Manager, Sales Strategy – Liquid

Kinder's Premium Quality Seasonings & Sauces; Walnut Creek (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Kinder's Premium Quality Seasonings & Sauces in Walnut Creek, CA, is seeking a Sales Strategy Manager - Condiments to shape the go-to-market for our sauce portfolio. You will lead MAPS, assortment, pricing, promotions, and shelving strategies aligned with brand goals and customer needs.

Partner across Innovation, Brand Marketing, Field Sales, Category Management, and Supply Chain to translate strategy into actionable plans and launch tools that drive distribution and profitability across

Qualifications

• 4+ years in sales strategy or category management.
• Experience building go-to-market plans for CPG brands.
• Strong analytical and storytelling abilities.

Responsibilities

• Develop annual sales strategy for condiment portfolio.
• Own MAPS strategy including assortment and pricing.
• Support customer category reviews and Joint Business Plans.
• Lead launch planning for new products across channels.
• Create tools and playbooks for field sales and brokers.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Analytical skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Sales strategy

Job description

BUILT ON FLAVOR. FUELED BY PEOPLE.

What's it like to work at Kinder's? Well, there's a lot of snacking and geeking out over what we all cooked over the weekend. Beyond that, there's also plenty of hard work. Because we don't just like flavor, we're obsessed with it.

With over 100 products sold nationwide, we're now a top-five brand in multiple flavor categories at Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, and more. We're not your typical CPG company. Privately held and founder-led, we like to think of ourselves as a pirate ship in a sea of cruise ships. Our crew is adventurous and fearless. We chart our own course and chase big ideas to make food unforgettable.

As we expand globally and approach $1 billion in revenue, we need more smart-and-scrappy, flavor-obsessed people to come aboard. If you're looking for a place where you can see the real impact of your work… this is it! Every day, you'll be part of a journey to add flavor to millions of meals and lives.

About The Role

The Sales Strategy Manager - Condiments shapes and drives execution of Kinder's sales strategy, including development of merchandising, assortment, pricing, and shelving (MAPS) strategies and tactics for our sauce portfolio, aligned with business and brand objectives.

Reporting to the Director of Sales Strategy, this highly collaborative individual contributor will partner closely with Innovation, Brand Marketing, Field Sales, Category Management, Revenue Growth Management, Trade Finance, Shopper Marketing, Sales Operations, and Supply Chain. The Sales Strategy Manager will translate innovation and brand strategies into customer-ready plans, including assortment, pricing, promotion, merchandising, and shelving recommendations.

The ideal candidate combines strategic thinking, strong commercial judgment, analytical capability, and hands‑on execution. They can turn complex information into a compelling selling story, and create the tools and accountability needed to deliver successful launches across Grocery, Mass, Club and Natural channels.

Key Responsibilities Include

Base Business and Portfolio Strategy

• Develop the annual sales strategy for the portfolio, including channel priorities, distribution targets, assortment architecture, and the promotional calendar.
• Own MAPS strategy for the existing portfolio, including assortment by channel and customer, shelf and planogram priorities, price pack architecture, and promotional frameworks.
• Monitor base business performance across distribution, velocity, share, and promotional efficiency, and recommend corrective action where results trail plan.
• Support customer category reviews and Joint Business Plans with portfolio recommendations, selling stories, and data-backed assortment rationale.

Go-to-Market Strategy and Launch Planning

• Lead the development of go-to-market strategies for new products across Grocery, Club, Mass and Natural channels.
• Translate those strategies into clear merchandising, assortment, pricing, promotion, and shelving (MAPS) recommendations at the customer level.
• Define launch objectives, priority customers and channels, distribution goals, SKU priorities, merchandising expectations, promotional support, and key performance indicators.
• Develop scalable launch toolkits that provide Field Sales and broker teams with clear guidance while allowing for appropriate customer-level customization.
• Partner with Field Sales to integrate category growth priorities into customer strategies, account plans, category reviews, and Joint Business Plans.
• Identify commercial risks, customer objections, and execution barriers early, and coordinate cross-functional solutions before launch.

Customer Selling Strategy and Commercial Tools

• Develop compelling, insight-led selling stories that clearly communicate the consumer need, category opportunity, product differentiation, and value to the retailer.
• Create customer-ready materials, including selling presentations, assortment recommendations, pricing architecture, merchandising guidance, promotional recommendations, and trade promotional support.
• Use syndicated, retailer, shopper, and competitive data to strengthen customer presentations and support distribution and merchandising objectives.
• Equip Field Sales and broker partners with the knowledge, tools, samples, and responses needed to sell new products effectively.
• Clearly communicate strategic objectives, SKU priorities, launch timing, and execution standards to field sales and broker teams.

Pricing, Promotion, and Trade Strategy

• Partner with Revenue Growth Management, Trade Finance, Brand Marketing, Innovation and Field Sales to establish recommended pricing, promotion, and trade strategies for innovation.
• Develop launch investment recommendations that balance distribution growth, trial generation, customer requirements, brand health, and profitability.
• Support the development of customer-level trade targets and promotional assumptions for new products.
• Ensure proposed customer programs remain aligned with approved pricing architecture, trade guardrails, financial objectives, and launch priorities.
• Evaluate customer-specific opportunities and recommend where Kinder's should customize, invest, negotiate, or decline.

Launch Execution and Performance Management

• Establish launch scorecards and reporting that measure distribution, velocity, merchandising, promotional execution, trade performance, and other agreed‑upon KPIs.