Principal, Business Development

Requisition ID: 110035

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People are the heart of our business. As an American Water employee, you will be offered a competitive salary and health benefits package, along with opportunities to develop, grow, and evolve your career. Our benefits packages focus on key areas such as health & wellness, emotional & well-being, and savings for current & future goals.

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About American Water
American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886 and celebrating 140 years in 2026, We Keep Life Flowing® by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to approximately 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 18 military installations. American Water’s approximately 7,000 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the company’s national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.

For more information, visit amwater.com and join American Water on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

Primary Role

To proactively identify and secure suitable new business opportunities while leading deal structuring and bid management activities within the allocated territory. The role supports the Director of Business Development in developing, updating, and executing the Regional Business Development Plan to deliver profitable, sustainable growth aligned with American Water’s operational, capital, and regulatory strategy. The role requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams, senior leadership, regulators, and external stakeholders to align opportunity development with enterprise priorities, while contributing to high-level strategic discussions that shape long-term market positioning and regional growth objectives.

Key Accountabilities

• Build the business development pipeline and target opportunities to help maintain a steady flow of projects and secure those within plan timescales, Identify, qualify and prioritize leads through the use of appropriate tools, local market data and active targeted prospecting; Negotiate and close deals in line with the agreed commercial parameters and which contribute to business plan targets. (40%)
• Develop, shape & track potential opportunities and match service and product offerings with customer needs. Combine service offerings to create commercially viable solutions to meet customer needs. (25%)
• Manage the end to end business development cycle; Effectively project manage the business development process from deal structuring through to commercial operation for major contract services, tuck-ins and service offerings; Identify creative approaches to developing & structuring new opportunities which accurately reflect client needs & support business plan priorities. (15%)
• Lead the development of the bid strategy, deal structuring, project financing and credit assessment of opportunities and champion projects through the Division/Regional/Corporate investment appraisal process; Identify, secure and manage cross functional and Regional resources to help evaluate, risk assess, develop & structure bids and develop implementation plans which outline resource & capability requirements to deliver the deal. (10%)
• Create market awareness and interest in American Water, and develop and maintain American Water brand image with the key industry stakeholders within the designated territory. (5%)
• Ensure effective and timely deal documentation from the qualification process through the development of the project & contract negotiation history data and ensure this data is updated in the relevant databases in order to enable efficient transition to the Operational teams. (5%)

Knowledge/Skills

• Water and wastewater utility infrastructure
• Strong financial and commercial acumen.

Experience/Education

• Bachelor Degree required.
• Accomplished business developer with a minimum of 10 years experience and a proven track record of success in the water and waste water utility services in the regulated and non-regulated markets.

Travel Requirements

40%

Work Environment

Standard office environment

Competencies

Champions safety

Customer obsessed

Cultivates innovation

Nimble learning

Drives Results

Collaborates

Join American Water...We Keep Life Flowing™

American Water is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based on his or her age, race, color, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, citizenship, or because they are an individual with a disability, protected veteran or other status protected by federal, state, and local laws.