Commercialization Manager

Location: Vancouver, BC preferred, with regular work from our office. We will consider exceptional candidates based in Western USA and Canada who can travel to Vancouver regularly. Occasional travel for customer meetings and selected conferences.

Reports to: Director of Business Development and Government Partnerships

Compensation: CAD $80,000 to $110,000 annual base salary, depending on experience, plus a performance-based bonus.

About Us

Skyward Wildfire Technologies is building the next generation of wildfire mitigation solutions. Leveraging proprietary lightning forecasting and prevention technologies, our mission is to help governments, utilities, and private sector partners anticipate, mitigate, and prevent lightning-driven risks. We operate at the intersection of advanced science, technology and urgent global need.

Over the past three years, we have moved from asking “Can we do this?”, to proving that we can and building evidence across geographies and approaches that our AI forecasting and lightning abatement capabilities work. Now comes the next challenge: turning that proof into transformative, scalable solutions that can fundamentally change how wildfire risk is managed.

You will help build a new category spanning government and private-sector customers, from AI-powered lightning fire forecasting and decision tools to novel approaches to lightning suppression on high-risk days. Sales can be complex, technical and long-cycle - and the path to building may involve governments, commercial partners, NGOs/foundations, and the public.

The opportunity

Bringing Skyward’s offerings to market means helping customers understand a new approach, building support across multiple stakeholders, and navigating long funding and procurement cycles.

We are looking for a hands-on commercial generalist to help us through a major inflection point. Our Director builds relationships with federal, state and provincial stakeholders across Canada and the U.S. You will take those conversations from 70% to done, moving them through presentations, pilots, proposals, procurement and contracting to close, and making sure our teams agree on what we pitch, how we price it, and who owns each RFP and contract. You will also help build the commercial processes a growing company needs: pipeline, forecasting, proposal workflows, and how we bring new offerings to market. Some weeks that means a government RFP, others it means a revenue model, a conference booth, or a private-sector customer we have never sold to before.

You will report to the Director of Business Development and Government Partnerships, who leads priority government relationships and major deals, and work closely with the incoming Chief Commercial Officer, who will lead broader commercial strategy and offerings. Both will hand you commercial projects to drive. This is an individual contributor role with a clear path to owning customer opportunities, and a chance to help build a world-first category at a formative stage.

What you’ll do

Your time will split across commercial execution, building processes, growth and new markets, and marketing support. The mix will shift as priorities change.

Commercial execution

• Close existing opportunities. Move qualified opportunities through pilots, proposals, procurement steps, contracting and signature. Prepare stakeholder briefs and meeting objectives; draft customer communications; coordinate internal actions; and follow through until agreed next steps are complete.
• Drive proposals and contracts. Draft and coordinate proposals, pilot scopes, and RFP/RFQ responses using approved commercial, technical, operational, and financial inputs. Get technical, operational and finance teams aligned on scope and pricing before anything goes out. Manage reviews and deadlines, surface missing inputs early, and support contract negotiation and paperwork through to close.

Building commercial processes

• Keep the pipeline and forecast useful. Maintain clear opportunity records, including decision makers, deal owners, next actions, dates, risks, and evidence needed for the weekly forecast, and support revenue modelling and commercial reporting for leadership and the board.
• Build the commercial engine. Help design and run the repeatable processes a scaling company needs: pipeline management, deal stages, proposal templates, pricing inputs, and handoffs to delivery.

Growth and new markets

• Present to customers. Build and deliver tailored presentations and demos for audiences ranging from senior government decision makers and operational wildfire staff to private-sector customers. Explain a complex offering clearly, handle questions, and earn the next conversation.
• Open private-sector markets. Work with the CCO and executive leadership on market analysis to identify promising customers and use cases, help shape and test how Skyward’s offerings meet their needs, and lead selected opportunities.
• Grow into account ownership. Develop relationships with operational users and take responsibility for a selected set of suitable opportunities and new logos as your knowledge and judgment grow.

Ad-hoc support

• Create useful sales materials. Draft and tailor decks, one-pagers, and other customer materials using approved claims and input from technical and operational teams.
• Make conferences count. Shape booth concepts, messaging, and visual materials; handle logistics and setup; schedule priority meetings; brief attendees; and manage follow-up afterward.
• Jump on ad-hoc projects. Take on commercial projects assigned by the CCO and Director, from a pricing analysis to a partner outreach plan, and drive them to completion.

What you bring

We care more about attitude and startup grit than checking every box. If you have helped build a commercial function from zero to one and want to do it again at seed stage, we want to hear from you.

• Zero-to-one experience. You have helped build commercial processes at an early-stage company, not just run ones that already existed. You are comfortable creating structure where there is none.
• A track record of closing. You have personally moved complex, multi-stakeholder opportunities with long decision cycles through proposals, contracting and signature. You are comfortable selling a concept that requires customer education and internal alignment.
• A record of creating and delivering customer presentations, adapting your message to different audiences, and securing meaningful follow-up.
• Hands-on experience personally drafting customer proposals. Experience with formal RFP or RFQ responses is strongly preferred.
• Commercial and analytical range. You can build a simple forecast or revenue model, pull together a market analysis, and work through contract terms with the right advisors.
• Strategic flexibility. You are a generalist who fills gaps without being asked, for example proposals on Monday, a forecast on Wednesday, a conference booth on Friday.
• Strong writing, organization, and judgment. You follow through without prompting and know when to bring a decision to the right person.
• An eye for clear, persuasive visual communication - whether in a presentation, a one-pager, or a conference booth - and the ability to turn an idea into a usable concept with colleagues or vendors.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace and comfort creating presentations and materials in tools such as Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Canva. We care more about the quality of your work than your choice of software.
• Good old-fashioned startup grit: you roll up your sleeves, take ownership, and get things done.

Nice to have, not essential: experience with government-facing commercialization or public procurement, deep tech experience (for example defence, robotics or aerospace), wildfire or forestry experience.

How to apply

Apply with your resume and cover letter in one .pdf document entitled "Commercialization Manager_"Your Name".