The posting
SVP, Client Partner - Energy/Utilities
Location: Remote based role in the US on the East Coast
Travel: Regular
Company Overview
Robots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm building the next frontier of business architecture. We design and ship AI co-workers that integrate into enterprise operations and deliver measurable results for our clients. We're all in on AWS, combining deep UX capability with senior engineering talent to get AI into production fast and keep it there. We’ve earned the trust of leaders across Consumer Products and Retail, Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing and more, and earned a reputation as the nimble alternative to traditional global systems integrators. Founded in 2009, with delivery centers in Canada, the United States, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, we are smaller, faster, and more senior by design. Our teams average 15+ years of experience. We move fast, sweat the details, and build things that actually ship.
Position Overview
As an SVP, Client Partner, you own a portfolio of enterprise accounts: pursuing new logos, growing existing relationships, and leading the strategy, commercial success, and delivery quality of every engagement. Delivery and Product Management roll up to you, so what we ship and how it lands are yours to set. Over time, you also build the firm’s thought leadership and the repeatable solutions and patterns that make Robots and Pencils sharper in the domains your portfolio covers.
Why This Role Matters
You are the face of Robots and Pencils in the market and the steward of our clients' outcomes inside the firm. Across your portfolio, you set the strategy, drive the growth, and build the offerings and talent that decide what we're known for next. We ship production-ready AI in 30 to 45 days; that pace holds only when someone runs the portfolio like their own business, sets the bar on craft, and has the courage to make the hard calls early.
What You’ll Do
Portfolio Ownership & Delivery
- Own a portfolio of enterprise clients end-to-end (P&L, client success, delivery quality, and multi-year account strategy), meeting or exceeding revenue and margin targets.
- Set delivery direction across your accounts, align outcomes to client business goals, and drive estimating and pricing that protect both impact and profitability.
- Get ahead of risk, trade-offs, and scope conversations early, before they cost the relationship or the result.
Client Trust & Growth
- Build and sustain trusted-advisor relationships with C-suite stakeholders, listening past the brief to uncover real business drivers and challenging assumptions when it serves the work.
- Translate progress into business impact (ROI, milestones, decisions) in a cadence that builds executive confidence and demonstrates ongoing value.
- Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Delivery on pipeline, forecasting, resourcing, and multi-year growth plans for your portfolio.
Firm Building & Thought Leadership
- Win complex, high-value deals by shaping offerings, pricing, and pursuit strategy that open new ground for the firm.
- Mentor VP, Client Partners and Delivery Managers, and act as a talent magnet who attracts the next generation of Robots and Pencils leaders.
- Codify reusable IP, cross-vertical offerings, and delivery practices that raise margins and become benchmarks others adopt. Represent the firm externally to convert that visibility into pipeline.
What You’ll Bring
- 15+ years in consulting, digital, or AI and technology services, with senior ownership of enterprise portfolios or verticals and full P&L accountability.
- A proven record of multi-million-dollar growth, complex deal wins, and sustaining executive (VP and C-suite) relationships that renew and expand.
- Depth in applied AI, cloud (AWS preferred), digital product, and experience design, with the ability to translate technology into measurable business outcomes.
- Vertical depth in Energy/Utilities.
- A track record leading globally distributed delivery (onshore and offshore), with operational fluency across forecasting, pricing, utilization, and margin management.
- Visible market presence (speaking, publishing, alliances) that builds external pull for the firm.
- Willingness to travel regularly to meet clients where they work.
Helpful Extras and Unique Skills
- MBA and/or certifications such as PMP, PgMP, or SAFe. Impact and outcomes still matter most.
- Experience selling or scaling AI co-worker, agentic, or applied-AI initiatives in enterprise.
You’ll Do Well Here if You Are
- A doer. You see something broken and fix it. You'd rather move on clarity than wait for certainty.
- A fast learner who knows you don't know everything. The AI landscape changes weekly. You're senior enough to know better and curious enough to keep learning anyway.
- Direct in a way that makes the work better. You give honest feedback. You'd rather have the hard conversation than blow smoke.
- Obsessed with craft. You know genius is in the details. You ship exceptional, not perfect, and you don't put your name on work you wouldn't stand behind.
- Built for ownership. You honor commitments, admit mistakes fast, and back your teammates when a decision costs something. No handoffs, no finger-pointing.
- All in. You treat clients' businesses like your own. You take the work seriously without taking yourself seriously.
- Resourceful when the budget, timeline, or team is tight. Constraints don't slow you down. They sharpen you.
- Glad to be in the room with people who care as much as you do. Our teams average fifteen-plus years of experience. We hire people who push each other to do better work.
- Brave in the room. You raise the uncomfortable truth before it costs the relationship, and you challenge a client’s direction when you can see a better outcome. You’d rather lose a debate than win a project that won’t ship well.
The below range reflects the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics, any collective bargaining agreements, and business or organizational needs. The salary range for this role is $225.000. USD - $285,000. USD. We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice. Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission. We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.
