Market & Business Development Leader - Energy Storage

Ingevity•North Charleston, SC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

This role sits inside Ingevity's Performance Materials team and will partner directly with a technical lead to take early-stage opportunities from rough concept through the Stage Gate process and toward commercialization. This is a hands-on role, not a desk-only strategy job. You will spend time with customers, observe how they work, ask questions, and help Ingevity learn quickly what matters and what doesn’t. You’ll also help make smarter choices about where to invest time and resources. The role may be classified at either the Manager or Director level depending on the experience and capability of the selected candidate. Ingevity develops innovations that purify, protect and enhance the world around us. Their products enable oil to flow better, crops to grow fuller, roads to last longer and ensure that the air we all breathe is cleaner. Ingevity seeks out new ideas for tackling complex problems and celebrates achieving the improbable, valuing each person’s unique talents to create meaningful impact and sustainable solutions.

Requirements

5–10 years in B2B industrial markets such as chemicals, materials, automotive components, filtration, engineered products, or similar.
Deep experience in energy storage working with partners across the value chain.
Broad techno-economic understanding of different battery technologies and associated applications.
Experience taking an idea from concept to something that real customers have seen, handled, reacted to, or tested preferably in energy storage markets.
Experience with products that have technical differentiation or IP-protection, where the value has to be communicated clearly.
Comfortable managing several early-stage opportunities at once and deciding which deserves more time and which don’t.
Experience working closely with R&D, engineering, or technical teams and translating customer needs into technical development priorities.
Exposure to specification-driven markets (automotive, electronics, industrial materials, engineered systems), where performance, testing, or application requirements shape adoption.
Strong curiosity - enjoy asking questions and learning fast.
Ability to test assumptions instead of polishing them.
Comfortable building a simple, clear story from incomplete information.
Solid executive communication skills: talking to customers, translating technical details, writing concise summaries, and influencing senior leaders’ decisions.
Ability to work independently and move things forward with minimal instruction.
Not afraid to say, “This idea isn’t strong enough- let’s stop investing here.”
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, chemistry, materials, business, or similar field required.
Up to ~25 percent travel to customers, plants, or labs.
Ability to be hands-on during early customer testing or trials.
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
This is not a position that Ingevity will consider for employment sponsorship. Ingevity will not sponsor in any NIV category (including TN, E-3, H-1B, O-1) or submit the position in the H-1B Registration.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading complex opportunity portfolios, influencing investment decisions, and shaping multi-year platform strategy is preferred.
Experience coaching or leading other BD, product, or commercial team members is preferred.
MBA, technical graduate degree, and/or equivalent experience leading multi-function commercial/technical teams is preferred but not required.

Responsibilities

Lead the commercial side of early-stage growth opportunities.
Oversee the commercial strategy for multiple platforms at once, helping shape where to focus time and investment across the broader portfolio.
Build a simple, clear commercial picture of each opportunity - who it’s for, why it matters, what they’re using today, and what would make them switch.
Work side-by-side with a technical counterpart to make sure prioritizing the right technical features.
Help guide ideas through Stage Gate by grounding decisions in real customer feedback instead of assumptions.
Help set or refine the criteria to greenlight, pause, or stop opportunities, and bring a stronger voice into investment discussions at Stage Gate reviews.
Get out of the building: talk to potential users, buyers, engineers, and anyone who touches or specifies the product.
Turn customer conversations into insights: what they value, what they ignore, what would make or break adoption.
Build early relationships with the kinds of customers who can help learn quickly.
Identify the most promising segments and applications - with a clear story about who cares and why.
Translate customer needs into value propositions that make sense and can be tested.
Work with Research & Technology technical team (R&T) to make sure development lines up with what customers need.
Define the long-term platform growth strategy, including where each opportunity fits and how to position across segments.
When an idea shows promise, help define the basics: how it gets positioned, what matters for adoption, and where it logically fits in the value chain.
Help understand what early trials, specs, or qualifications might look like.
Prepare the opportunity so that, when the time comes, a salesperson can pick it up and run with it.
Lead the early commercialization strategy for one or more platforms, ensuring consistent positioning, pricing logic, and market messaging across related opportunities.
Bring customer learning into technical discussions with R&T, Ops, Supply Chain, and others.
Help the team stay honest about what the market cares about vs what we wish the market cared about.
Build trust with technical teams by showing real, practical insights from customers.