Vice President of Business Development

Company Overview

Second Order Effects (SOE) is an engineering consulting firm that specializes in electrical, electromechanical, and embedded systems. Founded in 2016, SOE has grown from a 3-person operation to a team of over 40 members across offices in El Segundo, California and Redmond, Washington. Over the last nine years, we have completed over 250 projects and serviced over 100 different customers. Our designs control rocket engines, manage satellite communications, instrument fusion reactors, and are enjoyed by consumers around the world.

The only thing we won’t build are weapons.

Second Order Effects practices a “first principles approach” to technical problems. We break down complex challenges to their most fundamental components. This enables us to find solutions across industries, use cases, and engineering functions.

As an engineering consulting firm, we focus on solving the right problems and building teams to take them on. Going beyond just resolving tough issues, we want to answer impactful questions.

How do we do this? We empower others, build the right thing, lead with curiosity, and own the outcome. Learn more at

The Vice President of Business Development ("VP of BD") is responsible for shaping and executing the company’s revenue sustainment and growth strategy. This role reports directly to the CEO and owns the full business development lifecycle, from market strategy and opportunity qualification through deal execution. This requires the VP of BD to lead, hire, and train a business development team to meet company goals and objectives.

This role partners closely with all teams and areas of SOE especially engineering leadership to ensure commercial decisions align with SOE values, reinforce technical excellence, and generate impactful outcomes.

• Define and execute a business development strategy focused on large, complex, multi-year engineering and R&D engagements, while bringing in smaller projects and opportunities that align with SOE’s goals
• Implement and improve business development processes, including a rigorous deal and opportunity qualification framework so that SOE can better prioritize opportunities and focus efforts
• Partner with engineering and finance to shape offerings, pricing models, and technical narratives while developing repeatable capture and account expansion motions for long-cycle, high-credibility sales
• Personally lead, negotiate, and close SOE’s highest-complexity opportunities, owning all aspects of the engagement from deal economics and margin discipline to logistics
• Build, train, and mentor a high-performing business development team capable of independently owning complex opportunities end-to-end, from discovery and qualification through deal shaping and technical value articulation
• Drive individual and team accountability via core business development key performance indicators (KPIs), including revenue growth, time-to-close, and gross margin
• Create clear feedback loops across sales, leadership, and engineering execution to improve execution and outcomes
• Develop strategic partnerships that expand deal size, scope, and long-term value

• Bachelor s degree in a technical or business-related field (Engineering, Business, Finance, Mathematics, etc.)
• 10+ years of business development and sales experiences in at least one highly regulated industry, such as aerospace, defense, medical, or energy
• Proven experience closing $1M–$10M+ complex engineering, R&D, or technical services deals that require complex, multi-year, multi-workstream contracts
• Demonstrated ability to lead high-performing sales and capture teams with a high sense of ownership and accountability for results
• Deep expertise in consultative and strategic selling methodologies and their applicability
• Strong financial literacy and the ability to evaluate technical tradeoffs and align commercial terms with engineering realities
• Fluency in business development pipeline management, forecasting, and CRM-based performance tracking and information management
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with experience presenting to senior executives and customers