Sr. Sales Manager-East

AAK; Edison (NJ); On-site; USD 173,000 - 206,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Career paths and growth opportunities

Health Insurance

Health Savings Account

401(k) matching

Life and Disability insurance

Employee Assistance Program

Pet Insurance

Identity Theft Protection

Legal Insurance Plans

Discounts on travel and entertainment

Job summary

AAK Edison is seeking a Sr. Sales Manager to drive profitable growth across assigned customers and to lead a team of account managers who manage and expand their client portfolios.

The role owns growth strategy, execution, and forecasting, while collaborating with Marketing, R&D, Operations, Finance, and Customer Service to deepen relationships and win new business across regional and national accounts. Expect 30–40% travel.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated success delivering profitable growth with assigned customers through account planning, opportunity development, negotiation, and execution.

Responsibilities

• Deliver profitable sales growth across assigned customers through clear account strategies, opportunity development, pipeline conversion, and disciplined commercial execution.
• Directly manage selected key customer relationships, including senior-level engagement, growth planning, negotiation, issue resolution, and long-term partnership development.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of account managers responsible for managing and growing regional and national customers.
• Set clear growth expectations, customer priorities, and individual goals for the sales team, ensuring accountability for revenue, margin, volume, pipeline, and forecast accuracy.
• Develop and execute multi-year customer growth plans for assigned accounts and ensure team members maintain robust plans for their customer portfolios.
• Identify and advance new business opportunities by understanding customer strategies, unmet needs, product applications, and market trends relevant to AAK’s portfolio.
• Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, Customer Innovation, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Customer Service to convert opportunities and deliver customer commitments.
• Lead commercial negotiations with assigned customers and support the team in structuring agreements that deliver sustainable value for AAK and the customer.
• Conduct regular pipeline, forecast, customer planning, and performance reviews with team members, providing coaching, feedback, and prioritization support.
• Monitor customer and team performance through KPIs, sales metrics, and market intelligence to identify risks, growth gaps, and corrective actions.
• Ensure high-quality forecasting and business planning by translating customer insights, opportunity timing, and market dynamics into actionable sales projections.
• Handle escalated customer issues and remove internal barriers that may impact customer growth, satisfaction, or execution.

Skills

Account planning

Negotiation

Team leadership

Executive engagement

Forecasting

Commercial planning

Pipeline management

Growth strategy

Education

BA/BS degree

Food Science

Business

Job description

Making Better Happen

Our story goes back more than 150 years, to the windy coast where Sweden and Denmark meet.

Making Better Happen

Our story goes back more than 150 years, to the windy coast where Sweden and Denmark meet.

From our success in Scandinavia, we've grown into the world's leading specialist producer of plant-based oils, employing more than 4000 people all across the globe.

We work with our customers to make the products you love even better. The oils we produce go into making your chocolate extra creamy or putting the crunch into your croissant. And it's not just food - we work across industries to make products that are higher quality, healthier and better for the planet.

Every one of us works towards our shared purpose: Making Better Happen™.

Everything we do is about Making Better Happen together.

Join nearly 4,000 like-minded colleagues globally and build a better future with us.

Build a better future as a Sr. Sales Manager in our Eastern Region

Compensation Range: $173,000 - $206,410

Possible Bonus: 20%

AAK Edison

About The Role

The Sr Sales Manager is a senior commercial leadership role responsible for delivering profitable growth across assigned customers while leading a team of account managers who manage and grow their own customer portfolios. This role owns growth strategy, execution, and accountability for key direct accounts, while also coaching the team to identify opportunities, build pipeline, deepen customer relationships, and convert new business across regional and national accounts. The Sr Sales Manager is expected to balance direct customer ownership with people leadership, ensuring that customer plans, innovation opportunities, pricing, forecasting, and commercial execution are aligned to AAK’s growth objectives. Travel to deepen customer relationships, support team selling, and advance growth initiatives is required and expected to be 30-40%.

Responsibilities

The duties of the Sr Sales Manager include but are not limited to:

• Deliver profitable sales growth across assigned customers through clear account strategies, opportunity development, pipeline conversion, and disciplined commercial execution.
• Directly manage selected key customer relationships, including senior-level engagement, growth planning, negotiation, issue resolution, and long-term partnership development.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of account managers responsible for managing and growing regional and national customers.
• Set clear growth expectations, customer priorities, and individual goals for the sales team, ensuring accountability for revenue, margin, volume, pipeline, and forecast accuracy.
• Develop and execute multi-year customer growth plans for assigned accounts and ensure team members maintain robust plans for their customer portfolios.
• Identify and advance new business opportunities by understanding customer strategies, unmet needs, product applications, and market trends relevant to AAK’s portfolio.
• Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, Customer Innovation, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Customer Service to convert opportunities and deliver customer commitments.
• Lead commercial negotiations with assigned customers and support the team in structuring agreements that deliver sustainable value for AAK and the customer.
• Conduct regular pipeline, forecast, customer planning, and performance reviews with team members, providing coaching, feedback, and prioritization support.
• Monitor customer and team performance through KPIs, sales metrics, and market intelligence to identify risks, growth gaps, and corrective actions.
• Ensure high-quality forecasting and business planning by translating customer insights, opportunity timing, and market dynamics into actionable sales projections.
• Handle escalated customer issues and remove internal barriers that may impact customer growth, satisfaction, or execution.

About You

Qualifications include

• Demonstrated success delivering profitable growth with assigned customers through account planning, opportunity development, negotiation, and execution.
• Proven ability to lead, coach, and hold a sales team accountable for growing customer portfolios and achieving commercial targets.
• Strong understanding of customer needs, market dynamics, competitive activity, and the ability to translate insights into growth strategies.
• BA/BS degree required; Food Science, Business, or related discipline preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive sales experience, preferably in food ingredients and/or the fats and oils industry.
• Excellent relationship-building, executive customer engagement, problem-solving, and internal/external stakeholder alignment skills.
• Strong organization, prioritization, pipeline management, and commercial planning capabilities.
• Excellent quantitative, forecasting, and business performance management skills

In return AAK offer

• Career paths, training and development, e-learning and tuition reimbursement programs offer potential for you to progress your future career
• Comprehensive health insurance (medical, dental and vision) starting date of hire
• Health Savings Account with AAK annual contribution of $1,000-$1,500
• We match 100% of the first 3% you contribute to your 401(k), and 50% of the next 3%
• Free Life and Disability insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Supplemental Pet Insurance, Identity Theft Protection and Legal Insurance Plans
• Discounts on travel, amusement parks, concerts, movies, and more
• Celebrations, events, and activities on site and supporting our communities
• Recognition incentives for service and peer to peer recognition

About AAK

Everything AAK does is about Making Better Happen™. We specialize in plant-based oils that are the value-adding ingredients in many of the products people love to consume. We make these products better tasting, healthier, and more sustainable. At the heart of AAK’s offer is Customer Co-Development, combining our desire to understand what better means for each customer, with the unique flexibility of our production assets, and a deep knowledge of many products and industries, including Chocolate & Confectionery, Bakery, Dairy, Plant-based Foods, Special Nutrition, Foodservice and Personal Care. Our 4,000 employees support our close collaboration with customers through 25 regional sales offices, 15 dedicated Customer Innovation Centers, and with the support of more than 20 production facilities. Listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and with our headquarters in Malmö, Sweden, AAK has been Making Better Happen™ for more than 150 years.

AAK prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, religion, veteran status, and any other class of individuals protected from discrimination under state or federal law in any aspect of the access to, admission, or treatment of students in its programs and activities, or in employment and application for employment.