Superior Essex Communications is expanding its fiber capabilities to include pre-terminated products and bulk cable sold through a direct commercial model, with a focus on the data center market. The Head of Business Development, Assembly Business will build and lead the commercial engine of this new venture, with accountability for winning customers, growing revenue, and establishing a strong market position in the data center segment.
Working closely with the General Manager and cross-functional partners, this leader will translate the business strategy into a direct go-to-market plan, develop a pipeline of data center operators and other key end users, secure early and strategic customer wins, and build the sales organization and processes required to scale. Reporting directly to the General Manager, Assembly Business, the role will serve as the primary customer-facing leader for the new business and the voice of the customer across the organization.
Responsibilities:
- Go-to-Market Execution: Translate the Assembly Business strategy into an actionable direct sales plan for the data center market, including target segments, priority accounts, value proposition, sales coverage model, and annual commercial targets.
- Customer Acquisition & Pipeline Development: Identify, qualify, and win new customers across hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise data center operators, as well as the engineering firms, integrators, and contractors that influence their purchasing decisions. Build a sustainable, repeatable pipeline for both pre-terminated assemblies and bulk cable.
- Key Account Management: Own relationships with strategic accounts, including executive-level engagement, account planning, supplier qualification and approval processes, and negotiation of supply agreements and framework contracts.
- New Product Introduction Support: Serve as the voice of the customer during product launch, bringing market and customer requirements (product configurations, lead times, testing, labeling, and documentation standards) to product, engineering, and operations teams, and leading customer trials, samples, and first orders.
- Pricing, Quoting & Deal Structuring: Establish pricing strategy, quoting processes, and commercial terms in partnership with finance and operations, enabling rapid, project-based quoting while ensuring deals are competitive and meet margin targets.
- Sales Organization Build-Out: Recruit, develop, and lead the direct sales and business development team, including sales and applications engineering support as the business scales. Implement the CRM, sales processes, and operating cadence needed to manage a growing book of business.
- Forecasting & Performance Management: Own the sales forecast and bookings and revenue targets. Establish and report commercial KPIs such as pipeline coverage, win rate, bookings, and margin, and provide demand visibility to operations and assembly partners to support capacity planning.
- Market & Competitive Intelligence: Monitor data center build-out activity, customer capital plans, technology trends, and competitor offerings. Identify emerging opportunities and adjacent segments, and inform the business strategy and product roadmap.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with operations, supply chain, assembly partners, customer service, and the broader Superior Essex Communications commercial organization to deliver on customer commitments and align the direct model with existing channel relationships.
Position Requirements:
The successful candidate should combine strong new-business-development orientation and credibility with data center customers with the discipline to build a scalable commercial function. Recommended qualifications include:
- 20+ years of progressive B2B sales or business development experience, including experience leading a sales or business development team.
- Proven track record selling directly into the data center or hyperscale infrastructure market, with established relationships among data center operators and key decision makers.
- Experience selling fiber optic cable, connectivity, or pre-terminated/structured cabling solutions; experience with both cable and assembly products is a strong plus.
- Experience designing, building, or scaling a direct sales motion or new commercial function, as distinct from managing a channel or distributor network.
- Demonstrated success negotiating large supply agreements, framework contracts, and project-based pricing with sophisticated customers and procurement organizations.
- Sufficient technical aptitude to engage customer engineering, design, and procurement teams on product specifications, configurations, and qualification requirements.
- Strong commercial and financial acumen, including pricing, margin management, pipeline management, and sales forecasting; proficiency with CRM tools.
- Ability to operate effectively in an entrepreneurial environment while leveraging the capabilities and processes of a larger organization.
- Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills, with executive presence in customer-facing settings.
- Wire and cable experience required.
- Willingness to travel extensively to customer sites, industry events, and partner facilities.
- Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in business, engineering, or a related field; MBA or equivalent relevant experience preferred.
