A commercial and industrial Energy Storage founder has just closed a funding round. The company has enough cash for two years, and the board has set the next target: grow the team from 50 to 200 people within a year.
The founder draws up a list: 30 more salespeople, 40 more R&D staff, then finance, administration and HR. Something feels wrong, although the spreadsheet adds up.
The scenario is familiar. Adding 150 people looks like a recruitment exercise. In practice, it requires three changes in how the business works: from reliance on a few capable individuals to repeatable systems; from making a product to delivering projects; and from having salespeople to having a coherent sales organisation. Those changes cannot all carry the same hiring priority.
The market is asking for a different kind of organisation
The industry backdrop is substantial. Figures attributed to the National Energy Administration's China New-Type Energy Storage Development Report (2026) put cumulative capacity at 136 GW at the end of 2025, up 84.3% year on year, and at 153 GW by the end of June 2026, up 61%. New-type storage has overtaken pumped hydro as the power system's largest source of flexibility.
It also highlights two structural changes: storage with a duration of at least four hours rising to 27.5% of installed capacity, an increase of 12 percentage points in a year; and a January 2026 document, identified as Document No. 114, establishing a national capacity-pricing mechanism for independent grid-side storage. A People's Daily commentary is cited as describing the industry's transition from policy-led to market-led growth.
For a growing company, the commercial implication is straightforward. Customers are scrutinising returns, reliability and safety. Winning the order is no longer enough; system performance, delivery quality and station operation must stand up to scrutiny.
First, appoint the person who can own the whole system
At 50 people, the founder may understand cells or power electronics, with two or three experienced engineers each running a part of the technical work. System design depends on their judgement and accumulated experience. That can work while the business is small. It becomes fragile when a 200-person company is delivering dozens, or even hundreds, of stations a year.
The first priority is a head of energy storage systems or a systems architect. This is someone who can define BMS, EMS, PCS, thermal management, fire protection and grid performance as one integrated system. Public job descriptions for these roles include overall solution design, component selection and matching, control and protection strategies, and coordination with cell suppliers on thermal models and SOC and SOH parameters.
Likely sources include leading systems integrators, renewable-energy teams in power-design institutes, and the storage divisions of selected equipment manufacturers.
This hire affects the quality of the hires that follow. Without a systems owner, BMS engineers, mechanical engineers and test engineers can each produce competent work that fails to come together as a commercially viable station.
Some companies expanded sales first, won orders and then discovered that nobody could produce consistent system designs. Delivery slipped, reputation suffered and the next order became harder to win. More sales capacity had exposed a weakness the organisation was not ready to handle.
Second, build the delivery chain before orders overwhelm it
Small companies often deliver projects through personal ownership: whoever won the order keeps an eye on it. At 200 people, delivery needs a professional engineering structure covering station design, grid commissioning, site handover and maintenance response.
Longer-duration storage, the growth of grid-forming technology and differences between local connection requirements all increase the demands on delivery teams. The analysis cites 1,195 equivalent utilisation hours for China's new-type storage fleet in 2025. Customers want a station that can operate reliably and earn revenue, not simply pass a construction milestone.
Delivery candidates need a different track record from research candidates. Site experience, including problems encountered and resolved, matters more than published papers. Useful talent pools include storage divisions of power-engineering companies, renewable-energy teams within EPC contractors and the delivery organisations of established manufacturers.
Capable delivery leaders are heavily contested. Start building the team at least a quarter ahead of the orders it will need to execute. In our experience, training a competent field-commissioning engineer takes no less than three months.
Third, fix the sales structure before multiplying it
After funding arrives, expanding sales is tempting. It helps to separate two decisions: whether the sales model is right, and how many people that model needs.
China's storage customer base now includes major generation groups, local energy platforms and commercial and industrial owners. The market is shifting from relationship-led key-account selling towards a combination of solutions sales and channels. Adding 30 people to an outdated account-management structure simply makes that structure larger.
Overseas sales, channel development and local management also warrant an early start. International channels can take years to develop. Someone who understands storage products and has actually built overseas channels or delivered overseas projects is a more specific hire than a generic international salesperson. Knowledge of local grid and compliance requirements makes the search narrower still. Searches often take months, so waiting until the revenue is urgently needed is a poor starting point.
Put support functions in place around the 100-person mark
Keeping overheads lean can be sensible at 50 people. Beyond 100, leaving essential support work to whoever is available can constrain the entire expansion.
Without dedicated HR, recruitment, onboarding and performance management for 150 new employees may fall to an administrator. Hiring speed and quality then deteriorate together. Finance and commercial teams must keep pace with contracts, collections and tax across a much larger project portfolio.
Supply-chain capability also becomes central: cell purchasing, the availability of PCS and fire-protection components, and cost negotiations directly affect margins. Long payment cycles and complex contracts make commercial and legal expertise important. A signed order can carry as much risk as revenue.
The support team need not be elaborate. It does need to be ready before headcount passes 100, rather than assembled after avoidable problems accumulate.
Two cautions before the recruitment plan is approved
Storage is an engineering business. Production lines, project sites, grid connection and maintenance have physical constraints. A software-style assumption that everything can be fixed through rapid iteration does not transfer neatly to project delivery.
Capability density also matters more than the headline headcount. Strong systems leadership, delivery leadership and sales management make the remaining recruitment much easier. Weakness at those levels cannot be repaired simply by hiring excellent individual contributors underneath them.
In UB hunter's storage recruitment work, the recurring mistake is treating every vacancy as equally urgent. Establish systems and delivery leadership first, adjust the sales structure, and put support functions underneath the expansion. Search work can cover systems integration, BMS and PCS R&D, station delivery and overseas sales; the scope and hiring recommendations depend on the agreed brief and contract.
Before launching the next round, map the existing 50 people across systems, R&D, delivery, sales and support. Name the owner of each area and the gap between its current capability and what a 200-person company will need. That exercise usually makes the hiring sequence much clearer.
The order in which people join is part of the organisation's design. A poor hire can be replaced; a poorly sequenced expansion can disrupt the whole business.