Director, Plant Extract Commercialization

Kimberly-Clark•Chicago, IL

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Kimberly-Clark is seeking a Director, Plant Extract Commercialization to lead revenue growth and commercial development for plant extract within its Natural Solutions organization. Reporting to the Vice President and Managing Director, this leader will shape and execute a strategy to turn plant extract into a scalable, profitable business. The role owns commercial outcomes, including identifying where the strongest value exists, establishing routes to market, securing customers and partners, and aligning technical and operating work with attractive revenue and profit opportunities. The Director leads the commercial organization responsible for market identification, customer relationships, partnerships, pipeline management, and converting opportunities into revenue. Potential markets include agriculture, animal health, surfactants, personal care, household care, and other specialty applications. The position leads commercialization from concept through customer validation, product definition, launch, scale-up, and ongoing business management, while coordinating with technical, formulation, quality, regulatory, operations, supply-chain, and finance teams. This is a full-time employee role based primarily in Dallas, Texas, with an additional location listed at the Chicago Commercial Center. Kimberly-Clark describes its work arrangement as flexible hybrid. Travel to plants, research and development locations, suppliers, partners, customers, conferences, and market-development activities is required. In-country relocation support may be provided to the chosen candidate, subject to applicable mobility policies.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
Significant experience in commercialization, business development, sales leadership, strategy, product management, new-business scaling, or general management.
Demonstrated success leading new businesses, products, or platforms from development through customer adoption, launch, and scale.
Experience leading and developing a sales or commercial organization, including pipeline management, customer segmentation, account strategy, sales execution, and performance management.
Experience owning or materially influencing a P&L, including pricing, forecasting, margin management, business cases, and resource allocation.
Strong track record working with customers, external partners, distributors, and senior leaders to create and execute growth strategies.
Ability to translate technical or manufacturing capabilities into compelling customer propositions and commercially viable offers.
Strong financial, strategic, analytical, negotiating, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams in complex, ambiguous, and fast-moving environments.
Willingness to travel as needed to plants, partners, customers, conferences, and market-development activities.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree in business, engineering, chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, or a related field.
Experience in ingredients, specialty chemicals, biomaterials, agribusiness, consumer products, industrial products, or adjacent sectors.
Selling or commercializing plant-derived ingredients, natural products, specialty chemicals, surfactants, biomaterials, agricultural inputs, animal-health products, personal-care ingredients, household-care ingredients, or related solutions.
Building a market, channel, or customer base for a new product or technology with limited existing market structure.
Experience with strategic partnerships, licensing, toll manufacturing, distribution models, contract development, or technology commercialization.
Experience selling into multiple markets with different customer requirements, regulatory pathways, value propositions, and margin structures.
Experience connecting customer needs to R&D, process development, formulation, manufacturing, quality, regulatory, and supply-chain capabilities.

Responsibilities

Own the commercial strategy for plant extract, including priority markets, applications, customers, channels, partnerships, portfolio priorities, and value-creation pathways.
Lead and develop the plant-extract sales and commercialization organization, establishing roles, goals, processes, and performance expectations.
Identify and prioritize markets and customers based on customer need, technical feasibility, competitive position, strategic fit, and financial value.
Build a qualified pipeline across agriculture, animal health, surfactants, personal care, household care, and other suitable markets.
Lead customer discovery, value proposition development, business development, sales negotiations, commercial proposals, and conversion of opportunities into signed agreements and revenue.
Build relationships with customers, distributors, development partners, toll manufacturers, strategic collaborators, and other commercial partners.
Lead commercialization from concept through customer validation, product definition, launch, scale-up, and ongoing business management.
Translate customer and market requirements into priorities for technical, formulation, quality, regulatory, operations, and supply-chain teams.
Confirm that proposed offerings can meet customer requirements for performance, quality, supply, cost, service, regulatory support, and timing.
Establish pricing strategy, offer architecture, contract structures, channel models, partnership economics, and commercial terms.
Own the plant-extract business case, including revenue, volume, pricing, margin, forecasts, profitability, capital requirements, and long-range value creation.
Lead annual operating plans, growth plans, commercial forecasts, scenario plans, and financial updates for senior leadership.
Establish pipeline reviews, commercial metrics, operating rhythms, and governance for managing plant extract as a business.
Coordinate plant-to-market planning with Operations and Supply Chain to align customer commitments with capacity, quality, inventory, logistics, and service expectations.
Represent the business with senior internal stakeholders, customers, partners, and external organizations; communicate strategy, progress, risks, and recommendations.
Lead cross-functional teams through customer qualification, product definition, trials, contracting, launch, and post-launch performance management.
Champion accountability, customer focus, collaboration, innovation, and bias for action while upholding Kimberly-Clark values and standards.
Travel to plants, research and development locations, suppliers, partners, customers, conferences, and market-development activities as required.