Head of Business Development​/Commercial Lead

Build the commercial engine behind the next generation of autonomous chemical sensing.

Mode Labs is developing an autonomous opto-chemical sensing platform for remote environmental monitoring. We are looking for a commercially astute, technically credible relationship-builder to lead our transition from field trials and early customer interest to repeatable commercial adoption.

You will own commercial strategy and business development as Mode Labs moves from product development into paid beta trials and first sales. Initially, you will work hands-on across customer development, propositions, pricing, marketing, CRM and forecasting, while building a disciplined route from technical trial to commercial purchase.

Reporting to the CEO and working as part of the senior leadership team, you will work closely with the CTO and product-development team to ensure that customer requirements shape our product roadmap and commercial priorities. The role begins as a senior individual-contributor and functional-lead position. As sales scale, you will build and lead the wider commercial team.

Commercial Strategy, Sales and Revenue

• Own the commercial strategy for the initial UK water and environmental-monitoring market, defining priority customers, propositions, routes to market and milestones.
• Build and convert the pipeline from early engagement through paid beta trials to commercial purchase.
• Lead customer discovery, proposals, pricing and negotiations, defining clear trial objectives and purchase criteria.
• Refine the business and revenue model, including pricing, recurring revenues, margins and customer lifetime value, and own pipeline and revenue forecasting.

Customer Requirements, Product and Market Development

• Establish a structured customer-requirements process, capturing use cases, performance needs, deployment constraints and procurement requirements.
• Work with the CTO and development team to translate customer and market evidence into a prioritised product roadmap, including analytes, product improvements and adjacent applications.
• Balance individual customer requests against wider market demand, technical effort and commercial potential.
• Track customers, competitors, regulation and market developments to identify new sectors, geographies and routes to market.
• Develop the longer-term commercial roadmap beyond the initial UK water market, identifying attractive adjacent sectors, geographies and partnership routes.

Marketing, Evidence and Partnerships

• Develop the marketing strategy and core sales collateral, turning beta trials into credible evidence, case studies and customer-facing content.
• Build trusted relationships across the water sector and relevant technical communities, representing Mode Labs with customers, partners and industry stakeholders.
• Identify and develop commercially valuable partnerships, pilots and grant‑funded opportunities, working with the CEO and CTO where appropriate.

Commercial Operations, Customer Success and Scale-up

• Establish and own the CRM, sales process, qualification criteria, commercial metrics and reporting.
• Define and manage the customer journey from initial engagement through trial, purchase, deployment and repeat business.
• Work across engineering, manufacturing and quality to establish a scalable customer‑support and service model covering commissioning, servicing, calibration and technical support.
• Define the structure, incentives and recruitment plan for the wider sales team as demand grows.

Within your first 100 days, you will have:

• Built a strong understanding of our technology, target markets, customers and commercial pipeline.
• Reviewed and prioritised the existing pipeline, with clear qualification criteria and CRM stages.
• Secu…