Global Account Manager

Job Summary:

The Global Account Manager is responsible for leading the strategic management, cross-regional coordination, and profitable growth of Kalsec's most complex global and multi-regional customer accounts. This role serves as the central point of alignment between Kalsec's regional sales teams, ensuring consistent customer messaging, pricing strategy, contract management, and opportunity development across different geographies.

Unlike a traditional Account Manager role focused on a single region, the Global Account Manager operates as a strategic orchestrator - aligning regional Account Managers, Sales Directors, Customer Experience, Regulatory, and Technical teams around a unified account strategy. The Global Account Manager drives revenue growth by identifying global opportunities, eliminating inefficiencies in cross-regional processes, and ensuring Kalsec is positioned as a preferred strategic partner.

The account portfolio includes Global Strategic Accounts and Global Key Accounts - national and multinational food and beverage manufacturers that are influential in the market, sizeable enough to justify dedicated global coordination, and governed by centralized or regional decision-making structures

Essential Job Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary global point of contact for assigned Global Strategic Accounts and Global Key Accounts, acting as the trusted advisor and "face" of Kalsec across all regions. Consistently uphold Kalsec's mission, values, and brand standards in all customer interactions.


• Develop, maintain, and execute Key Account Plans for each assigned global account, including global location mapping, products by region, growth strategies, competitive positioning, and relationship mapping. Utilize Mini KAPs for multi-national accounts that require coordination but may not warrant full strategic plans.


• Align regional account strategies with global initiatives by partnering with Regional Account Managers, Sales Directors, and commercial colleagues across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC to ensure consistent execution and shared revenue objectives.


• Develop deep expertise in each assigned account's business strategy, competitive landscape, category dynamics, and end-consumer trends to proactively identify opportunities and position Kalsec as an indispensable innovation partner.

• Establish and maintain an operating rhythm for global or key account team meetings, aligning frequency and timing to contracting cycles, growth opportunities, and emerging risks or challenges. Develop and facilitate a Best Practices Team Meeting Agenda as needed.


• Drive customer messaging consistency across regions, ensuring opportunity visibility while managing confidentiality requirements - including situations where certain customers should only see portions of the Kalsec product portfolio.

• Lead global contract and commercial process alignment, including negotiation ownership vs. support roles, regional contract entry, RFQ management, pricing visibility, and customer item code/reporting practices to ensure consistency and efficiency across regions.

• Protect and grow existing global customer relationships while identifying and developing new business opportunities across regions, continuously elevating the quality, clarity, and consistency of communication between Kalsec and assigned accounts.

• Deliver compelling, customized presentations to key global accounts, including defining presentation objectives and coordinating required internal resources across regions.

• Build and manage a global sales opportunity pipeline, driving opportunities from identification through qualification, negotiation, and closure. Work with relevant internal teams to communicate changes in demand and project status across all regions.

• Own global sales volume and gross margin growth for assigned accounts through the development and execution of strategic business plans that meet or exceed budgeted targets.

• Develop annual global sales forecasts for assigned accounts and partner with leadership to establish sales objectives aligned with individual and company goals.

• Champion Salesforce.com data integrity for assigned global accounts, including hierarchy management, ownership and accountability, limiting site duplication, and appropriate linking of acquisitions.


• Ensure roll-up reporting visibility across all regions for assigned accounts, including global opportunity tracking, items under contract, and activity by global account.


• Coordinate and support customer needs by working cross-functionally with Technical, Applications, Regulatory, QA, Customer Experience, Operations, Accounting, and Logistics teams across all regions. Ensure clear definition of regional responsibilities for AM, CE, and Regulatory functions. Manage channel partner linkage and coordination processes for assigned accounts.


• Provide strategic leadership and direction to regional Account Managers and cross-functional team members through influence, coaching, and accountability - operating as the de facto team leader for each global account without direct reporting authority.

• Collaborate with Technical and R&D teams globally to coordinate projects, product trials, and innovation initiatives for assigned accounts.

• Partner with Marketing and Product Management teams to support prospecting efforts, identify opportunities for new or modified products based on global customer and market needs, and ensure pipeline growth aligns with assigned KPIs.

• Represent Kalsec professionally at trade shows, customer meetings, industry events, and conferences.

• Adhere to all company Quality Assurance policies and procedures as defined in the Quality Manual, ensuring full compliance with food safety and quality standards.

•


Qualifications:

Required

• Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 10 years of relevant industrial food ingredient sales experience.
• Proven ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles and negotiate effectively at multiple organizational levels across different regions and cultures.
• Demonstrated experience in cross-regional coordination - aligning pricing, contracts, messaging, and strategy across multiple geographies and sales teams.
• Strong relationship-building, communication, and influencing skills with both internal and external stakeholders at all levels, including executive/C-suite engagement.
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and Salesforce.com (or equivalent CRM), including pipeline management, hierarchy management, and reporting.
• Home-based office with demonstrated ability to work autonomously and lead virtual, cross-functional teams across time zones.
• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen, including the ability to assess account profitability, prioritize opportunities based on ROI, and align account strategy with company objectives.

Desired

• Master's degree and/or technical background (Food Science, Chemistry, or related field).
• Experience selling flavors, extracts, natural colors, and other functional food ingredients to global food and beverage manufacturers.
• Bilingual preferred, with an emphasis on Spanish.
• Experience with global contracting processes, including managing regional pricing alignment

Working Conditions:

• Regular use of Microsoft Office Suite, Salesforce (SFDC), LinkedIn, and Power BI.
• Prolonged periods of sitting and computer use; occasional lifting up to 15 pounds.
• Ability to access various departments and manufacturing locations as needed.
• About 40% travel, including weekend travel as needed. Must have easy access to a major international airport.
• Must be comfortable working across multiple time zones and coordinating with teams in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.