The OpportunityBay State Milling is seeking a Senior Sales Manager to lead commercial growth for its Oat Business Unit - managing a portfolio of large CPG accounts while driving new business development across the category. This role sits at the intersection of strategic account management and market expansion, requiring someone equally comfortable building executive relationships and executing on the details of complex commercial deals.
The successful candidate will bring a long-term account ownership mindset, strong commercial discipline, and the ability to connect customer strategy with Bay State Milling's ingredient capabilities, manufacturing investments, and innovation agenda. This is a high-visibility, high-ownership role for a commercially driven leader who thrives in complex selling environments and wants to shape the future of a growing specialty ingredient business.
What You Will DoStrategic Account Management- Own the full commercial relationship with assigned large CPG accounts - from C-suite and procurement leadership to R&D, marketing, and supply chain stakeholders.
- Develop and execute multi-year account growth plans that expand volume, improve mix, and deepen customer dependency on Bay State Milling's oat ingredient portfolio.
- Build deep customer intimacy by understanding each account's business model, category priorities, formulation challenges, consumer trends, and internal decision-making dynamics.
- Identify and pursue share-of-wallet expansion opportunities - new applications, product platforms, additional business units, and adjacent ingredient needs.
- Deliver annual and long-term revenue, margin, and volume objectives for all assigned accounts.
New Business Development- Identify, pursue, and close new business opportunities within target CPG segments - bringing new customers into the portfolio and expanding presence in underpenetrated channels.
- Build and maintain a robust pipeline of new business opportunities, reporting progress and commercial forecasts regularly to senior leadership.
- Monitor market trends in oats, gluten-free ingredients, plant-based foods, functional nutrition, alternative dairy, and snacking to identify emerging commercial opportunities.
- Represent the company at industry events, trade shows, and customer-facing forums.
Commercial Execution- Lead annual contract negotiations, pricing strategy, and volume commitments in partnership with operations and finance, in alignment with margin expectations.
- Serve as the voice of the customer internally - translating market feedback into product development, supply chain, and operational priorities.
- Partner effectively with R&D and technical service teams to connect customer formulation needs with Bay State Milling's ingredient capabilities.
- Operate effectively in a matrixed organization, collaborating cross-functionally with operations, R&D, and supply chain teams.
What We Are Looking For- 7-10+ years of sales or commercial experience in food ingredients, grain-based foods, specialty agriculture, or a value-added food ingredient category.
- Demonstrated success managing and growing large CPG accounts in a complex B2B selling environment, including multi-stakeholder relationships across procurement, R&D, technical, supply chain, and senior leadership.
- Proven new business development track record - ability to identify, develop, and close opportunities in competitive selling environments.
- Deep understanding of CPG customer dynamics: innovation pipelines, procurement cycles, formulation decision-making, and supply chain requirements.
- Strong commercial acumen - pricing, margin management, forecasting, account planning, negotiations, and customer profitability.
- Ability to operate independently in a lean organization while collaborating cross-functionally with internal partners.
- Bachelor's degree required; business, food science, or a related field preferred.
- Willingness to travel 30-40% to customer sites, industry events, and key markets.
Why This RoleThe oat ingredient market is at an inflection point, driven by consumer demand for functional, clean-label, and high-fiber food products. Bay State Milling has made meaningful investments in its oat capabilities and is positioned to grow with the category's most important customers.
This role offers the opportunity to build a commercial franchise in a growing specialty category, own consequential customer relationships at the highest levels, and contribute directly to the strategic direction of the business, all within an organization that values commercial expertise and rewards results.
