VP Sales in Energy and CleanTech: Where Comp Is Highest

Every week I tag executive sales job postings by industry vertical. Energy, renewable, solar, utility, cleantech, sustainability. The bucket keeps growing. And one number keeps standing out: energy pays more than any other vertical in the dataset. By a meaningful margin.

We're tracking 1,349 executive sales postings. 164 of those tag to energy and cleantech. Of the 93 with disclosed salary data, the average base range is $197,416 to $287,023. That $287K max average is $36,000 higher than the overall dataset average of $251K. The single highest salary ceiling we've tracked across all industries? $900,000. It's in energy.

This isn't a small premium on a small sample. It's the widest gap between any vertical and the dataset mean. And the reasons are structural, not cyclical.

Energy Pays More Than Any Other Vertical

The numbers tell it cleanly.

Metric	Energy/CleanTech	Overall Dataset
Avg Base Range	$197,416 - $287,023	Lower across verticals
Avg Max Base	$287,023	~$251,000
Median Range	$190,000 - $260,000	Varies by vertical
P25 - P75	$132,708 - $350,000	Narrower spread
Max Salary	$900,000	$900,000 (same posting)

That ~$36K premium on the average max base is consistent across the distribution. The median range of $190K to $260K is strong on its own. The P25-P75 spread of $132,708 to $350,000 shows wide variance, which makes sense for a vertical that spans early-stage solar startups and publicly traded utility suppliers.

Why does energy pay more? Four factors.

First, capital-intensive sales cycles. Energy deals involve large contracts, long timelines, and complex procurement. A single utility contract can run $5M to $50M+. The VP Sales managing those cycles carries more revenue risk per deal than a typical SaaS leader.

Second, specialized domain expertise. You can't walk into a utility procurement meeting and wing it. Power purchase agreements, interconnection queues, regulatory filings, carbon credit markets, RFP structures for government entities. The knowledge base is deep and takes years to build.

Third, the energy transition is creating entirely new categories of buyers. Companies that didn't have a sustainability budget five years ago now have procurement teams dedicated to clean energy. Selling into these emerging buying centers requires both the domain knowledge and the ability to shape a market that's still forming.

Fourth, the talent pool is small. The overlap of "experienced enterprise sales leader" and "understands energy markets" isn't a big circle. Limited supply, high demand, higher comp.

164 Roles: Mid-Sized Market, Concentrated at the Top

164 of 1,349 total postings. That's 12.2% of the dataset.

For context, energy isn't tiny like cybersecurity (56 roles) but isn't massive like healthcare (847). It's a mid-sized vertical with a disproportionate concentration of senior titles.

Seniority Level	Count	% of Energy Roles
VP	137	83.5%
C-Level	18	11.0%
SVP	7	4.3%
EVP	2	1.2%

The C-Level number stands out. 18 of 164 energy roles are C-Level, which is 11.0%. Across the overall dataset, C-Level roles represent roughly 4%. Energy companies are hiring at the CRO/CCO level at nearly three times the rate of the broader market.

That signals something about how energy companies structure their commercial organizations. When you're selling $10M+ contracts to utilities and government agencies, you want your most senior commercial leader at the table. These aren't deals that a VP closes alone. They require executive sponsorship, board-level relationships, and the authority to negotiate complex terms. Energy companies are building their leadership teams accordingly.

The SVP (7) and EVP (2) numbers are small in absolute terms but further reinforce the top-heavy structure. 9 roles above VP level in a 164-role market means roughly 1 in 18 energy sales leadership postings is SVP or higher.

The Stage Mix Tells a Story

Company Stage	Count
Unknown	40
Enterprise/Public	27
Series C/D	21
Late Stage	12
Series B/C	10
Series A/B	10

The 40 "Unknown" roles are likely mid-market private companies that don't disclose funding stage. In energy, that often means established businesses with $20M-$100M in revenue that never raised venture capital or went through PE instead. Think regional energy services companies, EPC contractors, or niche equipment manufacturers.

Enterprise/Public at 27 reflects energy's deep bench of publicly traded companies. These are the utilities, the major equipment suppliers, the large-scale solar and wind developers. Selling into this world means navigating public company procurement, board approval processes, and long budget cycles. The comp reflects that complexity.

The 21 Series C/D roles are the cleantech venture wave. These are companies that raised significant capital, have a product in market, and need to scale revenue. Solar software platforms, grid management tools, EV charging infrastructure, battery storage, carbon accounting. The VC money flowed into cleantech from 2021 to 2024. Now these companies need commercial leaders to turn that investment into revenue.

Late Stage (12) and the B/C and A/B cohorts (10 each) round out the picture. Energy has a stronger late-stage presence than most verticals, which makes sense. These are capital-heavy businesses. You don't build a solar installation company or a grid-scale battery business on a seed round. The path to scale requires multiple funding rounds before the commercial team grows.

Methodology: Consultative Selling and Channel Partnerships

Sales Methodology	Mentions
Consultative Selling	29
Enterprise Sales	14
Channel/Partner	11
ABM	2
MEDDIC/MEDDPICC	2
Challenger	2
PLG	2
Value Selling	1

Consultative Selling at 29 of 164 roles leads by a wide margin. That tracks with how energy sales actually works. You're not running a transactional motion. You're advising a utility on its decarbonization roadmap, or helping an industrial buyer evaluate the ROI of switching to a new energy source. The selling motion is fundamentally advisory.

Channel/Partner at 11 is the second most notable data point. Energy has a strong distributor, installer, and EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) ecosystem. If you're selling solar panels, you're not going direct to every rooftop. You're building a network of installers. If you're selling grid management software, you might go through utility consulting firms. Channel is a core go-to-market motion in energy in a way that it isn't in typical B2B SaaS.

Enterprise Sales at 14 reflects the large-deal nature of the vertical. These are complex, multi-stakeholder sales with 6-to-18-month cycles and procurement teams that issue formal RFPs.

MEDDIC/MEDDPICC at 2 mentions barely registers. That's striking. In enterprise SaaS, MEDDIC shows up constantly. In energy, the qualification framework is different. It's less about mapping a decision-making unit inside a single company and more about understanding regulatory timelines, budget cycles tied to rate cases, and government funding windows. The buying process in energy is structurally different from software. The selling frameworks reflect that.

PLG at 2 is almost a curiosity. A handful of cleantech software companies are experimenting with product-led approaches, likely in areas like energy monitoring or sustainability reporting where individual users can adopt the tool before a company-wide procurement happens. But for the vast majority of energy sales, PLG isn't the motion.

Tools: Salesforce Leads, but the Stack Is Thin

Tool	Mentions	% of Energy Roles
Salesforce	35	21.3%
HubSpot	9	5.5%
Tableau	1	0.6%

Salesforce at 35 mentions across 164 roles. That's 21.3%, which is actually higher than the overall dataset rate for Salesforce. Energy companies use Salesforce. No surprises there.

HubSpot at 9 skews toward the cleantech startup segment, where all-in-one platforms make sense for smaller commercial teams that handle both marketing and sales in a single tool.

But the broader pattern is how few tools get named. Tableau at 1. No mentions of Outreach, Gong, Clari, or the sales engagement platforms that dominate SaaS job postings. The tool stack in energy sales is different.

Part of this is the nature of the sale. When your deals involve custom proposals, multi-year contracts, and regulatory compliance, you're less likely to run a high-velocity outbound motion that needs a sequencing tool. You're more likely to use industry-specific CPQ (configure, price, quote) tools, SAP for enterprise resource planning, or custom-built platforms for managing complex energy project proposals.

Part of it is also how energy companies write job descriptions. Established energy businesses don't always list their tech stack in the posting the way a Series B SaaS company would. The absence of tool mentions doesn't mean the tools aren't used. It means the hiring manager cares more about your ability to close a utility contract than your experience with a specific engagement platform.

50% Remote: Right at the Average

82 of 164 energy roles are remote. That's exactly 50.0%.

The split makes sense when you look at what kinds of companies are hiring. The market breaks into two camps.

Camp one: cleantech software companies. These are the sustainability SaaS platforms, the energy analytics tools, the carbon accounting providers. They sell software. Their teams are distributed. Their VP Sales can work from anywhere and fly to customer meetings as needed. These roles lean remote.

Camp two: companies with physical operations. Utility-facing energy suppliers, industrial equipment companies, solar installation businesses, EPC firms. These organizations have field operations, manufacturing plants, and government customers who expect face-to-face engagement. Their VP Sales needs to be present for plant visits, customer facility tours, and in-person negotiations with utility procurement teams. These roles lean on-site or hybrid.

The 50/50 split reflects the energy sector sitting at the intersection of two worlds: the tech-forward cleantech ecosystem and the traditional energy infrastructure industry. If you're targeting energy sales leadership roles, your remote options depend heavily on which sub-vertical you're pursuing.

Why Comp Is So High

Contract sizes. That's the primary driver.

Energy deals often run $500K to $50M+. A VP Sales closing utility contracts, government RFPs, or industrial energy projects is responsible for individual deals that can represent a significant percentage of a company's annual revenue. The comp scales accordingly.

Consider the specifics. A utility-scale solar project might involve a $15M equipment contract with a 12-month sales cycle, regulatory approvals, environmental impact assessments, and interconnection agreements. A grid management software deal with a major utility might be $2M annually with a 3-year commitment. An EV charging infrastructure deployment for a commercial real estate portfolio could run $5M to $20M depending on scope.

These aren't $50K ARR software deals. The revenue per transaction justifies a fundamentally different comp structure for the person closing them.

Beyond deal size, there's the domain expertise barrier. Energy sales requires knowledge that takes years to accumulate and can't easily be taught in onboarding. Depending on the sub-vertical, you might need to understand:

• Power purchase agreements and their financial structures
• Interconnection queue processes and timelines for grid connection
• Regulatory filings across state and federal energy commissions
• Carbon credit markets and voluntary vs. compliance frameworks
• Government procurement processes including FEDRAMP and GSA schedules for federal energy contracts
• Utility rate cases and how they affect purchasing timelines

The overlap of sales ability and energy domain expertise creates a small talent pool. When demand for that talent increases, as it has with the energy transition, comp rises. Simple supply and demand.

There's also a structural factor. Energy companies tend to be later-stage and better-capitalized than the average B2B SaaS company posting for a VP Sales. The 27 Enterprise/Public companies and 21 Series C/D companies in our dataset can afford to pay at the top of the market. And they do.

What This Means If You're Targeting Energy

Domain expertise is the differentiator. Full stop.

General SaaS sales experience translates partially. You know how to build a team, manage pipeline, hit a number. Those skills transfer. But energy buyers have distinct purchasing patterns that differ from a typical enterprise software sale.

Utility procurement teams operate on regulatory timelines, not quarterly budgets. Government energy offices have funding cycles tied to legislation and appropriations. Industrial energy managers make purchasing decisions based on multi-year energy cost projections, not annual software renewals. The buying motion is fundamentally different, and your credibility depends on understanding it.

If you're coming from outside energy, here's where the opportunities concentrate:

CleanTech Startups (Series C/D)

21 roles in this cohort. These are the highest-growth segment. Companies like sustainability software platforms, EV infrastructure providers, and grid technology startups often value scaling experience and will invest in teaching the domain. If you've scaled a B2B SaaS company from $10M to $50M ARR, that experience is relevant to a Series C cleantech company even if you don't know the energy market yet. The domain learning curve is steep but manageable if the company supports it.

Channel and Partner Roles

11 roles mention channel/partner explicitly. If you have channel management experience from another industry, energy's distributor and installer ecosystem may be an entry point. The mechanics of managing channel partners, setting up deal registration, running partner enablement, building co-sell motions, transfer across verticals.

Enterprise/Public Companies

27 roles at established energy companies. These roles are harder to break into without domain experience. Established energy companies hire from within the industry because their customers expect a sales leader who speaks the language from day one. A utility VP Procurement isn't going to walk a new VP Sales through how a rate case works.

The cleantech startup market is your best entry point if you're coming from outside energy. The Enterprise/Public segment rewards those already in the industry. Channel roles sit somewhere in between.