Account Manager - Food Ingredients

Location: New Jersey / East Coast
Industry: Food Ingredients
Territory: East Coast

Position Summary

A leading global food ingredients manufacturer is seeking an experienced Account Manager to manage and develop its customer base across the East Coast.

The role will combine existing account management with new business development, working directly with food and beverage manufacturers to identify opportunities, develop customer relationships and grow ingredient sales across the territory.

The successful candidate will ideally have experience selling food ingredients, specialty ingredients, flavors, colors, extracts, seasonings or functional ingredients into food and beverage manufacturers.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage and grow an existing portfolio of food and beverage manufacturing customers.

• Identify and develop new business opportunities throughout the East Coast territory.

• Build relationships with R&D, product development, procurement, operations and commercial teams.

• Understand customer formulation and application requirements and recommend suitable ingredient solutions.

• Work alongside internal technical and applications teams on samples, trials and customer projects.

• Manage opportunities from initial discussions through testing, pricing, negotiation and commercialization.

• Develop account plans and identify opportunities to increase revenue within existing customers.

• Maintain a strong pipeline of prospective customers and new projects.

• Monitor market trends, competitor activity and changing customer requirements.

• Attend customer meetings, industry events and trade shows.

• Travel throughout the East Coast territory as required.

Candidate Profile

• Proven experience selling food ingredients or specialty ingredients into manufacturers.

• Strong experience managing and growing B2B customer relationships.

• Demonstrated ability to develop new business and win new accounts.

• Existing relationships with food and beverage manufacturers across New Jersey and the wider East Coast are highly desirable.

• Comfortable selling to both commercial and technical stakeholders.

• Experience working with R&D and product development teams on ingredient projects.

• Strong commercial understanding including pricing, negotiation and account growth.

• Self-motivated and comfortable managing an independent territory.

Relevant Ingredient Experience

Candidates could come from backgrounds including:

Flavors | Colors | Extracts | Seasonings | Functional Ingredients | Bakery Ingredients | Beverage Ingredients | Dairy Ingredients | Sweeteners | Starches | Emulsifiers | Hydrocolloids | Preservatives | Specialty Food Ingredients

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will have an established network within the East Coast food manufacturing market and a track record of combining strategic account management with proactive new business development.

They should understand the food ingredient sales process and be comfortable working with customers from initial concept and formulation discussions through to commercial launch.