Foodservice Sales Lead

Job Description

Foodservice Sales Lead

RTE Cuisine

Location: Denver, CO (Hybrid)

Salary Range: $80,000-$100,000 plus commission

Engagement: Full-time role

About The Role

RTE Cuisine produces ready-to-eat ancient grains that help foodservice operators save labor and time, improve consistency, and expands across all dayparts and stations. We are looking for a go-to-market lead to build a disciplined foodservice growth pipeline. In this role, you will open new channels and accounts, move qualified opportunities forward, and turn our product portfolio and manufacturing capabilities into scalable revenue. You will partner closely with the CEO and the team with a passion for culinary solutions and plant-forward products. This is an inside sales role with the occasional travel, approximately 15-25%.

What You Will Do

•     New business development: Identify, prioritize and pursue high-value foodservice accounts and channel opportunities.

•     Pipeline ownership: Keep a clear opportunity pipeline that tracks next steps, decision makers, timing and likelihood of close.

•     Account development and sales execution: Build relationships with culinary, procurement, operations and distributor contacts, and lead outreach, discovery calls, presentations, samples, tastings, follow-up and proposals, staying involved from first introduction until the account converts.

•     Commercialization: Translate customer needs into the right product, pack size, application, pricing approach and launch plan, working with RTE Cuisine leadership.

•     Market intelligence: Bring back competitive, menu, channel and customer insights to guide product development and growth priorities.

Where You Will Focus First

•     Hospitality and institutional: Pursue B&I, cruise lines, hotels, K-12, universities, corporate dining, healthcare, military and other high-volume segments.

•     Retail deli and prepared foods: Target high-volume opportunities where RTE grains save labor, improve consistency and support menu development.

•     Aviation: Grow airline and lounge business, and identify products and formats suited to small kitchens and high-volume service.

•     Restaurants and multi-unit operators: Win salad bar, buffet and restaurant concepts where speed, consistency and culinary versatility make a strong fit.

How the Role Works

•    Join regular check-ins with the CEO, and coordinate closely with RTE Cuisine marketing, operations, culinary and manufacturing partners.

•    Personally drive high-value sales activity, with the RTE Cuisine team supporting samples, collateral, pricing, logistics, product information and follow-through.

•    Time commitment is set by clearly defined performance incentives.

Your First 90 Days

•    Build a target account and channel list, and set up the sales pipeline.

•    Develop the outreach and account-entry strategy.

•    Move priority opportunities forward to meetings, samples and tastings.

•    Put a repeatable sales rhythm and reporting routine in place.

•    Recommend near-term product and packaging opportunities.

How Success is Measured

•    New relationships with decision makers

•    Samples, tastings and active product evaluations

•    Closing qualified accounts that drive revenue

What Are We Looking For

Required:

•    5+ years in foodservice sales or business development, with relationships across distributors, operators and culinary or procurement teams

•    Experience selling to large foodservice organizations and national accounts

•    Experience in one or more of our sales channels: B&I, hospitality, institutional, aviation or multi-unit restaurants

•    Expertise leading a full sales cycle, from first outreach through samples, tastings, pricing to closing with a hunter mentality: a self-starter who can build a pipeline from scratch and run it with discipline.

•    Strong presentation and communication skills, and the ability to work closely with leadership and cross-functional teams

•    Tech-savvy, confident with CRM software, Microsoft Office, and communication platforms

•    Comfortable in an entrepreneurial, start-up environment; thrives with creative input and shifting priorities

Preferred experience with one or more of the following:

·     Foodservice contractors (Compass Group, Guckenheimer, Aramark, Sodexo)

·     Healthcare, Hospitality, Airline catering, Higher Education, Food manufacturing

·     Culinary ingredients, prepared foods or plant-forward products