Senior Sales Manager, Cultured & Grated Cheese

Lactalis LHD•Chicago, IL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Ready for more than just a job? Build a career with purpose. At Lactalis in the USA, we’re committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive—whether you’re just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed. As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we’re proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together. In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani® Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président® specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft® natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone’s® cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel®, Black Diamond® cheddar, and Parmalat® milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi’s®, Stonyfield Organic®, Brown Cow™, Oui®, Yoplait®, Go-Gurt®, :ratio®, Green Mountain Creamery®, and Mountain High®, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun®, Gopi®, and Arz®. At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone’s unique background and ideas are valued. Even if you don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy. From your PASSION to ours Lactalis Heritage Dairy, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Senior Sales Manager, Cultured & Grated Cheese position based in Chicago, IL. The Senior Sales Manager, Cultured & Grated Cheese plays a critical role in executing the Business Unit's (BU) strategic growth agenda by partnering closely with field sales teams to maximize customer impact and drive profitable revenue growth. Serving as the subject matter expert on customer execution for the Cultured and Grated Cheese categories, this individual acts as a key liaison between the Business Unit and Field Sales, ensuring sales strategies are effectively translated into market execution. This role collaborates cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Demand Planning, and Supply Chain to deliver business objectives and support sustainable growth. Key responsibilities include trade management and optimization, distribution and assortment recommendations, new item commercialization, merchandising strategy execution, forecast accuracy, and continuous improvement of sales planning processes. The ideal candidate is highly analytical, results-oriented, and thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. They possess strong business acumen, an ownership mindset, and the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders while balancing strategic priorities with executional excellence.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Marketing, or a related field; concentration in Sales or Marketing preferred.
5+ years of experience in Sales, Category Management, Sales Planning, Marketing, or a related commercial function.
Prior experience within the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry and a strong understanding of the U.S. retail landscape preferred.
Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate data into actionable business recommendations.
3+ years of experience utilizing syndicated and/or panel data (e.g., Circana, NielsenIQ, Numerator) to support business decisions.
Experience with strategic planning, trade management and optimization, competitive analysis, and integrated business planning processes.
Proven ability to develop, manage, and monitor budgets while balancing business objectives and financial targets.
Strong business acumen with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams, including Sales, Marketing, Finance, Demand Planning, and Supply Chain.
Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to present insights and recommendations to a variety of stakeholders.
Exceptional organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint required.
Demonstrated ability to work independently, take ownership of initiatives, and drive results through ambiguity and change.
Willingness and ability to travel up to 25%, including customer meetings, field visits, and internal business meetings, based on business needs.

Responsibilities

Develop strong cross functional relationships with Category Marketing, Demand Planning, Supply Chain, Finance, Revenue Management, and most importantly, Field Sales teams to deliver targets.
Act as the main liaison between the Business Unit and the Field Sales teams to ensure strong communication and alignment between the two functions.
Represent the needs of the field when interacting cross functionally within the BU.
Translate the BU brand vision and strategy into clearly articulated category fundamentals.
Partner with Field Sales teams to develop and execute robust proposals, combining brand strategies with customer strategies.
Lead all annual sales planning activities for the Cultured Cheese & Grated Cheese categories.
Own communication routines with Field Sales teams (often involving 100+ participants) to highlight BU priorities and changes to brand strategies and tactics.
Ensure the strategies are executed accordingly to plan at a customer level.
Operate with business owner mentality; understand and apply category analytics to deliver key insights and business recommendations on merchandising, assortment, pricing, and promotion.
Deliver sales forecasting accuracy in partnership with Demand, Supply, and Field Sales through monthly demand forecasting routines and identification of key volume drivers.
Actively participate in commercialization and be the voice of Field Sales throughout the process; track all new item commercialization against customer reset timing and support Field Sales teams with new item sell-in activity at retailers.
Analyze competitive landscape to help maintain an optimal go-to-market strategy and react dynamically to competitive threats.