Director of Business Development, IPPs and IOUs
Mainspring Energy
Sales & Business Development
Menlo Park, CA, USA
Posted on Oct 15, 2025
Company Overview
Mainspring Energy is revolutionizing power generation with the world’s most flexible and adaptable local power generation technology, the Mainspring Linear Generator. Commercial, industrial, and utility leaders are choosing Mainspring over traditional options like engines, turbines, and fuel cells to quickly and reliably deliver local power for EV charging, commercial facilities, data centers, and grid-scale operations. The Mainspring Linear Generator is fuel flexible, ramps up and down to meet demand, and utilizes a flameless reaction with near-zero NOx emissions.
Backed by top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, American Electric Power, Lightrock, and General Cayalyst Mainspring designs, manufactures and delivers its products to customers across the U.S. today, and we’re quickly scaling for international expansion.
Inspired by our vision of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid, Mainspring is rapidly expanding within the $816B global electricity equipment market, and we’re hiring the best talent to meet growing customer demand around the globe. We welcome a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and talents to bring fresh perspectives and ongoing innovation to our customers.
We are looking to build relationships with people who share our values:
Pragmatic Optimism. Building a new category of world-class power generation requires the optimism of ambition and creativity, balanced with practicality to solve problems efficiently. The challenges that arise are opportunities for growth.
Excellence without Ego. We bring expertise and commitment to creating the best customer experience, from sales to deployment and service, just as we apply deep technical rigor to building and delivering world-class products. We strive for excellence and behave as leaders with the humility to acknowledge our challenges, both collectively and as individual contributors.
Proactive Collaboration. The integration and cross-disciplinary nature of Mainspring’s business requires intentionally seeking out others who bring different skills, perspectives, and priorities. Our culture of inclusion and respect extends beyond our team to interactions with our partners and customers.
More information can be found at www.mainspringenergy.com
Job Overview
We are seeking a Director of Business Development to execute on Mainspring’s growth strategy by advancing strategic sales opportunities with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), developers, and Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) across the U.S. This leader will play a critical role in shaping Mainspring’s market presence and driving adoption of our innovative power generation technology by leveraging their extensive professional networks. The ideal candidate has worked within an OEM, IPP, developer, or wholesale power trading organization, combining origination expertise with a strong grasp of wholesale power markets, RTO policy, and regulatory frameworks. They must be exceptionally adept at building strong customer relationships, deal structuring, negotiating contracts, and collaborating with internal stakeholders.
Responsibilities
- Originate and structure sales agreements with utilities and IPPs, drawing on direct experience of the project development and project financing process
- Develop strategic relationships with developers and IPPs to identify co-development, repowering, and utility-focused opportunities
- Manage multiple opportunities through the deal pipeline, resolving potential deal blockers with proactive communication, creativity, and strong organizational skills
- Create pitch decks, term sheets, and RFP responses to drive engagement, with support of marketing, sales engineering, and other teams
- Create project pro formas and collaborate with internal teams to refine product offerings, financing structures, and project delivery timelines
- Educate customers on key drivers, including ITC eligibility, utility tariff dynamics, and wholesale market rules, and evolving FERC issues
- Collaborate internally to align deal structures with project finance, project delivery, operations, and legal
- Travel extensively to build and maintain relationships with customers, partners, and internal teams. Typically 25-40%, with ability to flex on short notice for business critical needs
Qualifications
- 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in the power generation sector, ideally with a combination of experiences with an OEM, IPP, thermal developer, or wholesale power marketing company. Demonstrated success advancing complex, high-value power generation sales and/or project development; and matched with longstanding relationships across the power sector ecosystem
- Strong financial modeling skills with ability to create project-level proformas. Must have a working knowledge of tax policies that unlock value for advanced power generation technologies, and a working knowledge of wholesale power markets, interconnection processes, RTO/ISO operations, and evolving regulatory frameworks such as co-located generation and load flexibility
- Track record of working collaboratively across internal functions, particularly with product, finance, policy, and project delivery teams
- Proven organizational skills and ability to manage and close multiple opportunities in parallel
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (MBA or related technical discipline) strongly preferred
Does your experience not meet all of our posted requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to positions unless they meet every listed requirement. At Mainspring, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, flexible, and collaborative environment, so if you want to help us transition the world to clean and affordable electricity, and don’t meet all posted requirements for a particular role, we’d still love to hear from you. Mainspring can sometimes be flexible enough to shift responsibilities for the right person, or otherwise identify open or upcoming roles that may better fit your professional background.
In more traditional words, Mainspring Energy, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.
This compensation and benefits information is based on Mainspring Energy's estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future. We generally do not negotiate on salary once we have made an offer. The level of pay within the range will depend on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant prior experience and/or education, or particular skills and expertise. New hires joining the company tend to be paid within the starting base pay range noted above, with opportunities to increase pay over time based on development of additional skills, competencies, and company-specific knowledge.