OverviewPurpose:
The Director, Walmart is responsible for leading Dole Packaged Foods' strategic partnership with Walmart and Walmart.com, driving sustainable sales growth, profitability, category leadership, and long-term business development. This role serves as the primary executive relationship owner with Walmart, developing and executing customer strategies that align with Dole's organizational priorities while maximizing omnichannel growth opportunities. The Director leads cross-functional teams to deliver superior customer outcomes, strengthen strategic partnerships, and achieve annual and multi-year business objectives.
This role is home-office based in or around the Bentonville, Rogers or Fayetteville, AR area.
Responsibilities
Primary Accountabilities:
Lead Strategic Customer Growth
- Develop and execute the annual and multi-year Walmart business strategy, aligning customer objectives with Dole's enterprise growth priorities.
- Own Walmart omnichannel sales performance, including revenue, profit, market share, distribution, and innovation metrics.
- Identify and capitalize on emerging opportunities across in-store, eCommerce, omnichannel, and supply chain initiatives.
- Lead annual business planning, Joint Business Planning (JBP), and long-range strategic planning processes.
Executive Customer Leadership
- Establish and maintain senior-level relationships with Walmart merchants, replenishment, eCommerce, supply chain, and executive leadership teams.
- Serve as the primary escalation point for strategic customer opportunities and business challenges.
- Influence customer decision-making through fact-based recommendations, category insights, and strategic business solutions.
- Represent Dole in executive-level customer meetings, negotiations, and planning sessions.
Deliver Financial Performance
- Own customer P&L performance, delivering volume, revenue, profitability, market share, and trade investment objectives.
- Lead pricing strategy, promotional optimization, assortment decisions, and investment allocation to maximize ROI.
- Manage forecasting accuracy and business planning processes to ensure achievement of financial commitments.
- Evaluate and recommend strategic investments that drive sustainable growth.
Lead Cross-Functional Business Execution
- Direct cross-functional teams across Customer Strategy, Category Management, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, Revenue Growth Management, and Demand Planning.
- Champion customer priorities internally while balancing broader organizational goals and profitability objectives.
- Ensure effective execution of innovation launches, assortment expansions, supply chain initiatives, and merchandising programs.
- Lead the development of compelling customer selling stories utilizing syndicated, shopper, and omnichannel data.
People & Organizational Leadership
- Manage, coach, develop, and mentor Account Managers and/or Regional Sales Managers as assigned.
- Foster a high-performance, collaborative culture focused on accountability, development, and business growth.
- Contribute to succession planning and talent development initiatives within the sales organization.
- Lead by example through strong business acumen, integrity, and execution excellence.
- Other duties as assigned
Qualifications
Experience, Knowledge, & Skills You Bring:
- 10+ years experience direct selling to Walmart, or supporting Customer Strategy or Brand Growth experience, preferably within consumer products and across multiple brands, including growing total omni business
- Demonstrated success leading large, complex customer businesses with direct responsibility for revenue and profitability.
- Proven capability building and maintaining executive-level customer relationships.
- Strong financial acumen with experience managing customer P&Ls, trade investment, pricing, and profitability initiatives.
- Experience leading cross-functional teams and influencing stakeholders without direct authority.
- Advanced knowledge of Walmart systems, Retail Link, syndicated data, category management, and omnichannel retail strategies.
- Strong negotiation, communication, presentation, and strategic planning skills.
- Experience coaching and developing talent preferred.
- Self-starter who proactively identifies business risks & opportunities with the ability to understand financials & the P&L
- Detail-oriented. Strong organization skills and ability to manage processes effectively
- Understanding and ability to analyze data, develop fact-based recommendations, and create & deliver strong presentations across functions & levels, internally and externally
- Experience with forecasting software and trade funds management systems
- Comfortable public speaking, delivering effective customer presentations & negotiating
- Experience in CPG industry strongly preferred
What Youll Need to Succeed:
- Passionate about a purpose driven career
- Cultivates respectful and inclusive environments that support employee growth across teams
- Drives strategic initiatives and maintains excellence in complex and dynamic settings
- Establishes transparent decision-making and accountability frameworks
- Encourages organizational teamwork effectively to achieve shared objectives
Education & Certification:
- Bachelors degree in Business, Marketing, or other degree with appropriate work experience is required.
- MBA preferred.
Physical Requirements:
- Ability to sit and use the computer for extended periods of time; ability to answer phones and use a variety of office equipment; ability to lift 15 pounds and reach overhead.
Travel Requirements:
