Director, Sales Strategy

Simple Mills is a rapidly-growing company on the forefront of the clean food movement, transforming center store grocery aisles with products made from nutritious, purposeful ingredients. Simple Mills is a female-founded business, started by Katlin Smith in 2012 out of her own Kitchen. In the company’s short history, Simple Mills has disrupted the market to become the #1 bestselling natural baking mix, the #1 bestselling natural cracker, and the #1 bestselling natural cookie.

The company’s mission is to advance the holistic health of the planet and its people by positively impacting the way food is made. Simple Mills is distributed in 25,000+ stores nationally including Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Kroger, Costco and more, and available online at retailers like Amazon and Thrive Market. The brand’s newest products include: Organic Seed Flour Crackers, Seed & Nut Flour Sweet Thins, and Soft-Baked Almond Flour Bars. Simple Mills has earned broad recognition from top tier media and industry associations- including a segment on our Founder & CEO Katlin Smith on NPR’s How I Built This. Our products have been featured in a wide array of top publications including Vogue, Women's Health, Forbes, Business Insider, mindbodygreen, NOSH and many more. Simple Mills was also a 2020 Health Magazine Snack Award Winner!

Role Description

Simple Mills is seeking a Sales Strategy Director who will lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of sales strategies to achieve long-term growth and profitability for our organization. In this role, you will lead all aspects of Sales strategy and oversee the category management function. This position will report directly to the VP of Sales.

Key Responsibilities Include:

Customer Planning

• Lead the annual customer planning process, collaborating with sales directors, sales managers, and cross-functional partners.
• Partner with Finance and Marketing to align on strategic investments and initiatives.
• Monitor quarterly and annual customer plans, providing updates and facilitating discussions around risks and opportunities across functions.
• Implement and lead the Quarterly Customer Planning & Review process for top 10 customers.

Revenue Management – Trade & Forecast

• Participate in monthly S&OP meetings to drive alignment across Demand plan and Revenue Forecast.
• Partner with Revenue Management to review and implement pricing and trade strategies.
• Provide strategic advisement to Sales Account leads in support of overall revenue management.

Customer Category Data, Insights & Analytics

• Lead the Category Management team in providing cross-functional collaboration and engagement, specifically with marketing and sales partnership.
• Oversite of all customer-facing sales materials, ensuring alignment across functions and consistent messaging.
• Ongoing oversite of internal processes, team performance, and business impact.

Innovation & Marketing Partner

• Act as a key stakeholder in long-lead innovation marketing forecasting and item/platform development.
• Support innovation launches from inception to launch, providing visibility to the sales team driving alignment across functions.
• Participate in cross-functional internal project teams, offering insight, influence, and customer perspective on innovation planning.
• Provide strategic oversight and collaborate on shopper marketing and omni-channel investments for must-win customers, partnering with marketing stakeholders and agencies.
• Track innovation customer acceptance and manage the customer review and reset calendar.

Sales Support & Operations

• Strategic Advisor to VP of Sales
• Strategic Partner and conduit to internal functions to drive alignment and collaboration.
• Oversite of Sales Sharepoint Site and Sales Support needs.

Performs other projects as assigned

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, marketing, or a related field.
• Minimum 7-10 years of experience in sales strategy, marketing, or a related field, with a minimum of  3-5 years of leadership experience.
•  CPG experience required.
• Proven track record of successfully developing and implementing category strategies that drive business growth. In-depth understanding of the food manufacturing industry, market trends, and consumer behavior.
• Strong experience building and evolving processes and best practices to optimize and deliver against company goals.
• Exceptional ability to cultivate and maintain strong relationships with cross-functional partners, ensuring collaboration, communication, and alignment across teams.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Benefits

• You will make a huge impact as a key member of an emerging brand that’s changing the way we eat and facing explosive growth
• Working with a vibrant community of passionate team members that are driven by healthy food that tastes good and fuels your body
• We strive to foster and embed a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion across our organization. We know it is not only critical to the success of diversity initiatives - but instrumental in creating an equitable and inclusive workplace! It also creates a positive employee experience. DEI will remain at the center of our people strategy as grow and scale our organization.
• Our culture is aligned with doing good in the world and we are committed to the environment, fairness to employees and to our customers
• Integrating into a company that is passionate about its people and their development, with consistent training and multiple forums/platforms to participate in, contribute to and learn from
• Employee benefits include robust Health Benefits packages, 401(k) plan, Unlimited PTO offering, one-time stipend for getting your home workspace setup, monthly cell phone/internet stipend, health & wellness stipends, product stipends and many other perks! 

Compensation will be competitive for the ideal candidate. Remote working may be considered for qualified candidates from a designated location in the United States (the new hire’s permanent residence, as documented in our HR System, Rippling) if willing and able to travel regularly to the Chicago office. Sufficient internet access to support video conferencing required.

At Simple Mills, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect and inclusion. Equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, past or present military service, physical or mental disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of business need, job requirements, and individual qualifications. #LI-DNI

Simple Mills is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Simple Mills will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodations are needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected].