Go-to-Market Analyst – Énergie & IA

The Inria Center at the University of Rennes is one of Inria’s eight research centers and is home to more than thirty research teams. The center is a major and internationally recognized player in the field of digital sciences. It is at the heart of a rich R&D and innovation ecosystem, bringing together highly innovative SMEs, large industrial groups, competitiveness clusters, research and higher education institutions, laboratories of excellence, and a technological research institute.

This position as Go-to-Market Analyst – Energy & AI is available as part of the Inria Startup Studio program at the Inria center at the University of Rennes/Nantes.

Invaria is a deep-tech company that uses physical AI to enable smarter, more efficient and more resource-conscious management of energy infrastructure. Its first product, DHC Twin, is a next-generation digital twin designed for district heating and cooling networks. It aims to improve the real-time performance of existing systems while reducing their costs and environmental impact.

Invaria is entering a decisive phase: the product is currently being developed in collaboration with leading industrial players. To lay the foundations for its future commercial deployment, Invaria aims to identify the most relevant markets, understand use cases, qualify decision-makers, structure its initial partnerships and obtain formal expressions of interest.

You will join the project in a business development role focused on market development, analysis and partnerships. Your work will directly inform the founding team’s decisions by providing an in-depth understanding of the markets, target customers, use cases, barriers to adoption and partners to engage.

Your mission will be to prepare the ground for Invaria’s commercial development by building an in-depth understanding of the European district heating and cooling market, as well as, more broadly, of energy system operators that may adopt AI, optimisation and digital twin solutions.

 You will work at the upstream stage of the sales cycle. Your role will be to identify, qualify and prioritise the right stakeholders and initiate relationships with them. You will not be expected to perform traditional sales closing activities, but rather to build a qualified pipeline, formalise expressions of interest, secure letters of intent where relevant, and prepare for future commercial scaling.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Building a structured stakeholder map: identifying and qualifying relevant stakeholders and potential customers, and defining their operational challenges, integration constraints and barriers to adoption.
• Understanding the purchasing and decision-making processes of prospective customers, including decision criteria, procurement processes and the roles of the various departments involved.
• Initiating discussions with prospects and partners, including initial outreach, exploratory meetings, follow-up activities and opportunity summaries.
• Structuring the customer acquisition roadmap: identifying target customers and partners, qualifying key contacts, assessing their level of maturity and defining the steps required to initiate a relationship, test their interest, develop a pilot project and, where applicable, obtain a letter of intent.
• Contributing to the preparation of business materials, including value propositions, target-specific messaging, market summaries, pitch materials, qualification matrices and meeting materials.

Technical Skills and Required Level:

• Master’s degree or equivalent five-year higher-education qualification from an engineering school, business school, dual engineering and business programme, or a programme specialising in energy, industry or innovation; equivalent backgrounds will also be considered.
• Approximately two years of post-graduate professional experience, ideally in consulting, market analysis, innovation, energy, industry, partnerships or technology project development.
• Experience in or exposure to consulting, market research, strategy, innovation, digital transformation or industrial development environments would be appreciated.
• Knowledge of the energy sector is strongly preferred; knowledge of district heating and cooling networks would be particularly valued.
• Strong interest in technology, including AI, optimisation, digital twins, digital decision-support tools and energy system management.
• Ability to work across European markets and interact with international stakeholders from the outset.
• Ability to produce clear, concise and decision-oriented analyses, including benchmarks, market maps, segmentation analyses, qualification assessments and recommendations.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical, scientific, industrial, institutional and business stakeholders.

Interpersonal Skills:

• Excellent listening, questioning and paraphrasing skills.
• Confidence in dealing with a wide variety of technical, business, institutional and industrial stakeholders.
• Team spirit and a partnership-oriented mindset.
• Confidence in presenting work and findings.

Languages:

• Full professional fluency in written and spoken English is essential.
• Professional proficiency in French is essential.
• Another European language, particularly German, would be an advantage given the project’s European ambitions.

• Subsidized meals
• Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
• Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
• Possibility of teleworking (after 6 months of employment) and flexible organization of working hours
• Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
• Social, cultural and sports events and activities
• Access to vocational training
• Social security coverage

monthly gross salary from 2695 euros according to diploma and experience