Senior Account Manager - Food Ingredients

Reports to: VP Commercial

Direct reports: n/a

Back up position: Sales & Business Development Director

Department: Sales & Marketing

Work location: Remote - United States

Exempt / Non-Exempt: Exempt

I - Job Purpose and Summary:

PGP International is a leading provider of specialty food ingredients and ingredient solutions serving food and beverage manufacturers worldwide. As PGP continues to expand its portfolio, capabilities, and market presence, the Senior Account Manager - Food Ingredients will drive profitable growth, strengthen strategic customer relationships, and support the commercialization of innovative ingredient solutions.

The position is responsible for managing and growing a portfolio of key customer accounts while identifying new opportunities across PGP's ingredient and application platforms. The Senior Account Manager serves as the primary commercial contact for assigned customers and works cross-functionally with Innovation, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Customer Service, Regulatory, and Marketing to deliver solutions that help customers achieve their business, product development, and growth objectives.

The ideal candidate is a consultative sales professional with food ingredient industry experience who excels at identifying customer needs, developing value-based solutions, leading commercialization projects, and building long-term strategic partnerships.

II - Key Accountabilities:

1. HSE

• Promote a safe work environment at all times through the adherence to all PGPI’s Health & Safety and Environmental policies and procedures as well as to all relevant OSHA regulations in order to achieve ZERO incidents and injuries.

2. Strategic Account Management

• Manage and grow a portfolio of strategic customer accounts with accountability for profitable revenue growth, retention, and customer satisfaction.

• Develop and execute annual strategic account plans that align customer objectives with PGP capabilities and long-term growth priorities.

• Conduct regular customer business reviews and identify opportunities for expanded engagement.

• Build multi-level relationships across Procurement, R&D, Product Development, Operations, Marketing, and Executive Leadership.

• Maintain customer relationship maps and serve as the primary commercial contact and voice of the customer within PGP.

3. Business Development and Opportunity Creation

• Identify, develop, and advance new business opportunities within existing and prospective customer accounts.

• Partner with customers to understand formulation challenges, innovation priorities, operational requirements, and growth objectives.

• Position PGP solutions around customer value drivers, including product performance, functionality, nutrition, process improvement, differentiation, speed to market, supply reliability, and cost optimization.

• Expand PGP participation across key market segments, applications, and customer growth platforms.

• Collaborate with Innovation, Marketing, and Product Development to translate customer needs into technical and commercial opportunities.

• Increase share of wallet within existing accounts while developing new customer relationships and business opportunities.

4. Commercialization and Project Leadership

• Lead customer projects from opportunity identification through commercialization and launch, ensuring measurable value for both the customer and PGP.

• Translate customer objectives into clear project requirements, timelines, and internal action plans.

• Coordinate cross-functional resources supporting development, trials, scale-up, qualification, and launch.

• Manage customer expectations and communication while driving resolution of technical, commercial, and operational challenges.

5. Commercial Excellence

• Maintain accurate customer records, opportunities, forecasts, project updates, and account plans within the company CRM system.

• Advance opportunities through established commercial stage-gate and project approval processes.

• Provide visibility into pipeline health, sales forecasts, and customer project status.

• Participate in commercial reviews, forecasting meetings, and annual planning activities.

• Use CRM data and customer insights to improve account strategy, prioritization, and business performance.

6. Financial Management, Forecasting, and Business Planning

• Achieve assigned revenue, margin, and growth objectives.

• Lead pricing discussions, support contract negotiations, and identify margin improvement opportunities.

• Evaluate opportunities based on strategic fit, profitability, growth potential, and operational feasibility.

• Develop and maintain accurate sales forecasts and proactively communicate demand changes to Operations and Supply Chain.

• Support S&OP processes with customer insights, project timing, demand expectations, and relevant market intelligence.

7. Market Intelligence and Industry Engagement

• Monitor industry trends, competitive activity, customer priorities, and emerging ingredient technologies.

• Share actionable market intelligence with Commercial, Innovation, and Leadership teams.

• Represent PGP at customer meetings, industry conferences, trade shows, and networking events.

• Identify new applications and business opportunities that support PGP growth.

III - Internal and External Contacts:

Internal: Commercial Leadership; Innovation and Product Development; Operations; Quality; Supply Chain; Customer Service; Regulatory; Marketing; Finance; and other cross-functional partners.

External: Current and prospective customers, including contacts across Procurement, R&D, Product Development, Operations, Marketing, and Executive Leadership; distributors and channel partners; and industry organizations.

IV - Job Requirements (Required and Preferred):

Education: Required: Bachelor's degree in business, Food Science, Marketing, or a related discipline.

Related Experience:

Required: Minimum 5 years of experience in B2B food ingredient sales, food manufacturing, or a related commercial role, with demonstrated success managing strategic customer relationships and delivering profitable sales growth.

Preferred: 7+ years of food ingredient sales experience; experience working with large CPG manufacturers and strategic national accounts; and experience leading commercialization projects from concept through launch.

Competencies: Strategic account management; consultative, value-based, and solution selling; business development; commercialization leadership; customer relationship management; cross-functional collaboration; pricing and contract negotiation; forecasting and demand planning; project management; executive relationship building; strategic thinking; market analysis; and customer-focused problem solving.

Technical Skills: Proficiency with CRM systems, opportunity and pipeline management, sales forecasting, account planning, presentation tools, and standard Microsoft Office applications. Technical understanding of ingredient functionality, formulation challenges, and food manufacturing processes is preferred.

Certifications, Licenses, Registrations: Valid driver's license and ability to meet PGP travel requirements. No additional certification is required unless specified by Human Resources.

Language(s): English language - required; Spanish language - preferred

Other Qualifications: Experience selling value-added ingredient solutions, food systems, or functional ingredients to food manufacturers is preferred. Must demonstrate strong communication, presentation, negotiation, organizational, and project leadership skills; the ability to manage complex sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders; and the ability to work effectively in a remote, cross-functional environment.

V – Work/Employment Conditions and Other Requirements:

Work Environment: Remote office environment with regular virtual collaboration. Work also occurs at customer facilities, PGP locations, manufacturing environments, laboratories, trade shows, and industry events. The employee must follow all site-specific safety and security requirements.

Physical and Sensory Demands: Regular use of a computer, telephone, and video-conferencing technology. Ability to communicate effectively, review detailed commercial and technical information, and travel by air and ground. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals to perform the essential functions.

Position Type and Working Schedule: Full-time position. The role requires flexibility to support customers and internal teams across time zones and may occasionally require work outside standard business hours.

Travel Requirements: Approximately 30-50% travel, including customer meetings, PGP locations, industry events, and other business activities.

VI - Other Duties: Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.