Business Development Manager, Consumer Technology

Business Development Manager – Consumer Technology

We are seeking a Business Development Manager – Consumer Technology, to join the team at Redwood. In this position, you will be responsible for managing relationships with consumer technology and device companies and establishing partnerships to source and recycle lithium-ion batteries. This role is vital to our overall mission and is a key driving force to meeting our company goals in accelerating the production of local, sustainable battery materials and ensuring that end-of-life batteries and materials are collected and processed safely. This position will include strategic account planning, account development, relationship management, and sales management across consumer technology partnerships. You will also serve as the commercial point person for Redwood’s Battery Bin program, a consumer-facing collection initiative that places battery drop-off bins at high-traffic community locations. You’ll work with business and technical teams across Redwood, collaborating to solve business problems with multiple stakeholders. The person who takes on this challenge, if successful, will be instrumental in paving the way for how this industry is shaped and the future of sourcing at Redwood.

Responsibilities will include:

• Build, foster and maintain relationships with consumer technology companies and device manufacturers to coordinate multi-level partnerships for the collection and recycling of lithium-ion battery materials. Align multiple locations and global stakeholders when necessary.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for consumer technology partnership, managing end-to-end account relationships from initial engagement through long-term partnership execution. Understand each partner’s product lifecycle, sustainability commitments, and battery disposal needs to position Redwood as their preferred recycling partner.
• Manage the product qualification process with customers, understanding the technical requirements for consumer device battery recycling, and communicate with key stakeholders internally and externally to manage qualification timelines and customers’ expectations.
• Accountable for making sure the business is on track – ensuring a strong mix of consumer technology partnerships, that we’re exceeding customer expectations, and that battery material is procured profitably considering sourcing cost, operating costs, and logistics cost to feed the machine that is producing the most sustainable battery materials in the world.
• Recognize customers’ product roadmaps and sustainability programs in detail, aligning our resources to the right programs and priorities, as well as identifying future growth opportunities in the consumer electronics battery sourcing space.
• Understand customers’ value chain and the influences of each player in the ecosystem. Direct global resources to manage the value chain appropriately as well as negotiate the various contracts (volume, prices, all other T&Cs) with customers.
• Own business development and operational oversight for Redwood’s Battery Bin program, including partner pipeline development, outreach, proposals, contracting, and expansion planning.
• Identify, prioritize, and develop relationships with Battery Bin host partners, including retailers, municipalities, universities, nonprofits, and public agencies. Evaluate deployment opportunities and lead the end-to-end launch process from partner qualification through go-live and ongoing account management.
• Develop partnership models and partner-facing materials for Battery Bin deployments, including grant-funded, leased, sponsored, or paid service structures, as well as pitch decks, implementation guides, FAQs, and related collateral.
• Track and report performance across consumer device partnerships and Battery Bin sites, using data to improve partner targeting, operational efficiency, cost-to-serve, and overall program economics.
• Coordinate cross-functionally with engineering, operations, logistics, legal, policy, communications, and compliance teams to ensure partnerships and collection programs are compliant, high impact, and operationally sustainable.
• Ability to travel 25% when necessary for meetings, tours, site visits, and program launches.

Desired Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, sustainability, engineering or related fields. Technical background a plus.
• Sales/business/technical sales experience more than 10 years.
• Consumer electronics or lithium-ion battery industry experience is strongly preferred. Direct experience working with or at companies that manufacture, assemble, sell, or repair consumer devices.
• Deep understanding of consumer technology product lifecycles, sustainability initiatives, and circular economy programs within the consumer electronics industry.
• Experience building and scaling partner programs, channel programs, or distributed collection and deployment networks.
• Fluent in English for global communication to lead the account management.
• Strong leadership skills with logical communication.
• People skills to develop good relationships with customers even when in difficult to navigate situations.
• Data-driven mindset with experience tracking program KPIs and using performance data to inform strategy and improve operations.
• Smart, scrappy, entrepreneurial, science-loving, having a bias for action and a lot of grit.
• An ability to have fun while tackling hard problems!
• A passion for sustainability and making the world a better place!