JOB SUMMARY:

Join US Chemical as a Food Service Sales Director, leading a high-performing sales team focused on driving growth with a major food service distributor. In this role, you will serve as the primary customer-facing leader responsible for strengthening the partnership, expanding private label sales, and supporting growth across all classes of trade, with a strong focus on independent food service operators as well as regional and national chains.

This leader will guide a team that trains, supports, and motivates distributor sales representatives-who are primarily focused on selling food-to also sell non-food solutions, including kitchen cleaning products, front-of-house cleaning and sanitizing products, ware wash, and laundry solutions. The role requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams to execute marketing programs, advance joint business plans, maintain account health, and ensure operational excellence across pricing, delivery, supply, and service performance.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:
• Develop and execute a joint growth and profitability plan with the strategic distributor, aligning priorities across private label growth, market share expansion, customer penetration, and category development.
• Use shared data, customer insights, and field feedback to identify the highest-value opportunities across independent food service operators, regional and national chains, multi-unit accounts, and local market segments.
• Translate strategic priorities into clear sales plays, resource plans, marketing programs, and execution expectations that drive retention, expansion, and revenue acceleration.
• Negotiate strategic priorities, investment requirements, and program support using financial analysis, ROI discipline, and a clear understanding of distributor and customer economics.
• Establish performance targets, monitor KPIs, and create shared accountability with the distributor and internal teams to ensure plans are executed and results are delivered.

Customer Partnership & Distributor Alignment
• Serve as the primary liaison and senior customer-facing leader for the distributor relationship, building trust, reinforcing alignment, and ensuring both organizations remain focused on shared priorities.
• Lead regular business reviews, planning sessions, and performance discussions that connect strategy, execution, financial results, operational needs, and future growth opportunities.
• Champion a win/win partnership mindset by creating transparency, clarifying ownership, resolving issues, and ensuring distributor initiatives are aligned with internal sales and customer strategies.
• Coordinate with distributor leadership and field teams to improve territory coverage, lead conversion, customer engagement, and execution of agreed-upon growth initiatives.

Team Development & Coaching
• Recruit, hire, develop, and inspire a high-performing sales team with the capability to influence distributor sales representatives and drive non-food category growth.
• Provide ongoing coaching, performance management, field support, and development planning to ensure team members are clear on priorities, accountable for results, and equipped to achieve their goals.
• Build team discipline around customer planning, opportunity management, Salesforce.com accuracy, forecasting, business reviews, and execution follow-through.
• Lead by example in complex customer conversations, strategic negotiations, and major account opportunities where senior-level alignment or deal support is required.

Performance & Revenue Management
• Manage revenue, profitability, pipeline health, and sales performance against agreed-upon targets, using clear KPIs and regular performance routines to identify risks and opportunities early.
• Leverage Salesforce.com and business reporting tools to improve visibility to opportunities, account health, activity quality, team execution, and forecast accuracy.
• Oversee forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and business reviews to ensure the team is consistently tracking progress and delivering against expectations.
• Use performance insights to adjust priorities, allocate resources, remove barriers, and improve execution across territories and customer segments.

Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Partner closely with internal sales, marketing, supply chain, finance, pricing, customer service, and operations teams to support distributor priorities and improve the customer experience.
• Lead execution of customer-specific marketing programs, sales campaigns, product initiatives, and joint business plan commitments from planning through field implementation.
• Ensure the right internal stakeholders are aligned on pricing, delivery, supply needs, service expectations, issue resolution, and overall account health.
• Drive customer satisfaction and value creation by connecting distributor needs with internal capabilities, resources, and solutions.

Sector & Product Expertise
• Build strong knowledge of the institutional cleaning, food service sanitation, warewash, laundry, and front-of-house cleaning categories, including private label solutions, US Chemical & Diversey products, programs, and competitive alternatives.
• Understand how food service distributor sales teams sell, what motivates their field execution, and how to position non-food solutions alongside core food sales priorities.
• Enable the team and distributor sales representatives to clearly communicate customer value, product differentiation, compliance benefits, operational efficiency, and total cost impact.

Performance Reviews & Continuous Improvement
• Conduct regular reviews with team members, distributor partners, customers, and internal stakeholders to evaluate progress, reinforce accountability, and identify areas for improvement.
• Showcase delivered value, quantify results, capture lessons learned, and identify new opportunities to improve sales execution, customer penetration, operational performance, and partnership health.
• Continuously refine playbooks, training approaches, reporting routines, and field execution strategies based on market feedback and performance trends.

Operational Excellence
• Manage core administrative and operational responsibilities, including Salesforce updates, expense reporting, pricing coordination, performance reviews, development plans, budget oversight, and issue resolution.
• Work cross-functionally to resolve pricing, delivery, supply, inventory, service, and account health issues in ways that support both customer satisfaction and business performance.
• Ensure compliance with contractual terms, pricing policies, inventory expectations, and internal processes while maintaining the flexibility needed to support distributor success.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING:
• Food Service & Distribution Experience: Experience in food service, distribution management, or closely related channels, with an understanding of how to drive growth through distributor partnerships.
• Proven People Leadership: A successful track record of recruiting, hiring, developing, performance managing, coaching, and motivating sales teams to deliver results.
• Joint Business Planning: Demonstrated ability to develop, align, and execute joint business plans with strategic customers or distribution partners.
• Customer-Facing Partnership Skills: Strong ability to serve as the main face to the customer, build trust, align priorities, and create shared accountability for growth and execution.
• Sales Enablement Mindset: Experience training, supporting, and motivating distributor sales representatives to grow non-food categories alongside their core food sales priorities.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Skilled at aligning internal teams across sales, marketing, supply chain, finance, pricing, and operations to support customer success and account health.
• Operational Discipline: Ability to manage pricing, delivery, supply, CRM updates, forecasting, reporting, and other core processes that support reliable execution.
• Field Readiness: Willing and able to travel overnight, lift up to 40 lbs., and confidently operate/demo cleaning equipment.
• Compliance Ready: Holds a valid U.S. driver's license and meets all mobility requirements for the role.

WHAT WE OFFER:

Full benefits package, including medical, dental and vision coverage from your first day

401(k) with company matching

Company vehicle

Learning and development opportunities

Paid time off, holidays, sick time

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We understand that candidates will not meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you.