Sales Director

The Role

Contigo Catering is hiring a Sales Director to lead revenue growth across our four-brand family: Contigo Catering, Table Manners, Ocaso Catering, and One Eleven East. We're an established luxury catering and events company doing roughly $8M in annual revenue, and we're looking for someone to help us punch above that.

This role reports to the VP of Operations and works in close, ongoing collaboration with the CEO — who also sits in a sales seat and stays active in the pipeline. You'll lead a team of six salespeople (with four to five EAs supporting them) and own how we grow: the relationships, the pipeline, the revenue, and the team's energy. You'll set the tone in the room, coach the people, close the deals that matter, and drive us past our $8M target.

This is not a desk job and it is not pure management. You'll still be selling — pitching, presenting, closing the deals where your presence is the unlock. The team needs a leader who can show them how, not just tell them. If you're a sales leader who lights up in front of clients and a planner room as much as in front of your team, keep reading.

About Contigo

Launched in 2014, Contigo Catering grew out of the Contigo family ranch in Fredericksburg and Contigo Restaurant in Austin. We're now an independent company and a leader in custom catering across Central Texas — from intimate backyard dinners to large corporate banquets and high-touch luxury weddings. Our events are known for custom-crafted menus, exceptional hospitality, an eye for style, seamless coordination, and a unique bar program.

Our family of brands gives this role real range: Contigo Catering (our flagship), Table Manners (a separate brand for a distinct service style), Ocaso Catering (a third brand voice and audience), and One Eleven East (our owned event venue). The Sales Director sits across all four.

Our Values

These show up in how we hire, how we promote, and how we work together:

• Take Care of People — clients, teammates, vendors, yourself.
• Own Your Shit — accountability, not excuses.
• Bring Energy Over Drama — we move fast and we don't make it weird.
• Be Hungry — growth-minded, curious, not coasting.
• Stay Polished — we're a luxury brand; the work and the way we show up have to match.

What You'll Own

Selling (Yes, Still)

• Stay personally active in the pipeline — own a book of high-value accounts and key relationships. The team should see you closing, not just coaching.
• Lead pitches, tastings, and walkthroughs on top-tier opportunities — the deals where your presence in the room moves the outcome.
• Build and own relationships with key planners, venues, and corporate decision-makers across Austin.
• Step in on stuck deals to unlock them — coach in the moment, model the close.

Sales Strategy & Revenue

• Set and execute the annual sales strategy across all four brands, in collaboration with the CEO and VP of Operations.
• Own a $8M+ revenue target with brand-level breakouts; grow it, hit it, and forecast it accurately.
• Drive the pipeline across the team — coach the right outreach, sharpen the right pitches, and hold the team to the numbers that win.
• Approve pricing, contracts, and proposals above defined thresholds; uphold brand-aligned standards on every deal.
• Identify need periods and slow weeks; build promotions, activations, and outreach plays to fill them.
• Review sales commissions and approve payouts in line with our compensation framework.

Leading the Team

• Manage six sales team members directly, with four to five executive assistants supporting underneath them.
• Run weekly sales meetings per brand: pipeline review, deal strategy, blockers, and accountability on outreach commitments.
• Coach individually — every salesperson gets a development plan, clear KPIs, and a real path to growth. Coaching, not policing.
• Hold the team accountable to the activity, the follow-up, and the results.
• Hire, develop, and when necessary, manage out. Build a bench.
• Translate vision into clear, actionable priorities the team can execute against.

Building Our Sales Engine

• Lead our transition from Total Party Planner to Elecate and build out the CRM infrastructure to support a real pipeline operation. You won't do this alone — you'll have operational support to handle the heavy admin. We don't expect you to be a CRM admin; we expect you to know what good looks like and drive it.
• Build a clean, brief reporting rhythm — enough to drive decisions, not so much it eats your week. The metrics that matter: pipeline value, conversion rates, average deal size, win rate by source, sales cycle length, revenue per rep.
• Maintain the cross-brand relationship tracker and ensure key client and partner relationships don't fall through cracks.

Industry Presence & Business Development

• Identify high-value target accounts, planners, venues, and corporate clients; build the outreach plan to land them.
• Represent Contigo at industry events, planner happy hours, venue open houses, and trade events (NACE, ILEA, ABJ events, charity galas).
• Manage and grow our key planner and venue referral partnerships.
• Oversee tastings, site visits, and client entertainment for top-tier opportunities.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with the VP of Operations on planning, execution, and team alignment.
• Partner with the CEO on big-account strategy, brand direction, and high-stakes deals.
• Partner with Marketing to align outreach campaigns, brand positioning, and lead generation.
• Partner with Operations and Culinary to ensure what sales sells is what operations can deliver — and that culinary innovation makes it into the pitch.

What a Good Week Looks Like

Tuesday: coaching session with two reps in the morning, lunch with a planner partner, walkthrough of a venue site with a corporate prospect.

Wednesday: weekly pipeline meeting, then a tasting for a wedding client.

Thursday: industry event or sponsorship activation in the evening.

Friday: proposal review, 1:1 with the VP of Operations, strategy sync with the CEO.

Saturday: onsite at a flagship event, in the room, making sure the client feels everything they should.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

• Hit or exceed the $8M revenue target, with measurable growth in at least two of the four brands.
• Personally closed a meaningful book of business — you're in the deals, not just over them.
• Successful CRM migration to Elecate, with the team fully ramped and reporting clean pipeline data.
• Documented sales playbook and rep-level KPIs in use, with monthly performance reviews running consistently.
• Pipeline conversion rates improved against current baseline; sales cycle length reduced.
• At least two new high-value referral partnerships built and producing.

Who You Are

You're a connector first. You walk into a room and shift the energy. You read people fast, adjust in real time, and make the kind of impression that turns a tasting into a contract. You love the pitch — you love a planner happy hour, a venue walkthrough, a long lunch with a corporate client who's deciding between you and someone else.

You're also a real leader. Your team feels seen by you, and they work harder because of it. You hold a high bar, but you hold it with warmth — people don't grind for you out of fear, they grind because you've made them feel like part of something.

You know that data and systems matter, and you're willing to use them — but you also know that the deal closes because of you in the room, not because of a dashboard.

You're calm under pressure, comfortable with autonomy, and you don't need someone to tell you what to do next. You bring polish — to the room, to the pitch, to the team. You take pride in the work.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience managing a sales pipeline and a sales team (broader sales experience beyond that is expected).
• Proven track record of personally closing significant revenue and hitting team-level targets.
• Experience building sales infrastructure — CRM implementations, reporting cadences, commission structures, sales playbooks.
• Strong understanding of forecasting, P&L visibility, and data-driven decision making.
• Experience in hospitality, catering, events, or a related premium-service industry strongly preferred.
• Comfort with sales technology; experience with Total Party Planner, Elecate, Tripleseat, HoneyBook, Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar platforms a plus.
• Bachelor's degree in Sales, Marketing, Business, or related field is a plus, not a requirement.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; you can write a clean proposal and run a sharp meeting.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule including some evenings, weekends, and holidays as events require.
• Reliable transportation; regular travel across Austin, Westlake, Dripping Springs, and occasionally beyond.

Compensation & Benefits

• Total OTE $90–110K (base salary plus performance-based commission).
• Health and dental insurance.
• Unlimited PTO plus paid holidays. We trust salaried staff to manage their own time, and we expect you to actually use it. The office closes for 2+ weeks over the winter holidays and a full week in July, so real downtime is built into the calendar. We do ask that you take time during our slower seasons rather than peak event weeks.
• Mileage and parking reimbursement.
• Company bonuses and swag.
• Chef-prepared meals on-site — breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
• W2 employee status.

Schedule & Location

• Full-time, exempt position averaging 40 hours per week.
• Regular schedule: Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–6pm, with evenings and weekends for events as needed.
• Based at 3709 Promontory Point Drive, Suite B201, Austin, TX 78744.
• Regular travel to event venues across Austin, Westlake, and Dripping Springs (and occasionally beyond).

Physical Requirements

When onsite at an event, ability to be agile and on your feet for long periods of time. Ability to operate equipment needed for the role. Ability to withstand exposure to varying conditions of noise, temperature, and environment.

Contigo Catering's offices are ADA compliant, and we'll make reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants with disabilities. Please let us know what accommodations you'd need.

Equal Employment

Contigo provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, marital status, or sexual orientation. We particularly encourage BIPOC and LGBTQ+ candidates to apply.

The responsibilities listed above communicate general priorities for this position and shouldn't be read as an exhaustive list of every job requirement.

The Hiring Process

• Review of your application and résumé.
• Short questionnaire for qualified applicants.
• Aptive Index assessment (5–10 minutes).
• 15-minute phone screening.
• Follow-up interview with a team member.
• Final 1–2 hour interview, including a brief practical exercise.

This role thrives on energy and chemistry. The final interview includes time with the CEO and key team members — we want to feel the fit, not just check the boxes.

Everyone receives a response, and we move as quickly as candidate timing allows.

We can't wait to meet you.