VP - Commercial Excellence & Strategic Growth

Position Summary:

The Vice President, Commercial Excellence & Strategic Growth leads Sterling's efforts to accelerate profitable growth by improving commercial effectiveness, strengthening sales execution, and building the capabilities required to scale the business. This role leads and develops Account Executives, Strategic Account Managers, and Sales Leaders across the organization while driving strategic account expansion, sales productivity, talent development, CRM discipline, pursuit excellence, and consistent commercial execution. As a player-coach, the Vice President spends significant time with customers, sales teams, and strategic pursuits, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and performance.

The ideal candidate is a commercially minded general manager who leads from the front, coaches high-performing teams, orchestrates complex pursuits, improves win rates, navigates matrixed customer organizations, and establishes scalable commercial processes that support sustained success. This position reports directly to the Chief Commercial Officer.

Essential Functions:

Commercial Leadership & Sales Effectiveness

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing sales organization, including Account Executives, Strategic Account Managers, and Regional Sales Leaders.
• Foster a culture of accountability, customer focus, execution excellence, and profitable growth.
• Drive sales effectiveness through disciplined pipeline management, forecasting, opportunity management, and performance coaching.
• Leverage data, analytics, and sales tools to improve team productivity and commercial results.

Strategic Growth & Account Development

• Lead pursuit strategies for key opportunities, including qualification, win planning, and bid/no-bid decisions.
• Drive account growth, customer acquisition, and market expansion across targeted customers and segments.
• Partner with cross-functional teams and executive leadership to strengthen customer relationships and advance strategic opportunities.

Commercial Operations & Performance Management

• Ensure CRM excellence through strong adoption, data integrity, opportunity tracking, and consistent reporting.
• Establish and monitor key performance metrics, including pipeline health, forecast accuracy, win rates, and sales productivity.
• Use data-driven insights to optimize sales efforts, prioritize resources, and support business growth objectives.

Talent Development

• Directly lead a team of approximately 5-8 commercial leaders and individual contributors across Account Executive, Strategic Account Manager, and Regional Sales Leadership roles.
• Recruit, onboard, coach, develop, evaluate, and retain top commercial talent.
• Establish clear performance expectations, drive accountability, and address performance gaps through effective coaching and performance management.
• Build organizational capability through leadership development, succession planning, and talent growth initiatives that support Sterling's long-term growth strategy.

Commercial Governance

• Support territory alignment, account ownership, pricing decisions, and resource allocation in accordance with commercial policies and business objectives.
• Resolve account, territory, ownership, and commission-related matters while maintaining alignment with commercial guidelines.
• Coordinate commercial resources and governance processes to support enterprise growth initiatives.

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years of progressive commercial leadership experience, including at least 5 years leading sales and business development teams.
• Proven track record of building, coaching, and developing high-performing commercial teams that consistently deliver revenue growth and business results.
• Experience leading complex sales pursuits, strategic accounts, and multi-stakeholder opportunities within large or matrixed customer organizations.
• Strong understanding of business development, strategic account management, pipeline management, forecasting, and sales performance metrics.
• Demonstrated success implementing sales processes, CRM best practices, and performance management systems to improve productivity and accountability.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to make sound commercial decisions and drive profitable growth.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, coaching, influence, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across functions and align teams around customer and business objectives.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Engineering, Construction Management, or a related field preferred.
• Experience in utility, EPC, construction services, industrial services, infrastructure, equipment rental, or related industries preferred.
• Experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM or similar platforms preferred.

Performance Metrics

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to drive profitable growth, strengthen commercial execution, and build a high-performing sales organization.

• Achievement of revenue, gross margin, and growth objectives.
• Strategic account expansion, new customer acquisition, and pipeline growth.
• Opportunity conversion rates, win rates, and overall sales effectiveness.
• Forecast accuracy, CRM adoption, pipeline discipline, and opportunity management.
• Sales team productivity, performance, accountability, and goal attainment.
• Effectiveness of talent acquisition, onboarding, and new-hire ramp-up.
• Retention, development, and succession readiness of commercial talent and future leaders.
• Continuous improvement of sales processes, commercial operations, and team capability.

Travel Requirements:

• Travel up to 40-60% to support customer engagement, field coaching, strategic account development, and key growth opportunities.

The anticipated base salary range for this position is$176,000 to $180,000. Actual compensation will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, qualifications, skills, education, and market considerations. The final offer will reflect the successful candidate's background and the expertise they bring to the role. This position is also eligible for an annual performance-based bonus.

Equal Opportunity and Accommodation Statement

Sterling is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. This posting is intended to describe the general nature and level of work associated with the role and is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, or qualifications.