Business Development Manager

This is a senior role in the ATSolar structure with broad responsibility for fueling the company's pipeline of buyers and bringing new services to untapped markets. The purpose is to pitch, negotiate and sign PPAs with key clients and manage buyers through the financial close process, while constantly driving improvement and advancement of our product offerings through ongoing interfacing with our engineering, project development and project finance teams. This is an influential commercial role within ATSolar Group and presents significant opportunities for career advancement and development.

• Create new client relationships and leads for the ATSolar Group.
• Build on and enhance our existing relationships with commercial and industrial energy clients.
• Deliver proposals to prospective buyers and secure awards with new and existing buyers on a bilateral basis, or lead selected RFP processes to secure buyer awards.
• Lead commercial negotiations of PPA key terms and long form PPA contracts with support from ATSOLAR's established legal and commercial structures.
• Interface with ATSOLAR's in house engineering, project development and project finance teams to enhance and evolve proposals in line with market feedback on pricing and commercial terms.
• Bring new products to ATSOLAR's long standing client base including innovative generation and energy storage solutions.
• Carry out ad hoc strategic internal projects aimed at evolving new products, understanding new markets, improving internal business development processes, etc.
• Provide leadership to junior business development and sales resources as the business development team expands.
• Interface with ATSOLAR's development, engineering, project management, asset management and operations and maintenance teams to align and continuously improve our market offerings.

• Provide regular reports and insights to senior management on business development activities.
• Manage a pipeline of client engagements in line with the company's CRM system.
• Monthly travel to meet with clients in Johannesburg and other urban centres, and to manage commercial/buyer processes during financial close events.
• Collaborate with cross functional teams to ensure consistent delivery of accurate and compelling implementation.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders and partners within the renewable energy value chain.
• Mentor and lead junior members of the business development team, while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and high performance within the team.
• Engage with both external and internal stakeholders at multiple levels of the organisation.
• Focus on understanding and meeting the needs of customers by offering solutions tailored to their specific energy challenges.
• Build trust and credibility by demonstrating a deep commitment to delivering value and sustainable energy solutions.

• The preferred candidate must have an engineering, commercial, or legal degree. A blend of qualifications (i.e. both technical and commercial/legal) will be beneficial).
• A demonstrated track record of building a pipeline of clients and carrying these through to successful contract execution and implementation will be highly valued. Ideally this should be based in the renewable energy and energy storage sectors.
• Demonstrated history of negotiating power purchase agreements for ATSolarr and/or energy storage projects to execution. Other demonstrated experience in negotiating technically complex contracts will also be considered.
• Experience in tendering and winning contracts in the energy sector (public or private).
• Experience in BESS, wind, and aggregation/trading platforms is an added advantage.
• Experience in using CRM platforms to manage and track sales and business development activities.

• Proficient with MS Office and Google Suite.
• Strong commercial acumen, and an ability to understand the interplay of technical, developmental and financial impacts on buyer contracts.

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills to effectively present ideas, influence decision makers, and negotiate complex agreements.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to persistently and consistently build and maintain a sales pipeline in a complex and rapidly changing market.
• The ideal candidate will be personable and engaging but also disciplined and driven to build a strong pipeline over time.
• Self motivator, who can work under pressure and think on their feet in a flat management structure where senior staff are given space to make decisions.
• The ideal candidate will be passionate about the renewable energy industry and will embody respect and responsibility in the full sense of the word, while enjoying contributing to a team of highly knowledgeable professionals.