Dir Bus Dev Sales Ops bei Simmons Foods

The Director of Business Development & Sales Operations serves as a critical link between strategy and execution across the commercial organization. This leader will drive growth through new business development, strengthen customer relationships, and ensure operational excellence across demand planning, sales analytics, and customer service functions. The role is both strategic and hands-on balancing external business development with internal process optimization, data-driven insights, and cross-functional leadership.

Essential Position Responsibilities - This is a salary position.

Business Development & Growth - Identify and pursue new customer and market opportunities aligned with company strategy.  Lead commercial pipeline development and forecasting for all new business initiatives. Collaborate with marketing and product teams to translate market insights into actionable go-to-market plans. Support customer contract negotiations and strategic partnership structures.

Sales Operations & Commercial Effectiveness - Oversee sales processes, systems, and reporting to ensure visibility, efficiency, and accuracy across the commercial team. Drive continuous improvement in pricing strategy, pipeline management, and performance tracking. Partner with Finance and Supply Chain to align forecasts, capacity, and profitability goals. Manage CRM utilization, data integrity, and reporting cadence for the sales organization.

Demand Planning & Sales Analytics - Lead the Demand Planning function to ensure accurate forecasting that balances customer demand and production capabilities. Oversee Sales Analytics to generate actionable insights that guide strategic decision-making. Develop dashboards and KPI scorecards to monitor volume trends, margin performance, and customer metrics. Integrate analytics into account management, pricing, and supply chain planning processes.

Customer Service Leadership - Direct the Customer Service team to deliver a best-in-class customer experience that builds loyalty and trust. Define service standards and escalation protocols to ensure timely issue resolution. Foster a proactive, solutions-oriented culture that strengthens partnerships and supports the sales organization.

Team Leadership & Development - Lead and develop a high-performing cross-functional team spanning business development, demand planning, analytics, and customer service. Build organizational capabilities through training, performance management, and succession planning. Foster collaboration, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement.

Participates as a member of the Team. Participates in the ongoing development, communication and implementation of team concepts, programs, and policies; coordinates work to ensure best practices with all team members. Attends appropriate team meetings. As a member of the Team, fosters strong cohesiveness regarding all major issues, e.g., direction, annual plan, budget, policy changes, etc. Accepts responsibility to quickly identify any areas that lack cohesiveness, bringing them to the attention of the team leader and working with the team in a supportive manner to resolve issues and actively look for ways, and reinforce actions needed, to achieve synergy possible within the larger organization.

Simmons Operating systems principles and objectives: Is familiar with Simmons’ established operating systems (e.g. quality, security, office environment, company policies, LEAN); understands the responsibility to maintain familiarity with the systems and this position’s role in support of these systems - including a consideration of the impact of individual actions on the systems and the responsibility to communicate concerns and improvement ideas.

Performs other duties as necessary in support of business objectives: This position description is intended to guide the activities of the person in this position and is not intended to limit the thinking and creativity of the person to the work of this function nor is it intended that this describe all the work that may be required of the person in this position.

Physical Activities: N/A

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): As required by visiting facility.

Travel: 12-18 trips per year

Technical Experience: Strong analytical background with proven experience in forecasting, pricing, and commercial analytics. Demonstrated success leading cross-functional teams and delivering measurable business impact. Proficiency with CRM and BI tools (e.g., Salesforce, Power BI, Tableau, Excel).

Industry Experience: 10+ years of progressive experience in commercial, sales operations, or business development leadership roles—preferably within manufacturing or ingredient industries. Excellent interpersonal, communication, and negotiation skills.

Minimum Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Supply Chain, or related field or 4 years related experience.

Preferred Education: MBA preferred.