The posting
STRATEGIC ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, MANUFACTURER PARTNERSHIPS
ABOUT REBAR
Rebar is building the AI operating system for commercial HVAC, Electrical, and Plumbing.
Over the past year our quoting platform has processed tens of thousands of projects across North America and we’ve doubled our revenue in the first 6 weeks of this year. Our customers include many of the top firms in the industry. Some of these companies are running billion-dollar construction projects on workflows that still look like it’s 1985.
Construction is 10% of GDP and still massively underserved by software. We are changing that.
We recently raised a $14M Series A from leading construction tech investors and are entering our next phase of growth. We are building a set of AI native products that will define how this industry operates.
We’re looking for someone to build and own our manufacturer partnerships business—developing the strategy, opening the right doors, and defining how Rebar partners with manufacturers.
THE ROLE
Today, Rebar sells to the people who bid the work: manufacturer reps, distributors, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contractors. The next step is building direct partnerships with the manufacturers whose products our customers sell and install.
There are two core parts of this role:
1. Build manufacturer partnerships. Develop relationships with manufacturers to bring their product selection and pricing information directly into Rebar, making it easier for our customers to specify, select, and quote their products.
2. Sell market intelligence. Rebar processes thousands of plans and specs, giving us unique visibility into what products are being specified and bid, where projects are happening, and how the market is moving. You will work with manufacturers to turn this data into a valuable market intelligence product that competes directly with platforms like Dodge.
As the Strategic AE for Manufacturer Partnerships, you will own both motions from the ground up. You’ll identify the right manufacturers and decision-makers, open doors, determine the right commercial model, and close our first partnerships.
We’re looking for someone who already comes from this world. You understand how manufacturers operate, know the people who make these decisions, and bring existing relationships that can open doors from day one. We’re not looking for someone to learn the industry—we’re looking for someone who already knows it and can help us build the business within it.
YOU WILL
BUILD THE POINT OF VIEW, THEN THE PLAN
- Spend your first 90 days in conversation with the market, and come back with findings rather than a pitch: which manufacturers, which product and equipment categories, which people inside them, and what each would value
- Turn those findings into a written partnership strategy: target list, entry point, offer, and pricing, with the reasoning behind each call
- Be honest about what you learn, including where the opportunity is smaller or slower than we hoped
DESIGN HOW OUR MANUFACTURER RELATIONSHIPS ARE FORMED
- Work out the commercial model with us as you learn more about the market. Manufacturers might pay for market intelligence drawn from the projects we see, for takeoff capacity, for business generated through Rebar, or for a model nobody in this space has tried yet. We have hypotheses, not answers
- Pressure-test each model against how manufacturers actually budget and buy, including their purchasing and procurement process
OPEN AND CLOSE THE FIRST PARTNERSHIPS
- Use your existing manufacturer relationships to get the right conversations started quickly
- Run the full sale: from first meeting through procurement, legal, and signature
- Build relationships at the level where partnership decisions get made, not only with the territory or channel contact
SHAPE THE PRODUCT
- Tell our product team what would make a manufacturer partnership work: the integrations, data, and capabilities a manufacturer would need before they sign
- Find out which manufacturers do takeoffs themselves today, how, and what that work costs them
- Bring every signal back as evidence from real conversations, so product decisions rest on what manufacturers said rather than what we assumed
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
REQUIRED
- Deep, current relationships with US manufacturers in commercial HVAC, mechanical, electrical, or plumbing equipment, strong enough that the right people will take your call this year
- Breadth across manufacturers and categories. Experience that spans several manufacturers and several product or equipment categories, rather than one manufacturer's line in one territory. A long career at a rep agency carrying multiple lines is exactly the kind of background we have in mind
- You know how manufacturers buy. You understand their purchasing and procurement process, who holds budget, and how a new vendor or partner gets approved
- Strategic and creative about monetization. You have sold, structured, or priced something that did not come with a rate card, and can walk us through how you landed on the number
- Independent. You are comfortable shaping the approach yourself, testing it in the market, and changing course when the evidence says to
- A senior track record of closing complex, multi-stakeholder deals where the buyer had to be convinced the category was worth paying for at all
- Comfortable in early-stage environments: scrappy, creative, and fast
- Exceptional communication with operators and executives in the trades
STRONG PLUS
- Experience in construction data or project-intelligence businesses, and an understanding of how manufacturers use project and specification data today
- Has built a partnership, channel, or data-licensing program from scratch
- Has worked closely with a product team to turn customer conversations into what gets built
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
- Compensation. Competitive based on experience
- Equity: meaningful grant, aligned with your background
- Benefits: medical, dental, vision
This a fully remote role, with 30%+ travel.
