Vice President of Commercialization, Kodiak Robotics
Plus equity and biannual bonuses
Self-driving technology for long-haul trucks
Be an early applicant
Self-driving technology for long-haul trucks
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
Plus equity and biannual bonuses
201-500 employees
Company mission
Kodiak Robotics' mission is to carry freight forward—so people, partners, and the planet thrive.
Role
Who you are
- 15+ years of experience in business development, corporate development, or a senior commercial role, with at least 10 years in a leadership position
- Proven track record of developing and executing go-to-market strategies for new products or services in a B2B environment
- Demonstrated experience leading the full lifecycle of complex, long-cycle enterprise deals from inception to close ($100M+ contract value)
- Experience working within the logistics, freight, transportation, enterprise SaaS, or deep technology sectors
- Exceptional cross-functional leadership skills; ability to partner with and influence engineering, product, and operations teams in a technical environment
- Outstanding communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business value for diverse audiences, including customers and their executives
- Entrepreneurial mindset with a high tolerance for ambiguity and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, startup environment
- Ability and willingness to travel to engage with customers, partners, and internal teams, up to 50% of the time
What the job involves
- This is a leadership role at the heart of Kodiak’s growth story
- As the Vice President of Commercialization, you will be the architect and driver of our commercial engine
- This role moves beyond transactional sales; it is about building the commercial foundation for a new industry by forging deep, long-lasting partnerships built on trust and a shared vision for the future of logistics
- You will be the crucial link between our customers, our product, and our operations, ensuring that Kodiak not only delivers on its promises but also builds a sustainable, scalable, and profitable business alongside our partners
- Develop, own, and execute Kodiak’s comprehensive go-to-market strategy, including market segmentation, customer profiling incl customer value discovery, and identification of new business opportunities and use cases
- Define and track key commercial KPIs, providing regular performance reports to the COO and the rest of the leadership team
- Continuously analyze the competitive landscape and market dynamics to ensure Kodiak maintains a strategic advantage
- Lead the entire business development lifecycle, from identifying and qualifying leads to negotiating complex, multi-faceted contracts and closing cornerstone deals with fleet customers
- Cultivate and champion deep, long-lasting relationships with our customers, establishing a foundation of trust and acting as their senior advocate within Kodiak to ensure mutual success
- Build and nurture a robust pipeline of commercial opportunities to meet and exceed revenue and deployment targets
- Structure and negotiate first-of-their-kind partnerships that are critical to scaling our RoboTruck deployments and its ecosystem
- Define the operational requirements for commercial success, including service level agreements (SLAs), customer support protocols, and performance metrics for our driverless transportation services
- Create a seamless feedback loop between customers, our operations and product team to drive efficiency and customer satisfaction
- Work directly with Product and Engineering leadership to discuss, influence, and align the commercial and product roadmaps
- Translate customer needs and market feedback into clear insights and collaborate with the Product team to ensure our product development is directly tied to commercial value
- Recruit, mentor, and lead a world-class commercial team capable of executing in a fast-paced, ambiguous, and highly technical environment
- Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making, accountability, and relentless execution
Our take
Global supply chains rely on frictionless long-haul trucking freight networks, but the repetitive and stationary nature of the job has resulted in a lack of willing drivers. Whilst this has been partially resolved through the introduction of self-driving trucks, such systems are notoriously difficult to maintain which ultimately leads to significant downtime.
Kodiak Robotics develops self-driving technology for long-haul trucks, providing wing mirrors built with sensors called Kodiak SensorPods. These sensors provide the technology necessary for the trucks to be driven safely and autonomously and have been designed to be replaced or serviced rapidly to minimize downtime.
Whilst the company’s most significant challenge will present itself as other self-driving truck providers, Kodiak Robotics has taken a unique approach by recognizing the high-maintenance nature of existing self-driving systems, innovating upon this through its easily replaceable SensorPods. Through this approach and several successful rounds of funding, the company aims to fill empty truck driving positions with safer AI drivers, whilst ensuring its technology is quick and simple to maintain.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
21% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Sep 2023
$75m
CONVERTIBLE
Nov 2021
$125m
SERIES B
Total funding: $240m
Company benefits
- Remote-friendly work environment
- 401k
- Generous PTO policy
- Life insurance
- Assortment of medical (PPO/HMO/HDHP), dental, vision, and FSA plans
- Family-friendly company events
- Dog-friendly office
- Employee-driven fitness classes
- Beautiful, renovated facilities in Mountain View, CA and Lancaster, TX
- Free EV charging
- Trivia and board game nights
Company HQ
Mountain View, CA
Leadership
Don Burnette
(CEO)Experience as Co-founder of Otto. Software Technical Lead at Uber from 2016 to 2018.
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