US Market Development Director - Data Center/Thermal Management

About the Team

Thermal management is a strategically important, fast-growing business area for Castrol focused on enabling the next generation of AI, data centers, battery energy storage systems, and other high-performance digital infrastructure through advanced cooling technologies and integrated thermal management solutions. The business is evolving from a traditional fluids supplier into a comprehensive thermal management solutions provider, offering cooling fluids, engineering services, hardware solutions, software capabilities, and lifecycle support services.

The US Market Development Director is responsible for identifying, developing, and executing growth opportunities for Castrol’s Thermal Management business across the US and the Americas. The role drives sales and business development, market intelligence, strategic partnerships, and go-to-market initiatives to accelerate adoption of Castrol’s thermal management solutions, while also playing a lead role in developing and implementing new products, offers, and services. Working closely with sales, technology, and marketing teams, the Market Development Director translates market needs into commercial opportunities and supports the expansion of Castrol’s position as a leading thermal management solutions provider.

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate who is willing to take full ownership of enabling the expansion of our Americas business. The key accountability is to drive profitable revenue and fast business growth.

Key Tasks 

• Accountable for delivering annual revenue, gross margin, and profitability targets, ensuring sustainable business growth and market share expansion.
• Lead the US commercial team, enabling the team to unlock its full potential.
• Build, manage, and maintain a robust business development pipeline, ensuring consistent opportunity generation, qualification, conversion, and long-term revenue visibility.
• Design and implement effective route-to-market strategies, including direct sales, channel, partnership, and ecosystem models, to maximize market reach and commercial performance.
• Develop, enable, and manage strategic channel partners, distributors, system integrators, and ecosystem partners to accelerate growth and strengthen Castrol’s market position.
• Lead sales planning, forecasting, and performance tracking, ensuring alignment of commercial targets with budget, resource, and capability requirements.
• Define future market needs and support the introduction of new products, solutions, services, and business models across thermal management fluids, engineering services, hardware, software, and adjacent offerings.
• Build strong customer and industry relationships, translating market insights into actionable growth opportunities and influencing strategic business direction.

Experience Required 

• Demonstrated experience in sales of data center infrastructure, hardware, or service solutions (5+ years).
• At least 10 years of experience in commercial roles focused on generating growth within offer development, commercial development, or business development in a corporate or start-up setting.
• Strong networker with existing networks in the US hyperscale, colocation, and data center infrastructure market.
• Proven experience in developing strategic customer accounts, senior executive relationships, channel partnerships, and ecosystem collaborations across diverse and evolving market landscapes.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen spanning business strategy, pricing, profitability, contract negotiation, risk management, forecasting, working capital optimization, and business case development.
• Ability to translate customer requirements into commercially viable solutions by aligning technical, operational, and business capabilities, while effectively mobilizing cross-functional global teams in a matrix organization.
• Exceptional communication, negotiation, influencing, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, balance competing priorities, and drive alignment among senior decision-makers.
• Track record of delivery, bringing new concepts or offers to customers or driving change in an organization.
• Experience in managing small, high-performance teams.

#LI-SD1