What you will bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in food science/technology or related technical field and/or demonstrated experience in a customer-facing Value Selling/Specialties or Technical Service/Sales role

• Technical understanding of functional food ingredients, their interaction, food manufacturing processes and food recipe design

• Proven track record in negotiation skills & stakeholder management capabilities, and delivering technical solutions across multiple countries and channels

• Project pipeline management skills

• Availability to travel up to 50% across East and West Africa.

• Account Management and Business Growth – Manage and grow assigned customer portfolio and region to meet  set business goals and strategy.

• Pipeline Management – create, manage and deliver opportunity pipeline in-line with business growth expectations, initiating and delivering growth projects with existing and new customers to ensure profitable conclusion

• Solution Selling & Differentiated Customer Experience – deliver a high-touch technical consultancy experience to new and existing customers to differentiate from competition, providing efficient project management with counterparts in the development team to maximize return on investments and create value added customer-tailored solutions. Embed customer centricity to drive business development along the customer buying cycle including broad stakeholder management

• Sales Planning & Forecasting – full ownership of bottom-up sales planning process incl. forecasting by developing a market growth strategy for respective categories and region and delivering against sales targets to manage top & bottom-line contribution of new and existing customers.

• Price & Contract Management – price and contract management to ensure maximum return using value base pricing strategies whilst securing the business sustainably

• Distribution Management – support the development of an effective Distribution network and support day-day interaction with Sales Network Partners, regional distributors and Agents on strategic projects and key initiatives to unlock growth potential in the region

• Communication with Customers – Continuously develop and broaden the stakeholder network at customers to drive business development along the customer buying cycle and a positive customer experience across relevant functions and seniority levels.

• Communication with internal Stakeholders - Develop an effective working relationship with relevant internal stakeholders in Technical Service, Marketing, Supply Chain and Finance to lead and/or support efforts in project development, supply planning, debtor management and other activities.

• Management of Customer Relationship Management data – Comply with best practices and company standards for data management and reporting.

• Marketing Support – partner with and support the Marketing function with regional marketing activities incl. fairs, seminars, tradeshows and innovation days