Director of Sales

Red River Commodities is a leading processor of sunflower seeds and specialty grains, specializing in high-quality, nutritious food products. We pride ourselves on our sustainable practices, innovation, and commitment to delivering superior products to our customers. Our team shares core values focused on quality, innovation, responsibility, and community. We work hard, play harder, embrace authenticity, and always support one another to achieve our goals.

Position Summary The SunButter Sales Director is responsible for leading the sales strategy and execution for the SunButter business, delivering profitable revenue growth, expanding distribution, strengthening customer partnerships, and developing a high-performing commercial organization. This leader establishes channel and customer priorities across retail, food service, specialty and independent, private label, and other strategic growth opportunities while ensuring sales plans align with brand, innovation, supply, and financial objectives. The Sales Director works closely with Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Innovation, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, and business leadership to translate consumer and customer insights into executable commercial plans. The ideal candidate is a hands-on CPG sales leader with strong headquarters selling experience, financial acumen, category and syndicated-data expertise, and a demonstrated ability to lead teams, brokers, distributors, and strategic customer relationships.

Key Responsibilities

Sales Strategy & Profitable Growth

• Develop and execute the annual and multi-year sales strategy for SunButter, including revenue, gross margin, distribution, channel, customer, and innovation objectives.
• Translate business and brand strategy into channel and customer plans with clear priorities for assortment, distribution, pricing, promotion, merchandising, and new-item placement.
• Identify white-space opportunities across retail, food service, specialty and independent, e-commerce, private label, and emerging channels.
• Balance top-line growth with gross margin, trade investment, customer economics, and long-term brand health.
• Provide commercial leadership and recommendations to business leadership regarding customer opportunities, competitive activity, market dynamics, and sales risks. Customer & Channel Leadership
• Own or provide executive oversight for relationships with strategic retailers, distributors, food service customers, brokers, and other channel partners.
• Establish account planning and business-review standards that connect customer strategies with SunButter growth objectives.
• Support high-value customer negotiations involving assortment, pricing, promotion, trade investment, distribution, innovation, and joint business plans.
• Ensure customer plans appropriately reflect channel economics, retailer expectations, consumer behavior, and competitive positioning.
• Build productive senior-level relationships with customer decision-makers and represent SunButter at major customer meetings and industry events. Sales Team, Broker & Distributor Leadership
• Lead, coach, and develop the SunButter sales organization, establishing clear accountabilities, performance expectations, and development plans.
• Align internal sales leaders, brokers, distributors, and external partners around channel priorities, account plans, new-item launches, and performance expectations.
• Establish consistent sales processes, pipeline management, account planning, business reviews, forecasting, and performance reporting.
• Evaluate organizational capacity and recommend changes to territories, channel ownership, broker coverage, or team structure as the business grows.
• Build succession strength and a fact-based, accountable sales culture focused on customer partnership and profitable growth. Revenue Management, Forecasting & Trade Investment
• Own sales forecasting and customer planning inputs, partnering with Demand Planning and Supply Chain to improve forecast accuracy and service.
• Partner with Finance to manage customer P&Ls, pricing, trade spending, deductions, promotional investment, and gross-margin performance.
• Establish disciplined trade-spend planning and post-promotion analysis, including evaluation of lift, incrementality, ROI, and customer profitability.
• Use sales, shipment, consumption, distribution, syndicated, and retailer POS data to identify performance gaps and corrective actions.
• Monitor customer inventory, promotional timing, new-item launches, and demand shifts to proactively manage supply and service risks. Category, Shopper & Innovation Commercialization
• Use Circana/IRI, NielsenIQ, SPINS, retailer POS, customer portals, and other available data sources to develop fact-based selling stories and category recommendations.
• Partner with Shopper Marketing and Brand Marketing to develop customer activation, retail media, merchandising, and promotional programs that improve awareness, trial, and conversion.
• Partner with Innovation and cross-functional teams to evaluate customer needs, commercial viability, pricing, distribution potential, and launch requirements for new products.
• Lead sales readiness for innovation, including customer prioritization, selling materials, forecasts, launch timing, samples, trade requirements, and distribution goals.
• Bring voice-of-customer and channel insights into brand, innovation, pricing, and go-to-market decisions. Cross-Functional Business Leadership
• Partner closely with Marketing, Innovation, Supply Chain, Operations, Customer Service, Quality, and Finance to deliver customer commitments and business objectives.
• Participate in business planning and S&OP processes, clearly communicating commercial opportunities, risks, assumptions, and changes in customer demand.
• Work with Supply Chain and Operations on allocation, service constraints, customer priorities, and recovery plans when demand exceeds available supply.
• Ensure sales commitments are executable and aligned with product availability, operational capacity, quality standards, and financial expectations.
• Champion continuous improvement in commercial processes, data quality, customer service, and cross-functional execution.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience considered. MBA is a plus.
• Eight or more years of progressive CPG sales experience, preferably in food, natural products, grocery, or a related consumer products category.
• Three or more years of sales leadership experience with responsibility for people, major accounts, brokers, distributors, or channel strategy.
• Demonstrated headquarters selling experience with national or regional retailers and a record of achieving revenue, distribution, and profitability objectives.
• Experience across multiple channels such as conventional grocery, mass, club, natural/specialty, food service, e-commerce, or private label strongly preferred. Knowledge & Skills
• Strong understanding of CPG customer economics, trade promotion, pricing, category management, distribution, assortment, and joint business planning.
• Proven ability to interpret syndicated and retailer data and convert insights into persuasive, fact-based customer presentations.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing forecasts, customer P&Ls, trade budgets, gross margin, and promotional ROI.
• Advanced negotiation, presentation, relationship-management, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to lead through influence across Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, Innovation, and external partners.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, CRM or sales planning tools, retailer portals, and syndicated-data platforms.
• Highly organized, decisive, and comfortable managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced growth environment. Work Environment & Travel
• Role may be based in a corporate, hybrid, or remote environment based on business needs, with frequent interaction across the SunButter commercial and cross-functional teams.
• Regular travel is required for customer headquarters meetings, market visits, broker and distributor meetings, trade shows, sales meetings, and industry events.
• Approximately 25% to 40% travel should be expected, with periods of higher travel based on customer and business priorities.
• Schedule flexibility may be required to support customers, travel, national accounts, and time zones.

Company Benefits:

At Red River Commodities, we value our employees and are committed to providing a supportive and rewarding work environment. As a member of our team, you will enjoy a competitive salary, comprehensive health benefits, and opportunities for career growth and development. Below are some additional benefits that we offer.

• On-demand pay available through Tapcheck
• Paid time off
• Paid Holidays
• 401k & company match
• Profit Sharing
• Employee Assistance Program

Red River Commodities and its subsidiaries are an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. This applies to all employment practices within our organization. Red River Commodities makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time. We are committed to maintaining a legal and compliant workplace. As part of our hiring process, Red River Commodities participates in the E-Verify program.