SVP, Business Development

SOCOTEC•New York, NY

2d•$250,000 - $275,000•Onsite

About The Position

The SVP, Business Development is a senior-level commercial leader responsible for leading Business Development professionals to drive new-customer revenue across the Northeast and contribute to SOCOTEC US revenue growth. The role also provides strategic and operational oversight of SOCOTEC USA’s national Proposal organization, ensuring it has the people, processes, tools, and operating disciplines needed to support sustainable organic growth. Working closely with the COO and leaders across Operations, Finance, Marketing, HR, IT, and business units, the SVP establishes scalable commercial processes, tools, governance, and performance measures. This is an organizational leadership role—not an individual-contributor, commission-driven sales position—and it works with technical seller-doers to expand market coverage, cross-sell services, grow existing accounts, and strengthen commercial excellence. The position is focused on the Northeast, with New York, NY preferred and Boston, MA also considered. It requires working in the office four days per week and approximately 20–30% travel to client sites, regional offices, and industry events. The position reports to the COO.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
At least 10 years of progressive business development, commercial, or related leadership experience.
Significant experience leading business development, proposal, pursuit, or commercial teams, with demonstrated people leadership and executive presence.
Demonstrated success leading business development teams to generate new revenue, develop client relationships, and build regional or company-level market presence.
Strong understanding of complex B2B business development and sales cycles, strategic pursuits, and proposal development.
Exceptional organizational, written, verbal, and presentation skills.
Strong business acumen and ability to connect commercial strategy, client needs, operational capabilities, and financial performance.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
Strategic and analytical mindset, with ability to balance hands-on business development and pursuit leadership with broader commercial priorities.
Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate effectively across business units and functions.
Executive presence and ability to influence across business units and functions.
Strategic business development and revenue-generation expertise.
Strong business acumen within AEC, industrial services, or professional services sectors.
Client relationship development and strategic account management capabilities.
Data-driven decision-making skills and comfort with CRM and commercial analytics.
Change management and organizational transformation capabilities.
Strong communication, negotiation, and presentation skills.
Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, evolving organization.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree, such as an MBA or related field.
Experience in Industrial Services, Professional Services, Architecture, Engineering, Construction, or Testing, Inspection, and Certification.
Familiarity with CRM platforms, such as Deltek Vantagepoint.
Experience leading change, process improvement, technology adoption, or organizational transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

Build, lead, and mentor Business Development teams across regional offices, initially focused on the Northeast.
Partner with Operations leaders to strengthen collaboration between technical delivery teams and commercial staff and establish a unified growth culture.
Align regional commercial teams with corporate strategy.
Design and implement variable compensation models aligned with organic growth targets, revenue, cross-selling, and customer retention.
Develop and implement a commercial strategy to scale organic growth and expand market share.
Lead change initiatives that promote customer-centric, data-driven, and commercially minded behaviors.
Monitor industry trends, competitive conditions, and market dynamics; gather market intelligence and evaluate new markets, service lines, and revenue streams.
Assess pricing trends and win-loss metrics to support standardized pricing models and optimize profitability and competitiveness.
Drive new-customer revenue and build a qualified regional pipeline.
Promote cross-selling and service bundling across SOCOTEC’s service portfolio.
Develop senior relationships with key accounts, strategic clients, and industry partners.
Support major contract negotiations and provide executive oversight for strategic, high-value pursuits.
Represent SOCOTEC with prospective clients, industry partners, and stakeholders across relevant sectors.
Manage and report on the opportunity pipeline from initial contact through win or loss.
Improve win rates through stronger proposal quality, client-centric positioning, and post-submission reviews.
Establish sales performance metrics, KPIs, and accountability frameworks.
Partner with Marketing to improve brand recognition and competitive positioning.
Serve as senior business owner for the enterprise CRM, working with IT on data standards, governance, and user adoption.
Develop executive dashboards and provide analytics on pipeline health, win-loss trends, and revenue forecasting.
Champion Net Promoter Score and customer experience initiatives with Operations to support client retention and repeat business.
Identify and advance AI, automation, and process-improvement opportunities in commercial workflows, emphasizing measurable gains in productivity, quality, and decision-making.
Standardize priority commercial processes and governance to improve consistency, visibility, accountability, and execution across business units.
Provide commercial performance insights, market intelligence, and recommendations to the COO/CCO and business leadership to inform growth strategy and investment decisions.
Provide executive leadership and strategic direction for SOCOTEC USA’s national Proposal organization in partnership with Marketing.
Partner with the Director of Proposals and Proposal leadership on the organization’s day-to-day operation, staffing, prioritization, and execution.
Establish national best practices for pursuit and proposal strategy, delivery, quality, continuous improvement, and performance reporting.
Improve proposal quality, consistency, efficiency, turnaround time, and win rates.
Support processes and governance for complex proposals, estimates, and level-of-effort and fee calculations.
Identify opportunities to use AI, automation, and technology to improve Proposal team capacity, effectiveness, and speed.