Vertical Market Leader: K-12 Education

Job Description

Job Description

VERTICAL MARKET LEADER  

K–12 Education  

About TriState  

TriState HVAC Equipment, LLC is a commercial HVAC equipment manufacturers’ representative based in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and part of the Daikin family of companies. We represent leading applied and unitary HVAC product lines and operate a full-service department — pairing high-performance equipment with engineering support, parts, and service to deliver complete system solutions to owners, engineers, and contractors across our region. 

K–12 school districts are entering a sustained wave of HVAC investment — driven by aging building infrastructure, heightened expectations for indoor air quality and ventilation, the push toward electrification and lower operating costs, and the capital and state-aid cycles that fund school construction. We are building a dedicated K–12 education practice, and we’re hiring a Vertical Market Leader to own it. 

The Role  

The Vertical Market Leader – K–12 Education owns TriState’s growth in the K–12 vertical end to end. This is a business development role for a self-driven seller who understands how school HVAC projects are designed, funded, and bought — and who already knows the facilities directors, business officials, engineers, contractors, and energy-services partners who drive them. 

You will identify and win projects across public and private school districts — influencing design early, navigating public procurement and funding pathways, building relationships across the district decision chain, and converting that influence into equipment orders and long-term service revenue. You will be TriState’s in-house authority on school HVAC, including indoor air quality and ventilation, electrification, and the realities of retrofitting occupied buildings within tight summer installation windows. 

Key Responsibilities  

• Own the vertical. Develop and execute the K–12 sales strategy and carry the revenue and margin targets for the vertical. Build the plan to grow TriState’s share across district accounts — building by building, year over year — and report progress against it.
  
• Hunt and cultivate. Identify districts entering capital, bond/referendum, and facility-master-plan cycles, develop a qualified multi-year pipeline, and drive opportunities from early design through equipment orders.
  
• Engage the full buying ecosystem. Build and own relationships across the people who drive these decisions — facilities and operations directors, business officials and CFOs, superintendents and school boards, consulting/MEP engineers, architects, mechanical contractors, construction managers, and energy-services (ESCO) partners.
  
• Influence the basis of design. Get in early to position TriState’s product lines — classroom unit ventilators, rooftop units, dedicated outdoor air systems (DOAS) and energy recovery, VRF, air- and water-source heat pumps, geothermal, and central-plant chillers and boilers — as the specified basis of design.
  
• Be the technical authority. Serve as TriState’s subject-matter expert on school HVAC — ventilation and indoor air quality (ASHRAE 62.1 and Standard 241), filtration, energy efficiency and operating-cost reduction, electrification and decarbonization, and phased retrofits of aging, occupied buildings.
  
• Navigate procurement and funding. Move fluently through public bid law and prevailing-wage work, cooperative purchasing vehicles (Sourcewell, OMNIA, and similar), performance contracting and guaranteed energy savings agreements, state building aid, and grant and incentive programs that finance school projects.
  
• Partner with engineers and ESCOs. Develop channel relationships with the design engineers and performance-contracting firms who scope and specify school work, positioning TriState as their preferred equipment partner.
  
• Support the sale and tie in service. Connect TriState’s equipment to our applied engineering, parts, and service capabilities — turning project wins into long-term district relationships and recurring service and parts revenue.
  
• Forecast and report. Manage your pipeline and accounts in CRM (HubSpot preferred) and forecast accurately across long, budget- and board-gated cycles.
  

Required Qualifications  

• Proven B2B sales experience in capital equipment or HVAC, ideally selling into K–12 or other public/institutional markets.
  
• Established relationships with school district decision-makers, MEP/consulting engineers, mechanical contractors, and/or ESCOs in the region.
  
• Working knowledge of school HVAC systems — unit ventilators, rooftop units, DOAS and energy recovery, VRF, heat pumps, geothermal, and central-plant chillers and boilers — and familiarity with ventilation and indoor air quality standards.
  
• Understanding of public procurement: competitive bidding, prevailing wage, cooperative purchasing, and performance contracting.
  
• A track record of influencing specifications and winning complex, long-cycle capital projects that depend on budget approval and board or public votes.
  
• Proficiency with CRM (HubSpot preferred) and the discipline to manage a pipeline and forecast accurately across multi-year cycles.
  
• Willingness to travel within the region as opportunities require (estimated 40–50%).
  
• Self-directed and accountable, able to deliver results with minimal oversight.
  

Preferred Qualifications  

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, business, or a technical field — or equivalent industry experience.
  
• PE, LEED AP, CEM, or educational-facilities credentials (e.g., CEFP).
  
• Direct experience with performance contracting or guaranteed energy savings projects in the public sector.
  
• Familiarity with state building-aid and school-construction approval processes in the territory.
  
• An existing district account portfolio that can be activated quickly.
  

What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months)  

• Create $20M in gross K–12 pipeline. • Have TriState in the basis of design on 8 projects at the time drawings go out to bid.
  
• Open 4 qualified performance-contracting, GESA, or capital pursuits. 
• Establish 20 new relationships across districts, MEP and consulting engineers, mechanical contractors, and energy-services partners.
  

Compensation & Benefits  

• Base salary: $155,000–$185,000 , commensurate with experience and existing relationships. 
• Performance-based incentive compensation tied to vertical revenue and margin.
  
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
  
• Retirement savings plan with company match.
  
• Career growth within the Daikin family of companies.
  
• The autonomy to build a vertical from the ground up, with an established equipment and service organization behind you.