Head of Sales, Central Eastern Europe

Great things are happening in the Europe and Australia (EUAU) region. Each day, our 2,500 plus colleagues bring their passion to our offices, manufacturing sites, R&D center, and commercial/distributor markets across Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. We are energized by over 150 years of bringing people together with the food they love. With beloved brands Old El Paso, Häagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Betty Crocker, Fibre One,  Latina Fresh and more, we are on a mission to become the undisputed growth leader in food for EUAU.  In a world that’s ever-changing, we look to stay ahead and seek people who share our love of food and are hungry to shape the future. 

LOCATION: Athens, GREECE

THE ROLE

This role leads distributor operations and sales across the Central Easter Europe, member of the Regional Sales Leadership Team, which is charged with developing strategies and plans for sales, margin and people growth for a very large geographic region across a diverse portfolio of brands and countries.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and execute regional strategies to drive profitable growth and share gain in distributors’ markets.
• Develop and Lead on the joint business planning with distributors to meet sales, margin, and share targets.
• Ensure on-time and excellent execution of new launches and initiatives deployed at all customers and channels
• Drive geographic expansion through new or existing distributors, including distributor selection and contract negotiations.
• Establish operational guidelines, KPIs, and best practices to optimize performance across markets.
• Strengthen distributor relationships and trade efficiency while ensuring on-time execution of new launches.
• Lead and develop a team of Market Managers and key distributor teams to enhance capabilities.
• P&L responsibility for the assigned area and geographical expansion.
• Drive distributor council initiatives for best practice sharing and excellence in execution. 

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

• Bachelor’s Degree required, master’s degree in business strongly preferred
• Distributor management expertise with a minimum of ten (10) years in Sales leadership roles with responsibility for managing distributor markets
• Fluency in English. The ability to integrate into a multicultural and diverse team is essential.
• Proven ability to accelerate growth of existing business with distributors
• Successfully led new market entry strategies via distributors
• Track record of progressive growth and promotion within a global corporation
• Successful candidates will have extensive knowledge of sales in a highly respected global consumer packaged goods corporation
• Outstanding leadership, strategic, organizational and teamwork skills
• Ability to develop effective professional relationships, especially in a virtual environment