Senior Regional Account Manager, Sales - Midwest / East

Kodiak Cakes is seeking a senior sales leader to accelerate profitable growth across Midwest and East regional grocery accounts. The role owns headquarters-level retailer relationships, develops customer growth strategies, leads negotiations, and manages account financial performance and cross-functional execution.

Responsibilities:

• Own and expand strategic headquarters-level relationships with Midwest / East regional grocery chains, including senior buyer and category-management stakeholders; serve as the accountable commercial lead for assigned accounts
• Build and lead multi-year retailer growth strategies and annual joint business plans, balancing revenue, volume, distribution, margin, and long-term brand-building objectives
• Lead complex negotiations on assortment, pricing, promotion, innovation placement, and distribution expansion; create commercially sound solutions that deliver value for Kodiak and retail partners
• Own customer-level financial performance, trade investment, and promotional strategy; evaluate spending efficiency, profitability, and return on investment, and make timely course corrections
• Drive rigorous account forecasting and business reviews, synthesizing retailer signals, syndicated data, shipment and consumption trends, and promotional plans into actionable projections
• Identify whitespace opportunities and create persuasive, category-led growth stories that win shelf space, unlock innovation, and strengthen Kodiak’s competitive position
• Direct broker and cross-functional execution across Sales, Finance, Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Supply Chain, and Sales Operations; remove obstacles and ensure commitments translate into results
• Anticipate retailer and business risks, lead resolution of complex customer issues, and share account insights and effective practices that elevate the broader sales organization

Requirements:

• Ability to build influential buyer relationships and lead complex, high-value negotiations with regional grocery headquarters
• Ability to connect customer plans to Kodiak's broader growth, profitability, and category priorities
• Confidence owning trade budgets, forecasts, customer profitability, promotional ROI, and difficult investment tradeoffs
• Ability to turn consumer, shopper, retailer, and syndicated insights into persuasive recommendations and measurable growth
• Ability to align stakeholders, direct broker execution, and influence decisions without relying on formal authority
• Sound judgment and resilience in a remote environment with multiple complex customer priorities
• A sustained record of directly owning headquarters-level sales relationships with regional grocery chains in CPG, including independent buyer negotiations and retailer business planning
• Experience managing complex or strategically important grocery accounts with clear accountability for revenue, distribution, trade spending, forecasting, and profitability outcomes
• Demonstrated success winning incremental distribution, improving customer economics, or growing underperforming accounts through data-backed commercial strategies
• Hands-on ownership of annual customer plans, promotional investment decisions, forecast accuracy, and customer-facing business reviews
• Ability to use Excel, presentations, syndicated data, and retailer reporting to influence decisions and communicate with senior stakeholders
• Experience guiding brokers and cross-functional partners through challenging customer initiatives
• Ability to travel up to 30%
• experience coaching peers or sharing best practices is valuable