Principal, Business Development

Share Our Purpose. Be Yourself. Feel Valued. People are the heart of our business. As an American Water employee, you will be offered a competitive salary and health benefits package, along with opportunities to develop, grow, and evolve your career. Our benefits packages focus on key areas such as health & wellness, emotional & well-being, and savings for current & future goals. We are Beautifully Different . We strongly believe having diversity across our company makes us more successful and helps us provide essential services to our customers. We are stronger because we embrace different ideas, viewpoints, experiences, and backgrounds. American Water is the best choice for your next role! Click here for more information on our inclusion, diversity, and equity journey. About American Water American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886 and celebrating 140 years in 2026, we keep life flowing by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to approximately 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 18 military installations. American Water’s approximately 7,000 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the company’s national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. Job Title: Principal, Business Development Posting Start Date: 6/11/26 Primary Role To proactively identify and secure suitable new business opportunities while leading deal structuring and bid management activities within the allocated territory. The role supports the Director of Business Development in developing, updating, and executing the Regional Business Development Plan to deliver profitable, sustainable growth aligned with American Water’s operational, capital, and regulatory strategy. The role requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams, senior leadership, regulators, and external stakeholders to align opportunity development with enterprise priorities, while contributing to high-level strategic discussions that shape long-term market positioning and regional growth objectives. Key Accountabilities Build the business development pipeline and target opportunities to help maintain a steady flow of projects and secure those within plan time‑scales, identify, qualify and prioritize leads through the use of appropriate tools, local market data and active targeted prospecting; negotiate and close deals in line with the agreed commercial parameters and which contribute to business plan targets. (40%) Develop, shape & track potential opportunities and match service and product offerings with customer needs. Combine service offerings to create commercially viable solutions to meet customer needs. (25%) Manage the end‑to‑end business development cycle; effectively project manage the business development process from deal structuring through to commercial operation for major contract services, tuck‑ins and service offerings; identify creative approaches to developing & structuring new opportunities which accurately reflect client needs & support business plan priorities. (15%) Lead the development of the bid strategy, deal structuring, project financing and credit assessment of opportunities and champion projects through the Division/Regional/Corporate investment appraisal process; identify, secure and manage cross‑functional and Regional resources to help evaluate, risk assess, develop & structure bids and develop implementation plans which outline resource & capability requirements to deliver the deal. (10%) Create market awareness and interest in American Water, and develop and maintain American Water brand image with the key industry stakeholders within the designated territory. (5%) Ensure effective and timely deal documentation from the qualification process through the development of the project & contract negotiation history data and ensure this data is updated in the relevant databases in order to enable efficient transition to the operational teams. (5%) Knowledge / Skills Water and wastewater utility infrastructure Strong financial and commercial acumen. Experience / Education Bachelor's degree required. Accomplished business developer with a minimum of 10 years experience and a proven track record of success in the water and wastewater utility services in the regulated and non‑regulated markets. Travel Requirements 40% Work Environment Standard office environment. Competencies Champions safety, customer obsessed, cultivates innovation, nimble learning, drives results, collaborates. Join American Water… We Keep Life Flowing American Water is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based on his or her age, race, color, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, citizenship, or because they are an individual with a disability, protected veteran or other status protected by federal, state, and local laws. #J-18808-Ljbffr