Vice President Sales

Title: Vice President Sales
Reports to: President / CEO
Location: St. Louis, MO (Headquarters)
Date: March 31, 2025

Company Summary:
Zoltek Corporation, a subsidiary of Toray Group, is a world leader in the research, development, manufacture and distribution of industrial grade carbon fiber. Our mission is to lead the commercialization of carbon fiber through our development of a price-competitive, high-performance reinforcement for composites used in a broad range of commercial products. We currently employ over 2,500 employees at manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Mexico, & Hungary, and our sales and distribution network is worldwide. Learn more at www.zoltek.com.

Job Summary:
Zoltek Corporation, a subsidiary of Toray Group, is seeking a Vice President of Sales. This position will lead, develop and manage a global business strategy and sales plan that will continue Zoltek's leadership position for carbon fiber-based products. This position will lead the external hunting for new business and expand the scope of our global customer base. The position will develop and lead an aggressive strategy for sales, new product offerings, market communication and introduction of Zoltek products in the global marketplace. This position will be external facing, sales focused and driven by a relentless pursuit of opportunities only executed with a strong work ethic and dynamic relationship skills.

Responsibilities

• Develops and drives the sales and business development objectives within Zoltek's overall business strategy.
• Demonstrates leadership through active participation in corporate strategic planning, sales strategy development, forecasting, sales resource planning, and budgeting
• Executes and reports on the sales performance of the company. This includes establishing individual sales goals and objectives, establishing, and prioritizing critical performance measures for all sales positions across all sales channels, geographical markets, and personnel. This position is also responsible for ensuring all sales personnel are held accountable for assigned results.
• Provides leadership to members of the sales team while fostering a culture of accountability, professional development, high-performance and ethical behavior.
• Accountable for the overall sales budget as well as individual sales objectives by setting specific monthly, quarterly or annual sales and profit margin goals and proactively assesses existing sales support investments, including those in technology, marketing, training, and entertainment. Leads organizational change initiatives within the sales function by continuously assessing the need for process or procedure change, championing change initiatives, and removing obstacles impeding constructive organizational change.
• Maintain current knowledge of Zoltek products and competitive product portfolios
• Work with Product Line managers on pricing and product positioning
• Prepare and present reports on sales pipeline and market trends
• Work with Product Line managers and respond to customer needs in terms of products specifications, warranties, products availability, credit/finance, and any other sales processes.
• Attend & participate in conferences and industry events

Knowledge, Skill and Educational Requirements:

• Technology: Must have technical experience and understanding of composite manufacturing processes such as prepreg, NCF manufacturing, vacuum infusion, pultrusion and thermoplastic compounding among others. A good technical and business understanding of how and why a product is used is imperative to success.
• Strategic Business Development: Must have the strategic thinking and business/marketing skills to develop a business strategy and sales plan for the continued success of all Zoltek product lines. Be able to identify market trends and advantages of Zoltek to capitalize on those and also areas for improvement. Then developing plans and actions to carry out the needed actions.

• Leadership and Training: Highly developed leadership skills and evidence of building high performance teams, ensuring training and implementing succession planning. You will need to develop managers so that they can become future leaders within our organization.
• Culture Change Agent: The ability to drive cultural change throughout an organization and set, drive, and enforce global standards. You will need to bring together teams in the U.S., Hungary and Mexico and help them to work effectively together.
• Communicator: Superb communication skills and demonstrated ability to drive and develop an engaged team of professionals and a very strong desire to lead a team through complex change. You will need to overcome challenges to change and drive towards a vision, both inside and outside of Zoltek.
• Administration and Budgets: Design sales plans and budgets at different levels of the organization, tied to departmental goals and corporate strategy, ensuring that all customers are recognized. Manage business of Zoltek carbon fiber products to maximize profitability.
• Industry Knowledge: Keen working knowledge of global markets and material competitors to Zoltek in the market place. Understanding of composites, how, where and why they are used, especially carbon fiber composites. With Zoltek's strong position in the wind energy market, a keen understanding and experience in this market is strongly desired.
• International Experience: Understanding of the global composites market place.
• Work Experience: 10 years or more in composites, preferably in the area of carbon fiber composites.
• Education: Minimum bachelor's degree - technical background: Chemistry, Chemical or Mechanical Engineering preferred. MBA is a plus.

Zoltek is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation or expression, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.