Go-to-Market & Growth Strategy Lead

Avalanche • Seattle, WA

2d

About The Position

Avalanche Energy is seeking a Go-to-Market & Growth Strategy Lead to identify, evaluate, and develop the markets and business models that can turn its compact fusion technology portfolio into scalable government and commercial businesses. The role combines market intelligence, customer discovery, commercialization strategy, business-case development, and financial modeling to inform investment decisions and determine how products and services should be positioned, priced, partnered, and brought to market.

Reporting to the Director of Strategy, the Lead will work with business development, executive leadership, science and engineering, finance, regulatory, and program teams. The role connects customer needs and market evidence to product strategy, R&D priorities, investment decisions, and go-to-market plans. It will assess opportunity size, build financial models, test commercialization hypotheses with customers and partners, evaluate technical and economic feasibility, and prepare executive materials to advance concepts into validated business opportunities. As opportunities mature, the Lead will help define value propositions, solution concepts, commercial models, and pursuit rationales before qualified opportunities transition to capture and proposal execution.

Avalanche describes its environment as a small, hands-on, collaborative startup team focused on developing compact fusion machines for applications ranging from austere environments and deep-sea vehicles to maritime transport and lunar power. The company values self-motivation, problem solving, adaptability, focused work, and continual learning.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of experience in defense, space, or energy growth strategy, management consulting, technical business development, or a related role in a technology sector.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, economics, finance, business, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to take ambiguous technical or market opportunities from initial hypothesis through research, customer discovery, business case, financial model, solution narrative, proposal, and executable plan.
• Strong financial and analytical skills, including market sizing, pricing, revenue and margin modeling, unit economics, ROI, scenario analysis, and clear presentation of assumptions and sensitivities.
• Experience working with the DoW, DOE, NNSA, NASA, the Intelligence Community, national laboratories, or regulated commercial customers.
• Ability to translate customer needs into technical solution concepts in collaboration with scientists and engineers and explain complex technologies to executive and non-technical audiences.
• Experience building decision-grade business cases, investment models, market-entry analyses, or commercialization plans for complex hardware, energy, aerospace, defense, or other deep-technology products.
• Ability to independently structure ambiguous analytical problems, identify critical assumptions and required data, and communicate recommendations clearly to executive and technical stakeholders.
• Startup builder mindset, including comfort moving between strategy and execution, creating processes, working through ambiguity, and managing multiple high-priority workstreams.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI clearance.

Nice To Haves

• MBA, advanced technical degree, or equivalent experience.
• Direct experience with fusion, nuclear, isotopes, radiation systems, high-voltage technology, semiconductors, aerospace, defense technology, or an adjacent deep-technology sector.
• Experience evaluating business models for capital-intensive or regulated technologies, including product, service, licensing, infrastructure, or public-private partnership models.
• Experience supporting corporate strategy, strategic finance, management consulting, investment analysis, or new-venture commercialization in an R&D-intensive company.
• Experience developing cost and schedule estimates, bases of estimate, pricing strategies, and price-to-win analyses for proposals.
• Working knowledge of nuclear or fusion regulatory frameworks.
• Experience with CRM software, business-intelligence, financial-modeling, and data-visualization tools.
• Active DoW security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Support go-to-market strategies for Avalanche technologies, defining priority use cases, market segments, target accounts, key buyers, acquisition pathways, routes to market, partner strategies, and commercialization sequencing.
• Conduct federal and commercial market research, market sizing, customer and competitor analysis, policy and budget analysis, and pricing research.
• Build business cases and financial models for products, services, partnerships, demonstrations, and programs, including revenue, margin, cost, pricing, capital requirements, unit economics, ROI, NPV, and sensitivity or scenario analyses.
• Translate market evidence and customer demand into recommendations for R&D priorities, product roadmaps, investment decisions, make-buy-partner choices, and commercialization plans.
• Develop market theses, growth plans, account strategies, and executive decision materials linking long-term strategy to near-term actions and measurable outcomes.
• Evaluate commercialization and business-model alternatives and recommend approaches that balance speed, capital efficiency, risk, and long-term value.
• Bridge customers, business development, finance, regulatory, and science and engineering teams during early-stage engagements.
• Translate customer mission needs, performance objectives, interfaces, constraints, schedules, budgets, and acquisition requirements into internal requirements, assumptions, trade studies, and decision points.
• Work with scientists and engineers to assess feasibility and technical approaches, identify development gaps and risks, and formulate solutions for government customers, commercial prime contractors, and strategic partners.
• Develop and communicate solution concepts, configurations, development plans, prototypes, demonstrations, trials, pilots, and proof-of-capability activities, distinguishing current capability from proposed development and future commitments.
• Capture customer feedback, technical observations, and competitive insights and convert them into inputs for product development, R&D, positioning, and pursuit strategy.
• Conduct structured customer discovery to test market hypotheses, quantify customer value, validate willingness to pay, and identify adoption or deployment barriers.
• Synthesize customer, technical, regulatory, competitive, and financial evidence into executive-ready commercialization recommendations and investment decisions.
• Support pricing and negotiations by integrating business-case assumptions, technical inputs, cost and schedule estimates, bases of estimate, risk positions, and expected value with finance and technical teams.
• Develop pricing architectures, deal economics, revenue models, and scenario analyses for products, services, demonstrations, licensing structures, and strategic partnerships.
• Assess capital requirements, development funding needs, production economics, and commercialization risk for internal investment decisions and external negotiations.
• Provide market, technical, and financial analysis to business development and capture teams for customer engagements, pricing decisions, teaming discussions, and pursuit strategies.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits; the company pays 100% of premiums.
• 10 paid holidays and a company-wide December holiday break.
• Paid vacation and sick time.
• Small, tight-knit team with low barriers to action.
• Exposure to a wide variety of problems and hands-on professional growth.
• Weekly employer-provided team meals, a well-stocked kitchen, and employee events on and off-site.
• Opportunity for equity.

What This Job Offers

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