VP of Sales

Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position.

Recruiting agencies: Proper Voltage does not accept unsolicited candidate submissions. Please do not contact any employees directly unless you have an existing engagement with the company.

About Proper Voltage

Proper Voltage is unlocking the next generation of battery technology across robotics, data centers, and defense.

We're building intelligent battery systems that make advanced chemistries (sodium-ion, lithium-titanate, lithium-silicon) work in products that were never designed for them. Humanoid robots can upgrade power systems without redesigning their entire platform. Data centers get safer, cheaper backup power. Drones and autonomous vehicles get higher energy density without lengthy integration cycles.

If you want to build the revenue engine for hard technology that matters (power systems that enable humanoid robots, AI infrastructure, and next-gen mobility), this is the place.

Job Overview

Proper Voltage is hiring its first Vice President of Sales to own revenue and build the commercial organization as the company scales across direct customers, OEM programs, and distributor-led channels.

This is a closer's job and a finisher's job, and we will not compromise on either. You are accountable for the company's most consequential deals reaching signature: multi-year supply agreements, OEM design wins, and channel partnerships. Some you close yourself. Many you shepherd. The seller who sources a deal keeps that deal, and your job is making sure nothing goes wrong between qualification and signature. You close what has no natural owner, and you have the nose to spot the enormous opportunity nobody else has priced. You will also finish what nobody hands you, like the agreement sitting in legal review, the OEM documentation request, or the pipeline nobody has presented. You see it, you own it, you drive it to done, and you arrive with a recommendation rather than a status update. The building part comes with real scaffolding. Pipeline stages, CRM, comp frameworks, and channel templates already exist. Your job is to run them, improve them, and call out what is wrong before we do, and over time to design the hiring sequence that takes this team from a handful of people today to 15 to 20 across UPS, robotics, and emerging platforms. It's also a program-builder's job. You think in programs, not just deals. That means asking how the UPS line becomes a durable commercial program across future product iterations, and how customers experience our product from the first spec they touch. You start as a player-coach, running a small team and wearing a lot of hats. As revenue gates open, the hats come off and the job becomes leading leaders.

You're inheriting a real foundation, not a blank page. There's an active pipeline spanning hyperscale data center, industrial, and robotics accounts, two team members covering UPS program sales and technical sales, and founders who currently close and will hand you the pen deliberately. The go-to-market comes with it. It's channel-led and distributor-first, with rep coverage into the OEMs and direct engagement on strategic accounts. You own operating, measuring, and evolving that model, and it's yours to challenge. Any change should be backed by evidence and decided with the leadership team, not made on a whim.

The role requires genuine fluency in battery and power systems, or a demonstrated record selling comparably complex technical hardware (power electronics, energy systems, robotics, industrial automation) in startup or high-growth environments. You will work directly from customer specifications, convert technical inputs into volume and energy assumptions, and form commercial positions independently. As the commercial organization scales, this seat carries the natural growth path to more responsibility and potential executive ownership.

Your first 90 days

The items below transfer to you outright inside your first 90 days. These are ownership transfers, not shared projects. If one of these is happening, you're the one doing it.

• The pipeline and the number: pipeline hygiene, the forecast, and how both are presented to the board, to investors, and to customers. When there is a pipeline review, you prepare it and you present it.
• The commercial agreement cycle: distributor, channel, and manufacturer’s rep agreements, including preparing counsel with the scope and context they need to assess risk, and driving redlines to signature on a timeline you set. (Service partner agreements sit with field operations.)
• OEM and partner commercial discussions happen without a founder needing to be in the room: run by you or by the seller who owns them, with you managing them and accountable for getting them over the line.
• A written revenue plan: hiring sequence, pipeline stages, forecast cadence, and compensation structure, reviewed and agreed with the leadership team.

Who this role is for

Someone who has personally closed complex technical hardware deals, has led salespeople, and finishes what they start. If you have also built the machine behind a sales team, the stages, the comp plans, the hiring plan, that is a real advantage, but we care most that you can run the machine we have, form your own view of what is wrong with it, and bring solutions before we ask. Genuine curiosity about batteries in our verticals matters as much as prior domain years. We can teach the product, but we can't teach curiosity or ownership.

When you apply, include one example of something that was not in your job description that you took ownership of and drove to completion, and what happened. We weight that answer heavily.

This role is not a fit if

This is not a SaaS job. Lead times, BOM costs, certifications, and production capacity are all real constraints on what you can promise. If your answer to “how did you scale the team” is a list of names in your network rather than a process you designed, this will not work. It is also not a fit if you are looking for a late-career seat optimized for comfort, if you expect to be taught basic battery, power, or energy concepts on the job, or if you need a full marketing and CS organization already in place to succeed.

It will not work for someone who avoids conflict, defers decisions upward when things get uncomfortable, or waits to be told what to do next.

Responsibilities

• Own the company revenue number across direct sales, OEM programs, and distributor-led channels.
• Own every strategic deal to signature: supply agreements, OEM design wins, and marquee accounts. Close personally where the deal has no owner. Everywhere else, empower the seller who sourced it and protect the close by unblocking, pressure-testing, and managing the risks. Taking a deal off a teammate at the goal line is not how this seat works.
• Operate the revenue system: pipeline stages, qualification and handoff process, forecasting cadence, CRM discipline, and commercial tooling.
• Manage and develop the existing commercial leaders and future team members.
• Work with company leadership to design compensation plans that reward the right behavior at each commercial role, from technical pre-sales through closing.
• Own pricing, quoting, and scope discipline, and lead negotiation on commercial terms with executive and counsel support on legal redlines.
• Deliver the market signal for what the market and the sales organization need, in outcome language, to the Chief Engineer, who owns product requirements, technical truth, and delivery.
• Be accountable for the customer-facing spec experience: how customers encounter, evaluate, and configure our products, from simplified spec sheets to portal requirements, built strictly from engineering-signed claims.
• Build out marketing as part of the revenue system, including launch materials, education-led channel programs, and events.
• Interface with supply chain and operations on lead times, BOM cost, and production capacity so that every commercial commitment (price, volume, delivery date) is one the company can keep.
• Serve as the senior commercial interface for distributor and channel partners, enforcing clarity, accountability, and process adherence.
• Decide which opportunities advance, pause, or stop based on product fit, production readiness, margin, and strategic focus.
• Push engineering and product teams when customer needs require decisions, tradeoffs, or prioritization, and translate the answer back into commercial commitments the company can keep.

Required Qualifications

• 12 or more years in commercial roles within hardware, energy storage, power electronics, or similarly technical systems, including direct ownership of a revenue outcome.
• Personal track record closing complex, technical, multi-stakeholder deals (seven figures and up, long cycles, engineering-heavy evaluation), working directly from customer specifications and holding your own with engineering audiences. Battery, power electronics, or energy storage domain knowledge strongly preferred.
• Experience leading salespeople and owning a team. What matters most is a point of view, and the habit of proposing a plan, getting approval, and executing it.
• Proven ability to operate with ambiguity while making confident, defensible decisions, and to push back internally and externally to protect execution quality, margin, and delivery.
• Clear, concise communicator who brings recommendations, not just problems. Strong ownership mindset and follow-through.
• Experience translating market and customer requirements into inputs an engineering organization acted on, whether personally or through a product function you led.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with UPS systems, industrial energy storage, DoD-related battery products, or critical power infrastructure.
• Experience with distributor, manufacturer's representative, or OEM-led sales models, including channel program design.
• Background in high-growth hardware companies with real production and delivery constraints.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $225k to $275k depending on experience and location.
• Variable Compensation: Depending on experience, structured as a quota bonus tied to bookings rather than a commission rate. Final structure and numbers are set at offer.
• Equity: Company equity, sized based on experience.
• Health, dental, vision insurance.
• Flexible PTO with a generous holiday policy.
• Hybrid-friendly work schedule, with travel as required for customer engagement.