Director of Sales

Our client, a leading Canadian food manufacturer, is seeking an experienced commercial leader to manage a key national retail partnership within the beef and pork categories.

This role is focused on building and strengthening long-term customer relationships, identifying opportunities for mutual growth, and ensuring alignment across commercial, supply chain, procurement, operations, and innovation functions. The successful candidate will act as a trusted advisor to both the customer and internal stakeholders, helping drive sustainable revenue growth, category performance, and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Lead a strategic national retail customer relationship and serve as the primary point of contact for commercial, category, innovation, and supply chain initiatives.
• Develop and execute collaborative growth strategies that increase category performance, volume, and profitability.
• Partner cross-functionally to align customer needs with operational, procurement, and supply chain capabilities.
• Identify opportunities for assortment optimization, product innovation, and value creation.
• Support pricing discussions, annual planning, forecasting, and business reviews.
• Utilize data, market insights, and consumer trends to recommend actions that drive growth.
• Lead and develop a small commercial team while fostering strong internal and external partnerships.

Requirements:

• Proven experience managing and growing complex customer relationships within food manufacturing, protein, consumer packaged goods, retail, or related industries.
• Demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders and drive revenue growth through partnership, collaboration, and strategic account leadership.
• Strong understanding of the red meat industry, including beef and pork supply chains, carcass economics, primal and sub-primal cuts, and category profitability.
• Ability to confidently discuss carcass utilization, yield optimization, margin management, and the commercial factors that impact overall carcass value.
• Strong business acumen with experience in forecasting, business planning, and cross-functional leadership.
• Exceptional relationship-building, communication, and stakeholder management skills.