Solar Job Spotlight: Head of Growth at a Solar Field Operations Software Company

For folks just starting out in solar, it can be easy to feel like you need to take the most direct path from Point A to Point B. The truth is, that’s not always how it goes. Tori Clifford’s story is a good reminder that the winding road often teaches you more, and that the roles you didn’t plan on are sometimes the ones that show you what you actually want.

Today, Tori is Head of Growth at SolarGrade, a field operations software company built for the renewables industry. Her path there started in a call center and wound through a Chinese module manufacturer, a data analytics startup, and a PV testing lab before landing her current role. She recently sat down with HeatSpring to talk about her career for our free Solar Career Pathways course, and her story is worth sharing in full.

Tune into the video below to hear about Tori’s pathway to her role today. 

Tori on what skills matter most:

“The thing that’s most important for my job is communication. Being able to talk to people in the field, people making executive decisions, and everyone in between, and being curious about what they care about. That matters more than anything else.”

Tori on advice for people new to the industry:

“Talk to people and be open to new things. Opening myself up to opportunities that maybe didn’t align with exactly what I wanted actually taught me a lot more about what I really wanted to do.”

Enroll for free in Solar Career Pathways to watch the full interview.

Tori is one of 20 industry professionals featured in HeatSpring’s Solar Career Pathways course, a free resource for anyone exploring a career in solar. You’ll hear from people working across installation, project development, software, and more, all sharing honest takes on how they got where they are and what it actually takes to build a career in clean energy.