Commercialization [Manager, Director], Venture Acceleration

About us

National Grid Partners is hiring a Commercialization [Manager, Director], Venture Acceleration.  This is a hybrid role that can be based out of our California, Brooklyn, NY, or Waltham, MA offices.

 

National Grid Partners launched in 2018 as the corporate venture and innovation arm of National Grid, one of the world’s largest investor-owned utilities. Since then, we’ve invested in over 50 startups that are making the power grid safer, cleaner, and smarter. Our team combines 100 years of investing experience and 125 years of utility operations.

Job Purpose

The Commercialization Function is part of the Venture Acceleration team within National Grid Partners. The mission of the Commercialization function is to increase the probability that sound concepts and solutions that solve problems or address needs/opportunities for National Grid can transform into scalable products and viable businesses to accelerate innovation for the energy transition.

The Venture Acceleration team plans to: 

1.    Launch an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program that will match high potential, strategically valuable, technologically feasible products with experienced external entrepreneurs to build scalable businesses and business infrastructure
2.    Formalize existing and future Co-Innovation work that existing with external organizations into a formal program.
 
The Commercialization [Manager, Director] will be responsible for operationalizing EIR and Co-Innovation program strategies, defining and instituting necessary infrastructure (e.g., hiring of entrepreneurs, incorporation of new businesses, etc.), developing governance to approve new opportunities and advance existing opportunities, recruiting candidates to project teams, and building opportunity pipeline through internal marketing and external engagement with startups, technology partners, utilities, labs, institutions, universities, and accelerators.

 

The ideal candidate is a builder and entrepreneur who embraces an environment with lots of gray. The Commercialization [Manager, Director] will work closely with the Head of Venture Acceleration to launch the EIR program and formalize the Co-Innovation program. This will involve building program infrastructure while also owning and advancing 2-5 Commercialization opportunities at a time. The ideal candidate knows the foundations of building a business including writing a business plan, building a team, developing product strategy, creating and launching a go-to-market strategy, operationalizing. The candidate must be familiar with lean startup and agile development principles. To excel at this job, the ideal candidate will be a relationship builder that can navigate the friction of pushing innovation within a large corporate, regulated environment. The position also requires a candidate of collaborative nature as well as strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
 

Key Accountabilities

•    Develop and manage EIR program infrastructure. This will be a gradual build of the program as we put systems and tools in place with a focus on effectively launching without trying to perfect from the start.
•    Get familiar with previous Co-Innovation work and develop a program that formalizes this work to prioritize efforts and to the benefit of National Grid.
•    Develop system for evaluating and ranking potential Commercialization opportunities.
•    Work with Head of Venture Acceleration and NGP internal operations team to develop governance structure for approving new and advancing existing opportunities.
•    Own and advance 2-5 Commercialization opportunities at a time, including collaborating closely with opportunity leads from throughout the business in planning and implementation.
•    Work with Head of Venture Acceleration to define measure of success and impact.
•    Work with NGP internal operations team to build CRM infrastructure, track progress, and generate reports.
•    Partner with the centralized and decentralized National Grid Innovation functions to build Commercialization acumen earlier into the innovation development process.
 

 

Qualifications

•    7-10 years of experience in a combination of strategy, market development, business development, product development, and program management.
•    Experience working in startups with a preference towards early-stage startup experience.
•    Is a builder and entrepreneur that can bring structure and order to Commercialization opportunities with ambiguity (founder/co-founder experience is a plus)
•    Experience creating and executing a business plan
•    Experience fundraising and building pitch deck is a plus
•    Embraces a fail fast environment and approach.
•    2+ years of experience in the energy sector (preference for electric and gas utility experi