource requirements, margin potential and commercial risk. Strive to achieve the highest margin by differentiating our offering.
- Coordinate cross-functional pursuit teams to develop responsive proposals, clear scope, sound estimates, competitive pricing and practical execution plans.
- Generate or review budgetary and commercial proposals, presentations, pricing strategies, margin analyses and contract positions.
- Participate directly in technical-commercial negotiations, including scope, price, payment terms, warranties, performance guarantees, liquidated damages and other risk provisions.
- Maintain accurate and timely customer, opportunity, forecast, activity and next-step information in the company customer relationship management system.
- Prepare regular pipeline, forecast and sales-status updates for Senior Leadership Team (SLT) , highlighting risks, barriers, resource needs and recommended actions.
- Monitor market conditions, regulatory developments, customer capital plans, competitor activity and channel strategies that affect APC demand.
- Expand revenue from Fuel Tech's installed base by identifying aftermarket, service, parts, retrofit, upgrade and optimization opportunities.
- Represent Fuel Tech at customer meetings, project sites, industry events and conferences, and support market-facing technical presentations as needed.
- Ensure commitments made during the sales process are clearly documented and effectively transitioned to project execution teams following award.
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, MBA in business is strongly preferred.
- Ten or more years of successful sales, business development or account-management experience in air pollution control, environmental systems, power generation, process industries or closely related engineered-equipment markets.
- Demonstrated success selling complex, project-based engineered systems with long sales cycles, competitive tenders and significant customer capital investment.
- Experience developing strategic accounts, leading major pursuits and negotiating technical and commercial terms through contract award.
- Experience working closely with engineering, estimating, project management, finance and legal teams to develop and close opportunities.
- Established knowledge of APC customers, applications, competitors and market drivers is required.
- Strong knowledge of the full opportunity-to-order process, including prospecting, qualification, value proposition, proposal development, pricing, negotiation and handoff.
- Working technical knowledge sufficient to communicate credibly with customer engineers, plant personnel, procurement teams and internal technical specialists.
- Strong commercial judgment regarding pricing, margin, cash flow, payment terms, warranties, performance guarantees and contract risk.
- Ability to prioritize and independently manage a national portfolio of complex opportunities, OEM relationship, EPC partnership and strategic accounts.
- Exceptional relationship-building, presentation, negotiation, active-listening and written communication skills.
- Analytical and disciplined approach to account planning, pipeline management, forecasting and opportunity reviews.
- Ability to influence decisions and lead cross-functional work without direct supervisory authority.
- High level of accountability, integrity, customer focus and commitment to Fuel Tech's values of Innovation, Accountability, Commitment and Sustainability.
- Proficiency in updating and maintaining customer relationship management tools (CRM) and Microsoft Office applications.
- Ability to travel regularly to customer locations, project sites, company facilities and industry events, including overnight travel as business needs require
- Achievement of annual bookings, revenue, backlog and margin objectives for assigned APC markets and accounts.
- Growth and quality of the qualified sales pipeline, including forecast accuracy and timely opportunity advancement.
- Win rate on priority pursuits and growth in targeted customers, applications and market segments.
- Quality of pricing, scope alignment and contractual risk on new orders.
- Growth in installed-base, aftermarket, service, retrofit and upgrade revenue.
- Accuracy and consistency of customer, opportunity and forecast information.
- Effectiveness of cross-functional pursuit leadership and project handoff following contract award.
- CRM adoption, sales-process discipline and quality of commercial data.
Fuel Tech is seeking a commercial sales leader who combines strategic market thinking with hands-on execution and embodies our core values of Innovation, Accountability, Commitment and Sustainability. The ideal candidate understands that success in a project-based business requires selecting the right opportunities, understanding customer needs, developing differentiated technical and commercial solutions, and mobilizing the organization around a winning strategy.
This leader will bring innovation to solving customer problems, accountability for the results, commitment to customers and the organization, and a focus on sustainability and long-term value creation. Above all, this individual will drive disciplined execution—winning the right projects at attractive economics while building enduring customer relationships and sustainable growth.
EEO statement:
We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
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