Sales Strategy & Operations Manager

Job Title: Sales Strategy & Operations Manager

Reports to: Director of Sales Strategy & Operations

Location: Alameda, CA

Founded in 2010, Terviva is an agriculture and biotech startup commercializing sustainable biofuels and food ingredients derived from pongamia. Pongamia is a leguminous, native-to-Asia “super tree,” lauded for its carbon-storing and nitrogen-fixing capabilities, as well as its drought and salinity tolerance. We have an ambitious but achievable mission to plant millions of these trees—for the benefit of farmers and the environment, to fuel greener transportation, and to support nutritious diets.

The Sales & Marketing department at Terviva spans business development, partnerships and pricing strategy, evaluating new market entry, and developing the go-to-market approach for all products in our portfolio. We are seeking a Manager, Go-to-Market Strategy to bring analytical rigor, strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to produce polished, high-quality deliverables. This person will spend up to 50% of their time as a project manager for the relationships and joint strategic initiatives for a handful of Terviva’s key customer accounts.  She or he will have many opportunities to advance both technical and soft skills, as well as contribute to building a “high impact / low ego,” empathetic, and fun culture at the company.

This will be a challenging but rewarding role for a candidate who is intellectually curious, detail-oriented, and motivated to “move the needle” in the climate tech and sustainability spaces. The position is based in Alameda, CA, and will report to the SVP, Sales & Marketing. With many Terviva employees and much of our customer base distributed around the world, the role also has a decidedly international lens.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain spreadsheet models, dashboards, and other visualizations of key metrics and business drivers for senior management
• Conduct high-quality market research and competitive analyses through publicly available sources and from leveraging industry contacts
• Interface with prospective and existing customers as part of sales pitches and account management including maintaining offtake relationships with a complex and sophisticated set of global customers
• Run our sales enablement function, including product marketing strategy work (positioning, competitive analysis, market conditions) and asset development (e.g., presentations and sales materials)
• Project manage marketing and communications campaigns including social media accounts and content development.

Sample (hypothetical) projects

• Write and distribute an evaluation of the desirability of partnering with a major multinational on selling one of our products in a new geographic region, encompassing details like market size and growth rates, competitive landscape, price structure and trends
• Develop a launch plan and execute as the project manager for a new channel sale, overseeing timelines, milestones, promotional activities, and handling of certifications and subsidies
• Create an in-depth strategic plans for a key account; write and deliver their quarterly/annual business review

Requirements

• 5-7 years work experience. A diverse set of backgrounds may be suitable for this role, including those with experience at a top-tier management consulting firm, large corporate strategy function, or on a business development team in CPG or Food/Ag. Additional experience in a startup that scaled significantly (Series C or later) is a bonus.
• Fluency in the business and consumer zeitgeist. There will be much on-the-job learning, but candidates should have a solid macroeconomic understanding and a high-level awareness of trends in sustainability, food, and green transportation.
• Top-decile spreadsheet skills in Excel and Sheets. Proficient usage of index matches and lookup functions, data validation, error handling, comfort with using inherited models, and building new models in an accessible and “user-proof” manner for cross-functional use.
• Strong written and oral communication skills. Intuition for matching communication style, length, and level of detail for each occasion as appropriate, coupled with demonstrable experience effectively presenting data-driven insights to company leaders and/or external customers.

Compensation

• Annual salary of $145,000, potential for an annual bonus, and a meaningful stock options grant

Benefits

• The opportunity to make an impact in a fast-growing, mission-driven company
• Medical, Dental, Vision, FSA, HSA, Commuter, Life, and Disability Benefits
• Retirement 401k
• 4 weeks paid time off annually
• 10 paid company holidays
• Cell phone stipend