Director of Business Development
About The Position
Surfline Coastal Intelligence (SCI) turns decades of ocean and coastal data into insights that help communities, engineers, and agencies make better decisions about the coast. The Director of Business Development sets SCI’s partnership strategy and builds and leads the team responsible for carrying it out. The role determines which markets, partner categories, and pilots merit investment; owns the SCI revenue plan; and personally leads the organization’s most strategic relationships. It also translates field evidence into direction for product, data science, and executive leadership, helping shape SCI’s future. This position may be performed on a full-time remote basis under Surfline’s “Work from Anywhere” policy. California-based candidates are strongly preferred.
Requirements
- Deep professional and/or academic experience in coastal sciences.
- Experience closing complex agreements involving data rights, public procurement, and multiyear contracts.
- Strong fluency with government budgets, grants, and municipal buying cycles across many jurisdictions.
- Proven success leading B2B/G revenue growth and building teams that deliver it.
- Experience hiring and developing business development talent across a geographically dispersed team.
- Ability to set strategy with incomplete data and adjust quickly as evidence arrives.
- Patience and stamina to lead a team through long public-sector cycles while maintaining momentum.
- Intellectual honesty to identify when a partnership category is no longer viable and redirect the team’s effort.
Nice To Haves
- An existing network of connections among coastal municipalities, engineering firms, or public agencies.
- Passion for surfing or other ocean activities.
Responsibilities
- Own SCI’s partnership strategy and revenue plan across municipalities, engineering firms, and agencies.
- Hire, coach, and lead Business Development Managers responsible for driving revenue in discrete categories.
- Connect scientific insights to commercial value for partners using coastal science knowledge.
- Set a discovery standard that uncovers partner problems before solutions are proposed.
- Define SCI’s pilot framework, including hypotheses, success metrics, and decision points.
- Translate field learnings into roadmap input for product, data science, and executive leadership.
- Build a shared system for documenting engagements so patterns can refine SCI’s strategy.
- Help decide which partner categories to pursue, pause, or exit based on field evidence.
- Allocate team time and resources based on strategic fit, scalability, and long-term value rather than deal size.
- Lead market sizing and segmentation to guide investment along core market coastlines.
- Negotiate complex agreements involving data rights, public procurement, and multiyear terms.
- Align the dispersed SCI team around partner needs so technical capabilities reach appropriate markets.
- Forecast pipeline and revenue for executive leadership and provide candid assessments of each stage.
- Represent SCI as its senior external voice with agency leaders and at conferences and industry events.
Benefits
- 100% company-paid healthcare, including medical, dental, and vision.
- 401(k) plan and match.
- “Use What You Need” PTO.
- Competitive and comprehensive benefits package.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Education Level
No Education Listed
