Director, Sales Strategy – Execution

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Minnesota.

📋 Description

• Formulate the yearly sales strategy that encompasses MAPS fundamentals – enhancing assortment, pricing, shelving, and merchandising to foster category and brand expansion.

• Spearhead cross-functional commercial planning in collaboration with Marketing, RGM, Category Management, Finance, and Supply Chain to synchronize channel strategies, pricing frameworks, trade investments, and plans for new item launches.

• Convert consumer, shopper, and category insights into tailored growth strategies for customers across convenience, mass, grocery, club, eCommerce, and emerging channels.

• Discover opportunities in white-space, distribution deficiencies, and innovation platforms that contribute to incremental growth.

• Create standardized processes and toolkits for MAPS recommendations, sales playbooks, distribution priorities, pricing guidelines, and merchandising execution expectations.

• Supervise the crafting of customer-ready narratives utilizing category insights to support shelf optimization, display activation, pricing suggestions, and assortment enhancements.

• Guarantee flawless execution of distribution gains, new item rollouts, promotional periods, shelf resets, planograms, and seasonal merchandising opportunities.

• Collaborate closely with customer teams to assure the consistent implementation of MAPS strategies across all retail partners.

• Develop and manage tools and scorecards that monitor performance across MAPS dimensions: distribution, shelf positioning, velocity, pricing competitiveness, display execution, and promotional ROI.

• Lead the analysis of category trends, promotional impact, price elasticity, competitor activities, and retailer-specific performance to guide strategic modifications.

• Collaborate with RGM to refine the price-pack architecture (PPA), assess trade spend efficiency, and shape long-term pricing and promotional strategies.

• Work with Category Management to construct compelling retailer-specific category growth narratives that underline Jack Link’s leadership in assortment, pricing, merchandising, and shelving.

• Partner with Marketing and Innovation teams to ensure brand strategies, campaigns, and new products are effectively translated into winning retail tactics.

• Coordinate with Sales Planning and Supply Chain to oversee execution readiness, service levels, and inventory availability to support customer initiatives.

• Lead and nurture a high-performing Sales Strategy & Execution team, comprising analysts, planners, and commercial strategy managers.

• Foster organizational capability in MAPS fundamentals, data literacy, forecasting, and customer planning.

• Cultivate a high-performance culture focused on accountability, collaboration, agility, and continuous improvement.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, or a related discipline.

• MBA or advanced degree is preferred.

• Over 8 years of commercial experience in CPG (Sales Strategy, Category Management, RGM, Sales Leadership, or Commercial Planning).

• Proven proficiency in MAPS principles – Merchandising, Assortment, Pricing, and Shelving – within major CPG retailers.

• Strong analytical abilities with substantial experience using syndicated data (Nielsen/IRI/Circana), retailer POS systems, and pricing tools.

• Demonstrated success in formulating sales strategies and driving execution in dynamic, growth-focused CPG settings.

• Outstanding leadership, communication, and cross-functional influencing abilities.

• Experience in snacks, meat snacks, protein snacks, or other high-velocity, impulse-driven center-store categories is preferred.

• Background in a privately held, entrepreneurial organization is preferred.

🏝️ Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits.

• Life and disability insurance.

• 401k participation.

• Paid holidays.

• Paid time off.