Business Development Manager

Full-time

Description

The Business Development Manager, New Products is a commercial leader responsible for building the opportunity pipeline, enabling cross-functional execution, and accelerating early commercial traction for new product lines being established to fuel growth. The primary early focus of the role will be a set of imported and domestically-produced European product lines fostered by the OFI NA incubator—starting with OV Caramel and expanding to additional OV inclusions. Mid-to-longer term, the role may include other OFI product lines (Sonneveld release agents and others) and other new products aligned to growth strategy. This role sits at the intersection of product management, account activation, supply chain integration, and commercial enablement, serving as a linking function between Denali, the OFI NA Incubator, and other OFI Businesses (OV, Sonneveld, etc). 

The ideal candidate is commercially experienced, hands-on, highly cross-functional, and thrives in an entrepreneurial environment where systems and processes are still being built.

Key Responsibilities

This list of duties and responsibilities is not all inclusive and may be expanded to include other duties and responsibilities as management may deem necessary. 

1. OV Product Management & Commercial Enablement

• Serve as the strategic product manager for OV Caramel in the U.S., with opportunistic support for adjacent OV inclusion products (e.g., sugar crunch). Becoming the expert in the OV product line to facilitate commercial success in North America.
• Lead OV project management , coordinating cross-functional U.S. and European stakeholders to ensure smooth execution of OV commercialization projects. Responsibility to manage OV US pipeline and workflow processes by ensuring commercial requests are entered into OV CE and update Salesforce opportunities.
• Calculate DDP pricing for customer opportunities, ensuring accurate landed cost, import duties, freight, margin structure, and competitive positioning.
• Establish and maintain U.S. complaint product specifications in partnership with OV and NA Incubator Quality and Technical teams.
• Deliver ongoing training to the Denali Sales team on OV Caramel—product knowledge, value proposition, applications, competitive differentiation, and selling tools.
• Coordinate tradeshow planning for OV Caramel in collaboration with Denali Marketing and OV Marketing.
• Create or co-create sales collateral (presentations, sample kits, product sheets, demos, etc.), ensuring alignment with Denali and OV brand standards.

2. Key Account Activation & Pipeline Building

• Identify and nurture relationships with strategic customers where Denali does not have existing coverage and business, greenfield market builder. 
• Lead early-stage commercial activation for targeted prospects before the opportunity transitions to an account manager.
• Build, qualify, and nurture the early-stage pipeline , ensuring a seamless hand off at late Penetration or early Growth stages.
• Develop a strong understanding of U.S. market dynamics, customer needs, application fit, and competitive landscape for assigned products. 
• Conduct joint customer calls with Account Executives to support high-value opportunities through later pipeline stages.

3. U.S. S&D Operating Model Support

• Serve as U.S. Importer of Record (IoR) process coordinator, ensuring correct paperwork, compliance, and product flow for imported OV and Sonneveld products.
• Act as the logistics point of contact between the incubator and freight partners, managing inbound shipments, transit times, and exception handling. This includes quoting freight rates for all opportunities with incubator projects. 
• Support warehousing development as the business scales—helping to establish a Make-to-Stock (MTS) plan, reorder triggers, stock levels, and distribution processes.

4. Incubator Operations & Cross-Functional Support

• Contribute to additional incubator-building activities , as assigned by Jessica, which may include strategy support, cross-BU coordination, commercial planning, product launches, and operational readiness tasks.
• Work closely with Finance, Ops, Tech, and Supply Chain to support early commercialization readiness.
• Ensure connection and alignment of governance process to partners at OV to remain aligned on the investment and progress of market development. This governance and reporting should include Sales activity plans, pipeline quality metrics, win rates, and opportunity timeline.

5. Other duties as assigned

How the Role Operates

• Leads through influence , not line authority—mobilizing business and functional leaders around shared growth objectives.
• Acts as a player-coach : hands-on in shaping initiatives, while holding others accountable for execution.
• Serves as a trusted thought partner to the President/CEO and ELT on where to place time, capital, and organizational energy.

Measures of Success 

• Healthy, advancing pipeline for OV Caramel and other assigned products (meeting agreed growth targets).
• Sales team education & readiness to sell OV Caramel and other assigned products (as demonstrated through increased customer meetings and increased opportunity generation).
• Customer projects well-supported and executed , ensuring alignment with customer experience expectations of the local business, to ensure positive, reputation-enhancing interactions with engaged customers (samples, documents, and pricing delivered in timely manner and meeting customer expectations). 
• Achievement of financial results , as outlined in business cases, budgets, and long-term plans.
• Smooth operational flow for imported products (IoR, logistics, warehousing). Measured by OTIF and aligned to local business / customer expectations for service.
• On-time execution of customer, marketing, and cross-functional deliverables.
• Positive contribution to Incubator culture, agility, and cross-BU collaboration .

Requirements

A qualified individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Additionally, they must fulfill essential job functions in a consistent state of alertness and safe manner. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. 

• 10–15+ years of experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives in manufacturing, food/ingredients, CPG, or adjacent industries.
• Existing relationships at key customer targets in primarily bakery and confections; lower priority in beverage or snacks
• Proven track record of translating strategy into execution and delivering measurable growth outcomes.
• Strong business and financial acumen (business cases, ROI/ROCE thinking, trade-off analysis).
• Comfortable operating at both enterprise and operating-level detail .

Ensure Workplace Safety:

• Actively demonstrate and drive behaviors that result in zero accidents and injuries. Demonstrates that our employees are the most important asset under our care by making their safety the number one priority.

Leadership Profile

• High ownership, high bias for action. Strong sense of urgency to have impact NOW.
• Structured thinker who brings clarity amid ambiguity.
• Excellent communicator, both verbally and through presentations. Able to develop compelling stories / cases around initiatives with a track record of motivating stakeholders toward desired outcomes / decisions.
• Collaborative, credible operator who can build strong relationships, challenge constructively, and move teams forward.
• Growth-minded with discipline—ambitious but commercially grounded.

Language Skills

• Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, production schedules, purchase orders, maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals. 
• Ability to write/query reports, procedure manuals, and correspondence. 
• Ability to communicate effectively with customers, vendors and other employees of the organization without assistance. 

Mathematical Skills

• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. 
• Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percentage. 

Reasoning Ability

• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. 
• Ability to interpret a variety of specifications and information furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

Supervisory Responsibilities

No direct Supervisory responsibilities.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to sit and use hands to finger, handle, or touch objects, tools, or controls. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 35 pounds, carrying and moving parts, materials, and product. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and the ability to adjust focus. 

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Denali Ingredients is an equal opportunity employer that continues to build a culture of belonging through our commitment to attracting and retaining diverse talent from all backgrounds, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We do not discriminate against any employee or applicant and believe in fairness and providing a level playing field for all. We foster a culture that thrives on diverse perspectives and contributes to ignite creativity and innovation to fuel our business and enhance the employee and customer experience.

Denali Ingredients is located in New Berlin, Wisconsin. We are customer-centric, fun and engaging. Beyond making ice cream treats tastier, Denali provides a fast-paced stimulating international environment, which will stretch your abilities and channel your talents. We also offer competitive compensation, industry-leading benefits, training, mentoring and growth opportunities. Join a team that makes the world a sweeter place!

The above statements reflect the general details necessary to describe the principal functions of the occupation described and shall not be construed as a detailed description of all the work requirements that may be inherent in the occupation.