Sr. Business Development Lead

Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience - 5+ years of business development and/or strategic partnerships experience in the climate tech, energy, renewables, or other high-tech industries - 3+ years of experience working with or in the startup community and/or with early-stage companies and founders - Technical background, capable of understanding the complexities of energy supply chains, markets, novel materials, etc. - Ability to work with cross-functional teams like engineering, science, and product.

Job summary

We are seeking a Senior Business Development Lead for the APAC region to build and manage a funnel of high potential startups with an emphasis on frontier technologies addressing the challenges of the global energy transition. You will have responsibility for owning deal flow in your region and will play a key role in developing and executing the business strategy for engagements with these companies. This work directly impacts creation of new $1B+ businesses within Amazon.

You will be responsible for identifying and building relationships with entrepreneurs and founders developing high-impact technologies, evaluating their businesses, and making persuasive recommendations to leadership regarding whether and how to engage with them. To achieve this, you will research key industries and trends and network both internally and externally to keep your finger on the pulse of relevant technological developments. You will think strategically about business, product, and technical challenges and map the intersection of startup needs to Amazon's priorities and capabilities. You will be expected to focus on delivering high judgment, high impact recommendations while also remaining curious to experiment and explore across multiple industries.

Here at Amazon, we embrace our differences. We are committed to furthering our culture of inclusion. We have ten employee-led affinity groups, reaching 40,000 employees in over 190 chapters globally. We have innovative benefit offerings, and host annual and ongoing learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (gender diversity) conferences. Amazon’s culture of inclusion is reinforced within our 14 Leadership Principles, which remind team members to seek diverse perspectives, learn and be curious, and earn trust.

This role will travel up to 25% to meet with promising countries in your region. You should expect quarterly travel to Seattle where most of the team is based.

Key job responsibilities
- Research emerging technologies and industries to identify opportunities for transformative businesses that can move the needle for Amazon and deliver impact at scale.
- Identify and meet with the most promising startups pursuing these opportunities to evaluate their businesses
- Own top-of funnel deal flow (including sourcing & screening) for your region
- Play a leading role in building the business case for the opportunities you identify
- Establish credibility and drive discussions with the senior-most influencers at the relevant Amazon organizations
- Deliver persuasive, passionate, high impact, high quality presentations to senior decision makers
- Build relationships and connections with founders, investors, accelerators, etc. that support deal flow.

A day in the life

You’ll research new technological breakthroughs, policy & geopolitical developments, and disruptive business models to identify opportunities for Amazon to materially reduce the true cost of energy at scale. Based on these findings, you’ll identify the startups, investors, and ecosystem participants that are at the heart of these trends and connect with them to dive deep on their unique approach. You’ll distill your findings from these conversations into concrete recommendations for further engagement, then present those recommendations to Amazon leadership.

About the team

Our team is singularly focused on the development of new and novel ideas, from prototype phase to market. Products that have successfully incubated and launched from our team are Amazon Care, AWS Comprehend Medical, Echo Frames, Amazon Explore, and Amazon Glow. We are looking for deep thinkers, innovators and technical entrepreneurial leaders to join us as we embark on building the next big idea
- MBA - STEM degree at the undergraduate level OR equivalent professional experience - A passion for startups and understanding of how venture capital and startups operate - A deep understanding of or background working in energy, renewables, climate tech, and/or related markets - Experience making build/buy decisions and communicating results to senior leadership - Excellent business and financial acumen - Operational excellence mindset, data driven problem-solving and ability to simplify complexity - Strong presentation and sales skills - Ability to succeed in a fast-paced, innovative, and rapidly evolving industry and business organization - Ability to communicate effective