Account Manager - snack channel

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the role

The successful applicant for this role will be responsible for driving and sustaining revenue and margin growth with a key account in Kerry's North American Snacks Commercial Team. This role will report directly to a Senior Director of Sales for North America, and will work collaboratively with a cross-functional and highly-experienced team in Kerry's commercial organization, including (but not limited to) business development, R&D, and marketing. The preferred location for this role is flexible for the right candidate.

 

Key responsibilities

• Act as the face of Kerry in front of the customer, seeking at all times to intimately understand the needs, priorities and ambitions of the customer and helping the customer accomplish their goals with Kerry's uniquely relevant know-how and technology portfolio
• Channel the voice of customer within Kerry to help inform our overarching go-to-market strategy, to ensure our production capacity is optimized for sustainable, profitable volume, and to ensure we are effectively deploying our valuable resources
• Consistently deliver FY revenue and margin targets
• Defend a sizable base of core business
• Cultivate and manage a healthy pipeline of growth opportunities
• Uncover valuable growth opportunities with key account and progress opportunities through the pipeline into won business
• Lead negotiations with the customer
• Author and execute an account plan that synchronizes the well-understood needs of the customer with Kerry's overarching financial goals and the specific strategic and marketing objectives of the End-Use Market team
• Prospecting with new accounts will supplement primary key account management responsibilities 
• Develop and maintain intimate relationships with cross-functional stakeholders (including senior leadership) at both the customer and within Kerry. Facilitating relevant customer-to-Kerry connections is a critical expectation. 
• Proactively schedule, lead and facilitate in-person customer engagements

Qualifications and skills

• 5 years minimum of experience in commercial roles in a similar industry, including but not limited to: functional food ingredients, flavors
• Experience working and/or selling in the savory snack, nutritional bar and/or confectionary industries
• Bachelor's degree in business, sciences or engineering is preferred, but all degrees will be considered for the right set of experience and capabilities (MBA an asset)
• Mastery of remote/hybrid work, including and ability to meaningfully collaborate using digital collaboration tools (MS Teams, Zoom)
  • • Note: remote/hybrid work means not having to report to a physical office. However, there will still be sizable in-person expectations (both internal and customer-facing) with potential for upwards of 2 weeks out of every month on average
• Experience and comfort with CRM tools (Salesforce.com, Seismic) and Microsoft Office Suite is a must
• Sound sense of judgement and business instincts
• Strong financial acumen including understanding of key consideration of income statement and balance sheet, and the unique ways in which an account manager makes positive contributions towards the health of those financial statements
• Willingness to deftly navigate difficult situations/conversations
• Strong negotiation skills and experience negotiating complex contracts
• Ability to work in heavily matrixed, cross-functional team environment
• Comfortable in a fast-paced work environment
• Strong facilitation and presentation skills
• Valid driver's license