VP of Sales

Kalon Executive Search•East Newark, NJ

9d•Remote

About The Position

Our client is a specialty ingredient, flavor and sweetener partner to food, beverage, and nutraceutical brands. The company develops and supplies flavors, functional ingredients, and application solutions that help customers formulate better-tasting, cleaner-label, and differentiated products. Growth is driven by technical collaboration, reliable supply, and long-term customer relationships across national accounts, emerging brands, and strategic co-manufacturers. The VP of Sales is a single-producer hunter who owns new business and account growth for our client’s ingredient and flavor portfolio. There is no team to manage now but you will build the team in the next 12 months. The role is remote, with a preference for candidates based on the East Coast. Success depends on a true hunter mentality, executive-level relationships, and close partnership with R&D and applications.

Requirements

12+ years in B2B sales within flavors, specialty ingredients, food ingredients, or a closely related CPG supplier environment.
Demonstrated hunter mentality as an individual producer: a track record of personally opening new accounts and building pipeline, not farming an inherited book or relying on a team.
Proven record of growing revenue and margin with food, beverage, and/or nutraceutical customers.
Experience selling technical or application-driven products, not only transactional commodities.
Strength in national-account selling, multi-level relationship building (procurement, R&D, marketing, and senior leadership), and complex deal cycles.
Ability to read a P&L, manage pricing, and make trade-offs between volume and margin.
Hands-on comfort with CRM and forecasting; disciplined about pipeline accuracy.
Strong cross-functional influence with R&D, applications, operations, and quality.
Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or relevant industry credentials a plus.
Based on the East Coast preferred; willing to travel to customers, CDMOs, and industry events.
Comfortable and effective working remotely as a sole producer.

Nice To Haves

Experience at a flavor house, specialty ingredient supplier, or ingredient partner serving better-for-you, natural, organic, or functional brands.
Existing relationships with mid-market and enterprise food and beverage customers.
Familiarity with flavor trends, clean-label reformulation, sugar reduction, plant-based, and functional ingredient applications.
Experience working alongside brokers or distributors without managing them.

Responsibilities

Own and deliver the annual revenue plan through new logos, account expansion, pricing, and mix.
Hunt and close new business across food, beverage, and supplement customers; build multi-year growth plans and executive relationships on strategic accounts.
Run the full sales cycle personally: prospecting, qualification, proposals, sampling, negotiation, and close.
Partner with applications, flavor creation, and product development so opportunities are technically supported and commercially viable.
Lead opportunity qualification, proposal strategy, sampling programs, and win/loss reviews with R&D and operations.
Develop pricing and margin recommendations with finance and supply chain; protect value while remaining competitive on strategic programs.
Maintain an accurate forecast, CRM hygiene, and pipeline visibility for leadership.
Identify white-space categories, channels, and geographies (including private label, emerging better-for-you brands, and international where relevant).
Represent our client at industry events and with customers; serve as a credible commercial voice on flavor trends, clean label, and formulation needs.
Align commitments with supply, quality, and regulatory constraints so promises to customers are kept.