Vice President, Supplier Sales (US Remote)

About This Role

At Apeel Sciences, we look to nature to help the global food system improve quality, reduce waste, and ensure an abundant future for our planet. The Sales team is charged with taking our technology to market, and effectively communicating the benefits and value to customers, suppliers, and consumers in order to drive commercial success for the company. We are seeking a dynamic and energetic sales executive who will own and build the Supply Side team and revenue stream. You will lead strategic initiatives to drive the next phase of our growth, and drive efficiencies across all Sales teams at the company.

What You’ll Do

• Be an active member of Apeel’s sales leadership team, scaling and managing the supply-side team, with collective responsibility to maximize profitability.
• Collaborate closely with the VP, Sales – Buyer Relations, Domestic and International as well as and Apeel’s marketing and strategy staff.
• Drive medium and long-range business development pipeline, in collaboration with R&D, aligned with Global counterparts and with input from Business Management, Sales and Marketing.
• Capture near-term business development and growth opportunities by providing business direction and priorities to the Sales team.
• Drive Apeel’s business at the grower and country level.  Develop and implement the commercialization strategies with a special focus on targeted growers and markets globally.
• Follow market conditions on commodity items and develop supply-side contract and pricing strategies.  Stay keenly aware of the market and competitors and provide market insights to the company.
• Identify, onboard and manage grower partners and marketers.  Maintain strong long-term relationships with growers. Negotiate grower contracts, agreements and partnerships.
• Develop superb communications and working relationships on a day-to-day basis with the grower’s category team leaders and produce sales staff.  Oversee grower relationship with Apeel through grower’s procurement process.
• Works closely with Marketing to develop strategy and implementation for marketing, public relations, pricing, promotions and industry relations to support the grower and grower marketer network.
• Build awareness globally around innovations within Apeel grower community.  Facilitate the exchange of knowledge between Apeel and growers by creating venues for the sharing of information.
• Assure the proper implementation at the packing house level of Apeel’s technology in the handling and packing of all products.  Notify appropriate management at Apeel to initiate actions to correct related operational discrepancies.

What You Bring

• Bachelor’s Degree required; Master’s Degree (Business, Agricultural Business or related field) a plus.
• Proven experience as a sales executive managing a large, high-performance sales team and culture in multiple regions.
• Minimum ten years related experience with a leading grower, packer and shipper of conventional and organic fruits and vegetables. Experience with multiple fresh vegetable crops in multiple growing areas and/or with buying or selling produce is a plus.
• An understanding of the produce business from growing to pricing, and the supply and distribution chains from the perspective of growers, packers/shippers, and major retail customers globally.
• Track record of developing and implementing successful sales programs with leading produce growers and packers on a 52-week basis
• Implemented effective sales processes to meet growth targets with requisite efficiency, scalability, and profitability (in a start-up or fast-growth environment a major plus).  
• Demonstrated skills as a strong business-builder with excellent financial acumen.  Experienced in team development, planning, budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis.
• Successful record of developing data-driven strategic plans and building innovative plans that help a company grow and achieve progressively sustainable results.  Early- or growth-stage company experienced preferred.
• Demonstrated success in growing revenues, improving performance, enhancing systems, and transitional leadership. Experience in selling advanced technology with longer sales cycles.
• Strong record of successful “team selling”, involving other company functional leaders and in a multicultural environment.
• Proven ability to collaborate and partner with senior executives (e.g., CEO, executive leadership team) and key stakeholders to drive market expansion efforts. 
• Outstanding communications, presentation and interpersonal skills.  Foster new business relationships.
• Knowledge of quality and food safety best practices and standards and related government regulations as they related to produce packing / shipping operations.
• Fluency in English and another globally important languages such as Spanish or Portuguese is desirable, but not required.
• Strong negotiation skills with growers with knowledge of their production and harvesting costs and terms of sales, product quality, and specs for produce.
• A proven, results-oriented leader with drive, initiative, and management style that aligns with the Company’s core values and culture.
• Ability to drive impact while working in a collaborative and transparent environment

Apeel believes that the scale of our impact is determined by the teams that work with us. As such, we seek to build high-performing teams of people from various experiences and backgrounds who can collectively push our company into new realms. We seek a diverse pool of applicants and consider all qualified candidates regardless of race, ancestry, color, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, citizenship, disability, Veteran status, marital status, or any other protected status. If you have a special need or disability that requires accommodation, please let us know.