Director, Integration and Strategic Services

Global Water Technology • Calumet City, IL

4d • Remote

About The Position

The Director, Integration & Strategic Services is a senior leadership role within Global Water Technology’s Water & Energy Services platform responsible for leading acquisitions, strategic initiatives, emerging capabilities, and other complex assignments requiring coordination across regions, functions, clients, and external partners. Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, the Director provides dedicated leadership capacity where focused attention is needed without distracting Regional Vice Presidents, District Managers, and other P&L leaders from their core responsibilities.

A primary focus of the position is mergers and acquisitions, with involvement beginning during pursuit and due diligence and continuing through closing, transition, stabilization, and full operational integration. The Director serves as a bridge between acquired businesses and GWT, helping both sides understand the people, clients, products, processes, systems, and operating practices necessary for a successful transition.

The scope of an integration assignment will vary. An acquisition within an established territory may require several months of focused support, while an acquisition creating a new geography or operating structure may require temporary leadership similar to a District Manager or Regional Vice President. The objective is not to create permanent parallel leadership, but to stabilize, align, build, and transition appropriate responsibilities to the long-term operating structure.

Beyond M&A, the Director serves as a flexible senior resource for strategic WES needs that do not yet have a natural organizational home or require dedicated leadership to develop and scale. The Director may take an identified need or opportunity, develop the strategy and operating model, demonstrate value, and build the resources and structure necessary to sustain it.

An initial strategic priority will be the development of a formal Corporate Development & Strategic Accounts capability within WES. The Director will establish the strategy, structure, account segmentation, business development approach, operating rhythm, and organizational coordination necessary to build and scale the function. Initially, the Director may directly lead select strategic relationships and enterprise opportunities while the capability is being established. As activity and opportunity warrant dedicated resources, the Director will build and lead the team responsible for day-to-day strategic account development and execution while maintaining overall leadership of the function and senior involvement in GWT’s most significant relationships and opportunities.

Additional assignments may include stabilizing a region following leadership turnover, overseeing strategic service partners, strengthening technical capability, supporting training and education initiatives, launching new programs, or leading special projects that cross traditional organizational boundaries.

In essence, the Director, Integration & Strategic Services provides experienced leadership wherever WES needs additional capacity to integrate, build, stabilize, or scale, while ensuring the resulting capability has the people, structure, accountability, and long-term ownership necessary to succeed.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive experience in commercial and industrial water treatment, industrial services, or a closely related technical service industry.
• Significant experience leading operations, field teams, client relationships, territories, districts, regions, or comparable multi-functional organizations.
• Deep understanding of commercial and industrial water treatment chemistry, equipment, service delivery, client management, and field operations.
• Experience with mergers and acquisitions, business integration, organizational transition, or acquired account and team integration strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex initiatives across multiple functions and geographies without relying solely on direct reporting authority.
• Demonstrated ability to build new programs, processes, teams, or organizational capabilities from concept through implementation.
• Experience developing strategic, enterprise, key, or multi-location client relationships and new business opportunities.
• Strong understanding of business operations, account economics, pricing, contracts, financial performance, and operational planning.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with business owners, employees, clients, senior executives, and external partners.
• Strong project management, organizational, communication, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in changing environments and move between strategic planning, organizational development, client engagement, business development, and hands-on execution.
• Demonstrated ability to develop others and transition personal responsibilities into scalable teams and structures.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred; significant relevant industry and leadership experience may substitute for formal education.

Nice To Haves

• Certified Water Technologist (CWT) designation preferred.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the COO, executive leadership, and senior WES leadership throughout acquisition pursuit, evaluation, and due diligence.
• Develop relationships with acquisition owners and key employees to understand the business, people, clients, culture, products, service model, operations, and market.
• Participate in operational and commercial due diligence and identify integration risks, opportunities, resource needs, and organizational considerations.
• Develop and lead practical integration roadmaps with clear priorities, milestones, responsibilities, and transition plans.
• Serve as a primary bridge between acquired owners and employees and the broader GWT organization.
• Coordinate integration across people, clients, products, suppliers, pricing, service practices, systems, reporting, inventory, fulfillment, and operating procedures.
• Partner with Product and technical leadership to align chemistry, equipment, applications, suppliers, and technical standards.
• Partner with Finance and Business Operations to align contracts, pricing, purchasing, billing, reporting, systems, and financial processes.
• Partner with Regional Vice Presidents and District Managers to establish appropriate territory structure, staffing, account assignments, leadership responsibilities, and long-term ownership.
• Protect employee and client retention while thoughtfully introducing GWT’s culture, resources, standards, and operating model.
• Provide temporary leadership and urgent field, client, technical, training, or operational support when necessary to stabilize an acquired business.
• Transition responsibility deliberately to permanent regional, district, functional, and account leadership as integration milestones are achieved.
• Identify strategic or enterprise client relationships obtained through acquisitions that warrant inclusion within Corporate Development & Strategic Accounts.
• Serve as a flexible senior leadership resource to the COO for strategic initiatives, special projects, organizational challenges, and emerging capabilities across WES.
• Take ownership of initiatives requiring dedicated attention and cross-functional coordination that would otherwise distract P&L leaders from their core responsibilities.
• Build, pilot, and operationalize new WES capabilities where an emerging need requires dedicated leadership before permanent resources or structure are established.
• Develop practical operating models, including objectives, responsibilities, processes, resource requirements, performance measures, and long-term organizational considerations.
• Establish the business case and demonstrate measurable value before recommending additional permanent resources.
• Help identify, recruit, onboard, and develop resources necessary to scale new capabilities.
• Step into regions or districts experiencing leadership turnover, organizational change, or performance challenges to provide temporary leadership and stabilization.
• Support technical, training, education, and capability-building initiatives in partnership with appropriate WES and corporate resources.
• Identify recurring challenges and develop scalable solutions and best practices that can be replicated throughout WES.
• Establish clear objectives, accountability, performance measures, and long-term ownership for strategic assignments.
• Provide the COO with visibility into barriers, organizational needs, risks, opportunities, and resource requirements.
• Lead the development and ongoing oversight of GWT’s Corporate Development & Strategic Accounts capability within WES.
• Partner with the COO and senior WES leadership to establish the strategy, structure, objectives, priorities, and performance expectations of the function.
• Establish criteria and segmentation for strategic accounts and enterprise prospects and determine where corporate-level coordination creates value.
• Establish the strategic account and enterprise business development framework, including account planning, relationship mapping, executive engagement, pipeline management, business reviews, CRM expectations, and performance measurement.
• Maintain senior involvement in GWT’s most significant strategic relationships and enterprise pursuits, particularly where executive sponsorship or cross-organizational coordination is required.
• Establish and develop executive-level relationships with key strategic clients and prospects.
• Ensure an appropriate balance between new strategic client development, retention of existing relationships, organic growth, and portfolio penetration.
• Establish clear ownership and coordination between Corporate Development & Strategic Accounts, regional Business Development, Regional Vice Presidents, District Managers, field account leadership, Product, and other GWT resources.
• Ensure enterprise opportunities and corporate commitments are effectively translated into regional and local execution while maintaining appropriate strategic relationship ownership.
• Identify client and market needs that may inform new GWT offerings, capabilities, technologies, partnerships, or investments.
• Establish measurable objectives around retention, net-new business, organic growth, portfolio penetration, pipeline, revenue, gross profit, and other relevant measures of performance.
• Establish the business case and appropriate timing for additional Corporate Development & Strategic Accounts resources as activity and opportunity grow.
• Recruit, lead, develop, and establish accountability for dedicated Corporate Development & Strategic Accounts resources.
• Provide direction and support on significant pursuits, account strategies, client escalations, portfolio agreements, and other complex opportunities.
• Partner with Integration and regional leadership to identify strategic relationships within acquired businesses and ensure appropriate transition into GWT’s strategic account model.
• Continually evaluate the function’s performance, structure, resource needs, and ROI and recommend changes as GWT continues to scale.
• Oversee relationships with strategic service partners, subcontractors, and outsourced service providers supporting WES clients.
• Establish expectations for service quality, technical standards, documentation, communication, and accountability.
• Serve as an escalation and coordination point for partner relationships crossing multiple districts, regions, or client portfolios.
• Identify and address performance or coverage gaps in partnership with regional and account leadership.
• Support the evaluation and onboarding of partners where additional geographic or technical capabilities are needed.
• Identify opportunities where strategic partnerships can extend GWT’s capabilities, geographic reach, or ability to serve enterprise clients.
• Continuously improve partner performance, consistency, coverage, and value.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and comprehensive group health care benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and life insurance coverage.
• Performance-based incentive plan tied to Company performance, operational improvements, and achievement of key objectives.
• Company vehicle program or reimbursement plan for required business travel.
• Access to industry-leading training, leadership development, mentoring, and continuing education.
• Opportunity to work closely with executive and senior leadership while playing an important role in GWT’s acquisition strategy and continued development of the WES platform.
• Career advancement opportunities within a growing, nationally recognized commercial and industrial water treatment organization.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive