Vice President of Sales

Job Description

Job Description

Together We Build – Partnership, Innovation, Excellence, and Safety

At Kelso Industries, 3,500+ employees across 30 companies work together to deliver exceptional HVAC, mechanical, plumbing, refrigeration, and electrical solutions nationwide. Join us to grow your career, make an impact, and be part of a team where innovation, excellence, and safety come first.

Recruiter Notice: We respectfully ask external recruiters and staffing agencies not to submit candidates. We only accept direct applications.

Reports To: Senior Vice President of Service, Kelso Industries

Direct Reports: Director of Business Development, Director of Account Management, Director of National Accounts, Director of Critical Environments (TBD), BAS Sales Leader (TBD)

Location: Hybrid — open to candidates nationwide. Preference for Utah, Phoenix, or Atlanta.

Travel: Approximately 40–50% across Kelso Building Services markets, customer sites, and Kelso Industries sister companies.

Position Summary

This is a builder's role. The Vice President of Sales owns the full sales engine for Kelso Building Services — new business, existing account growth, national accounts, critical environments, and building automation — and is responsible for turning a collection of strong regional sales efforts into a disciplined, scalable, high-performing organization.

Kelso Building Services is the service division of Kelso Industries. We sit at roughly $50M in service revenue today, and we're planning to be at $100M within 12 months and $250M within three years — primarily through organic growth, with M&A as a future possibility rather than an active assumption. We're looking for a sales leader who can set the strategy, build the bench, and drive the numbers without losing the relationship-first, plainspoken culture that makes Kelso different.

A central piece of this strategy is the Kelso flywheel: converting projects sold by our sister companies into long-term preventative maintenance agreements (PMAs) under Kelso Building Services. Every install our sister brands complete is a future PMA opportunity, and the VP of Sales is the leader who turns that mechanic into a repeatable, measurable engine.

Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Service, Kelso Industries, this leader is a core member of the Kelso Building Services leadership team. The right person is equal parts strategist, operator, and coach — someone who can talk to a CFO about margin and a service tech about a customer, in the same hour, without missing a beat.

Scope & Scale

• Today: approximately $50M in annual service revenue with a sales organization of around 28 people across the nation.
• 12-month target: $100M in service revenue, scaling the sales organization to roughly 40–60 total headcount, with the majority quota-carrying.
• 3-year target: $250M in service revenue, scaling the sales organization to roughly 90–140 total headcount across BD, Account Management, National Accounts, Critical Environments, BAS, and Sales Operations.
• Revenue mix weighted toward recurring service and preventative maintenance agreements (PMAs), supplemented by project, retrofit, national account, and critical environment revenue.
• Growth is planned to come primarily through organic expansion — new logo acquisition, sister-company flywheel conversion, and same-customer growth. M&A is a possibility down the road and this leader should be capable of integrating acquired sales teams if and when that materializes.
• Inside Sales and estimating report through Operations; this role partners closely with that function to ensure speed and accuracy on small projects, repairs, and service quotes.

Key ResponsibilitiesSales Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and own the overall sales strategy, game plan, and roadmap to take Kelso Building Services from $50M to $100M in 12 months and $250M within three years.
• Set annual and multi-year revenue targets, pipeline goals, and KPIs by segment, market, and team.
• Build, mentor, and retain a high-performing sales leadership team; drive a culture of accountability, coaching, and results.
• Partner with the SVP of Service on strategic initiatives, capital allocation discussions, and cross-company growth opportunities.
• Own deal governance for the sales organization — pricing authority, approval thresholds, escalation paths, and deal desk discipline.

The Kelso Flywheel: Sister-Company Project-to-PMA Conversion

• Own the strategic motion of converting projects sold by Kelso Industries sister companies into long-term preventative maintenance agreements under Kelso Building Services.
• Build the handoff process from sister-company project closeout to KBS Account Management or National Accounts, including system-of-record handoff, customer introduction, and timing of the PMA conversation.
• Establish a target conversion rate — percent of completed sister-company projects converted to KBS PMAs within a defined window — and report on it monthly to Kelso Industries leadership.
• Make the flywheel visible: build reporting that shows sister companies the downstream PMA revenue their projects generate, so the motion compounds on itself.

Business Development (New Business)

• Lead the Director of Business Development and the broader BD team in winning new customers, preventative maintenance agreements, and long-term service relationships.
• Define target segments, pursuit strategies, and pricing approaches that maximize win rates and margin.
• Ensure a healthy, well-managed pipeline with disciplined Salesforce hygiene, forecasting, and conversion metrics.

Account Management (Existing Customers)

• Lead the Director of Account Management in growing wallet share within existing customers and capturing every reasonable dollar of available work.
• Drive a customer-first service model that ensures clients are completely taken care of, retained, and expanded year over year.
• Implement account planning, QBRs, and customer health metrics across the portfolio.

National Accounts

• Lead the Director of National Accounts in owning all multi-state customer relationships and delivering a consistent, premium experience across geographies.
• Serve as the primary KBS interface with Kelso Industries sister companies for joint pursuits, referrals, and flywheel conversions.
• Build the structure, tools, and playbooks needed to scale national accounts as Kelso Building Services grows from $50M toward $250M.

Critical Environments

• Stand up and lead Kelso Building Services' Critical Environments sales motion — data centers, healthcare, life sciences, labs, pharma, semiconductor, and other mission-critical verticals where uptime, SLAs, and credentialing drive the buy.
• Recruit and develop the Director of Critical Environments; define the segment strategy, target customer list, partnership model, and pursuit playbook.
• Build pricing, contracting, and service-level frameworks appropriate to critical environment customers, in close partnership with operations and finance.

Building Automation Systems (BAS) Sales

• Build out the BAS Sales function in partnership with operations; recruit and develop the BAS sales leader.
• Define the BAS go-to-market strategy, including target verticals, controls partnerships, and integration with core MEP+ and service offerings.

Sales Operations, Analytics & Enablement

• Own (or build, where it doesn't yet exist) the sales operations function: territory design, quota setting, comp plan administration, dashboards, forecasting cadence, and Salesforce administration.
• Champion the use of Salesforce, sales analytics, and BI tooling to drive data-informed decisions and enforce pipeline and forecasting discipline across the organization.
• Design and maintain compensation packages for sales positions across the organization, in alignment with corporate HR and the Total Rewards Director, ensuring plans are competitive, equitable, and tied to business outcomes.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with Operations leadership to ensure sold work is profitable, deliverable, and aligned with capacity — including the Inside Sales and estimating function that supports frontline sales velocity.
• Partner with Marketing on demand generation, lead handoff, content, customer references, and brand presence in target markets.
• Work with Finance on pricing, margin management, commission accruals, and revenue forecasting.
• Represent Kelso Building Services with key customers, industry partners, and within the Kelso Industries family of companies.

QualificationsRequired

• 10+ years of progressive B2B sales experience, with at least 5 years leading multi-team sales organizations through directors and managers.
• Proven track record of building and scaling sales organizations in commercial HVAC, mechanical, MEP, facility services, or a closely related industry.
• Demonstrated success owning the full sales cycle — new business, account growth, and national accounts — and hitting aggressive multi-million-dollar revenue and margin targets.
• Experience scaling a sales organization through a meaningful growth curve (for example, doubling or tripling revenue within a few years) without losing operational discipline.
• P&L or budget ownership experience at the sales organization level, including comp plan design, quota setting, and forecasting accountability to executive leadership.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen; able to balance growth, margin, and operational deliverability.
• Strong coach and developer of talent, with a demonstrated track record of building leadership benches.
• Excellent executive presence and the ability to communicate clearly with customers, peers, and senior leadership — in plain English, without corporate hedging.
• Extensive Salesforce experience, including using it as a primary tool for pipeline management, forecasting, reporting, and team accountability.

Preferred

• Experience selling into Critical Environments — data centers, healthcare, life sciences, pharma, semiconductor, or similar mission-critical verticals.
• Experience in a multi-site, multi-brand, or PE-backed platform environment.
• Familiarity with preventative maintenance agreement (PMA) sales motions and service contract economics, including project-to-PMA conversion plays.
• Direct experience with building automation systems (BAS), controls, or energy services sales.
• Experience with modern sales enablement, forecasting, and BI tooling layered on top of Salesforce.
• Bachelor's degree preferred; an exceptional track record of operating at this level can substitute for formal education.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

• A clear, written sales strategy and roadmap that gets Kelso Building Services to $100M in service revenue — endorsed by Kelso Industries leadership and understood by every sales leader on the team.
• A fully staffed and aligned sales leadership bench across Business Development, Account Management, National Accounts, Critical Environments, and BAS.
• A working Kelso flywheel: a defined sister-company project-to-PMA conversion process with a target conversion rate, monthly reporting, and a track record of wins to show the sister brands the motion is real.
• Measurable improvement in pipeline quality, forecast accuracy, and win rates — with forecast accuracy inside a defined tolerance band quarter over quarter.
• PMA portfolio growth that outpaces overall company growth, reflecting a deliberate shift toward recurring revenue.
• A sales team that lives Kelso's values — taking care of employees and customers every day, and saying what they mean.

Compensation

Kelso Building Services offers a competitive executive compensation package including base salary, performance-based incentive compensation tied to revenue and profitability targets, long-term incentive participation appropriate to the role, and comprehensive benefits. This role is open to candidates nationwide; the ranges below reflect a national market for this level of leadership.

Target Base Salary Range: $210,000 – $275,000

Target Variable / Bonus: 40 – 60% of base, tied to revenue, margin, and strategic objectives

Target Total Cash Compensation: $315,000 – $440,000+

Final compensation will be commensurate with experience and demonstrated track record.

Why Join Kelso Industries?

Join us and be part of a team dedicated to creating efficient, sustainable, and high-performance environments that make a lasting impact across the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors.

Here you will experience:

Growth Opportunities: Develop new skills, take on exciting challenges, and advance your career in meaningful ways.

Company Culture: You'll thrive in an environment that supports your growth, values your contributions, and makes work fulfilling and enjoyable.

Impact: Your work directly contributes to meaningful outcomes, allowing you to see the difference you make and feel a sense of purpose every day.

Competitive Compensation & Benefits: You'll be rewarded fairly for your contributions while enjoying perks that enhance your financial security, health, and overall well-being.

Kelso Industries celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate in any aspect of employment based on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, age, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local employment discrimination laws where Kelso does business