At a glance
- Time to delivery
- 2 months
- Long list
- ~130 candidates
- Engaged & interested
- 20
- Finalists presented
- 3
- City
- New York
- Status today
- 3 major projects in motion
The challenge
A new technology, a new market, and a buyer that takes years to convert.
Our client was entering and expanding its US operations and needed a VP of Business Development based in New York to open doors with governmental and private entities. Because the technology is still new to the market, the role required extended engagement with interested parties — including expensive, multi-stakeholder pilot projects before any commercial contract.
The brief called for a very specific profile: deep, hands-on experience selling long-cycle infrastructure projects to governments and municipalities, comfort navigating procurement and public-private partnerships, and the patience to nurture pilots into multi-year deployments. The mandate also required extensive prescreening — every shortlisted candidate had to stand up to detailed reference and domain checks.
The engagement
A retained executive search, run with deep prescreening at every step.
We took the search on a retained basis and mapped the US infrastructure-sales leadership market end-to-end — across EV charging, energy, utilities, smart-city and adjacent infrastructure categories where long-cycle public-sector selling is the norm.
Given how specific the brief was, we layered in heavy prescreening: structured competency interviews against the long-cycle infrastructure-sales profile, deep dives into past government and municipal deals, and reference checks before candidates ever reached the client. The result was a small, tightly qualified finalist set rather than a broad shortlist.
Roles hired
One leader to open the US market.
VP Business Development, US
Owns US business development for the charging infrastructure platform: building and managing relationships with federal, state and municipal stakeholders, structuring pilot programs with public and private partners, and converting pilots into multi-year deployments. Based in New York, supporting the build-out of the US office.
Candidate landscape
A narrow overlap between infrastructure expertise and public-sector patience.
Infrastructure & energy BD leaders
Senior business-development leaders from EV charging, utilities, energy infrastructure and smart-city players who already understood long sales cycles, capex deals and pilot-to-deployment economics.
Government & municipal sales operators
Leaders with a track record of selling complex infrastructure into federal agencies, states, cities and transit authorities — fluent in RFPs, procurement, grant-funded programs and public-private partnerships.
Pilot-to-scale operators
Operators who had successfully run expensive, multi-year pilots with public stakeholders and converted them into commercial contracts — not classic quarterly-quota sales leaders.
New York & East Coast network
Candidates based in or anchored to New York with strong regional networks across Northeast utilities, transit and municipal decision-makers.
How we ran it
Two months, four phases.
- Weeks 1–2
Briefing & market mapping
Detailed kickoff with the client, calibration on the long-cycle infrastructure-sales profile, and full mapping of the US market. ~130 candidates identified across EV, energy, utilities and adjacent infrastructure categories.
- Weeks 3–5
Outreach & prescreening
Direct, confidential outreach. 20 candidates engaged and seriously interested. Each was put through structured prescreening on government and municipal sales experience, pilot management, and fit with a US market-entry mandate.
- Weeks 6–7
Finalists & client interviews
Three finalists presented with detailed assessments and references. Client interviews scheduled back-to-back, with full support on both sides through the decision process.
- Week 8
Offer & onboarding
Offer negotiated and signed inside the two-month window. The new VP joined to lead US business development and stand up the New York office.
The outcome
Three major projects in motion and a US office that is growing.
Since joining, the VP of Business Development has been able to manage three major projects with US public and private stakeholders, moving the company from market entry into active deployment.
The New York office is now growing on the back of those wins, and the client has a leader in seat who can carry long, complex infrastructure deals through procurement, pilots and into multi-year contracts.
FAQ
VP Business Development searches in the US, answered.
- Why use executive search for a US market-entry BD leader?
- The right candidates are sitting in senior infrastructure-sales roles, are not on the market, and only respond to a credible, confidential approach. Executive search reaches them, qualifies them deeply against a long-cycle, public-sector-heavy brief, and manages the whole process for both sides.
- How do you assess long-cycle, government-sales experience?
- Beyond the CV, we test for evidence of real, named deals with public stakeholders, the ability to navigate procurement and grant-funded programs, and the patience to run expensive pilots before any commercial close. Reference checks focus on outcomes, not just titles.
- What does extensive prescreening look like in practice?
- Structured competency interviews, technical deep-dives on past infrastructure deals, written case work where appropriate, and multi-source references — all completed before the client ever sees a finalist. The aim is a very small, very high-conviction shortlist.
- Can you support US market-entry mandates from outside the US?
- Yes. We run cross-border searches regularly, working with the client on positioning, compensation benchmarking and the local nuance of US public-sector selling, while sourcing from a US-based candidate pool.
- What does support look like after signing?
- We stay close through notice period, onboarding and the first months in role — flagging anything that could derail the start, helping the new leader build their first US team, and supporting the client as the office scales.
Related
Service: Executive Search →
Retained, confidential search for senior leadership and country-launch roles across Europe and the US.
Industries we work with →
How we partner with infrastructure, energy, automotive and industrial businesses entering new markets.
Roles we hire →
Sales leaders, Country Heads, VPs and commercial leadership roles we run across Europe and the US.
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