Equipment Trading Manager — Transformers & Switchgear

The opportunity

Lead times on new transformers have blown out to 2–4 years across North America, and prices are up 75%+ since 2019. Plants, contractors, and utilities across Western Canada are stuck waiting on iron — and almost all reconditioned supply sits in yards in Texas, South Dakota, and Quebec. Nobody has built the Western Canadian trading desk. That's what we're doing.

Westgrid Power buys, sells, and brokers reconditioned transformers and switchgear. We're a new venture backed by Driftwood Communications, a 30-year Western Canadian infrastructure company. The demand engine is already live — website, search campaigns, and inbound quote requests — and partner shops handle reconditioning and testing. What we need is the person at the centre of it: the trader.

You would be the first hire on the desk. That's the point.

The job

You own deals end to end. Sourcing units from utility surplus, plant decommissions, auctions, scrap dealers, and the North American dealer network. Grading them — reading nameplates, test reports, and oil analysis, and knowing a $9K unit that resells at $28K from a $9K unit that's a core at best. Quoting inbound buyers within 48 hours. Closing with deposits. Coordinating freight, rigging, and partner-shop recon. Logging every deal honestly, wins and losses.

You'll work the inbound leads our marketing generates — but the best hires bring their own book: relationships with plants, contractors, utilities, scrap dealers, or other equipment houses that turn into deals from week one.

You're probably

A buyer or trader at a used electrical equipment dealer, reman house, or auction operation. An outside rep at an electrical wholesaler who's been capped for years and knows every plant on your patch. A recently retired electrical branch manager or shop owner who isn't done doing deals. Or an independent broker who'd rather have capital and a brand behind you.

You can read a transformer nameplate without Googling it, and you've bought and sold something real — equipment, machinery, commodities — with your own judgment on the line.

Compensation

Base salary or contractor day rate (structured to fit your situation), plus a meaningful share of gross profit on every deal you close — a strong trader should see $130–180K+ in year one. If Westgrid scales into a full reconditioning operation, you're first in line to run it, with equity on the table.

To apply

Email hello@westgridpower.ca. Skip the cover letter — tell us about a piece of equipment you bought and resold: what you paid, what it cost you all-in, what it sold for, and what you got wrong.

Apply by email

hello@westgridpower.ca