Sales Director for Svenska Aerogel Gävle

Balkefors & Ponsiluoma Aktiebolag · Vollzeit

Första Magasinsgatan 3, Gävle, Schweden

– For you who want to open new international business opportunities, accelerate technical customer projects, and build the commercial engine in a listed advanced materials company in scale-up. Swenska Aerogel is a listed advanced materials company in Gävle that develops, manufactures, and commercializes aerogel materials for industrial applications. The Naerogel® material platform is built on more than two decades of research and technology development. Naerogel® is used as a functional additive and can contribute with thermal insulation, low weight, and improved material performance. The material is manufactured from silicon, water, and renewable energy and is customized to different customer needs. Swenska Aerogel is in commercial scale-up with international customers and development projects within, among others, construction and real estate, process industry, transport, and advanced applications. Applications include, for example, insulating paint and coatings, fire protection, textiles, and battery safety. We are now seeking a hands-on, internationally experienced, and technically curious Sales Director who wants to create new business opportunities, accelerate customer projects with the greatest potential, and transform them into commercial and recurring sales. The Assignment As Sales Director, you will have overall responsibility for developing and driving Svenska Aerogel's international sales. The role is both strategic and operational, with significant weight on direct business development. The commercial core currently consists of a Sales Director, application expert, and CEO. This is therefore not a traditional management role for a larger sales organization. You prospect, open doors, and drive priority customer dialogues, negotiations, and some of the company's most important business deals yourself. The sales are technical, consultative, and long-term. The path from an initial material sample to a commercial product may include testing, formulation, product development, qualification, certification, industrialization, and market launch. A central part of the assignment is to function as a project accelerator. You create momentum, reach the right decision-makers, and identify which technical or commercial obstacles must be solved for a customer project to reach the next stage and ultimately become a recurring business opportunity. You create structure for prospecting, prioritization, pipeline, forecasts, and follow-up. You assess which projects have the greatest potential and focus the organization's resources where they create the most value. Together with the CEO and other key personnel, you develop the commercial strategy: which segments, applications, and geographies should be prioritized and how they are best addressed – directly or through distributors and partners. You report to the CEO, participate in the management team, and actively contribute to the company's strategy and commercial development. Your main areas of responsibility will be: implement the company's strategy into concrete sales targets, activities, and results drive priority customer dialogues, negotiations, and business deals yourself identify new customers, markets, applications, and commercial partnerships accelerate customer projects from development and qualification to commercial business develop existing projects toward launch, volume orders, and recurring sales create structure in pipeline, forecasts, CRM, and sales follow-up prioritize projects based on commercial potential and resource requirements develop strategies for prioritized segments, geographies, and sales channels work closely with application expert, R&D, and production to solve technical and commercial obstacles contribute market and customer perspectives to the management team and represent the company internationally Who Are You? You have documented experience in international technical B2B sales and complex sales processes with multiple decision-makers and close collaboration between sales, technology, production, and product development. A clear requirement is that you have driven customer projects from development and technical qualification to actual commercial business. You can demonstrate how you yourself have opened new business opportunities, developed strategic customer relationships, and created momentum in long sales processes. You combine perseverance with pace, create clear next steps, and drive projects toward concrete results. We would like to see that you have experience from, for example, advanced materials, chemistry, paint and coatings, building materials, process industry, additives, textiles, energy, or battery technology – or other operations where sales are based on technical understanding and customer-adapted product development. We believe you have experience in several of the following areas: international sales to industrial companies and larger corporations commercialization of new technical products, materials, or solutions sales strategy, pipeline management, forecasting, and structured follow-up market entry and work with distributors or partners negotiation of commercial agreements and long-term customer contracts You likely have a university degree in engineering, chemistry, materials science, economics, or equivalent. Technical or scientific education is a merit, but decisive is your ability to understand the customer's application, formulate the business value, and drive the sales forward. As a person, you are business-driven, curious, and persistent. You combine entrepreneurial energy with structure and commercial acumen. You are unpretentious and thrive in a small organization where you alternate between strategy, commercial leadership, and direct sales work. You create focus and momentum and get others to act toward common commercial goals. You communicate professionally in Swedish and English and are accustomed to international customer relationships and negotiations. The role involves international travel. The head office is located in Gävle. Welcome to Svenska Aerogel – and to the assignment of building and driving the commercial engine that will make advanced Swedish materials technology into growing international business opportunities. www.aerogel.se