Senior Director of Co-Pack & Retail Sales

Senior Director Of Co-Pack & Retail Sales We are seeking a Senior Director of Co-Pack & Retail Sales with deep expertise in contract manufacturing (co-packing) within the food and beverage sector. Reporting to the Chief Customer Officer, this strategic leadership role drives revenue growth by securing and expanding co-pack partnerships with CPG brands, private label retailers, and emerging food startups. The ideal candidate combines hunter mentality with financial rigor, translating complex co-pack costing models into compelling value propositions that win multi-year, high-volume contracts. You will own the full P&L for the co-pack business unit.This position is remote-eligible with 40-50% travel required for plant tours, trade shows, and QBRs.Essential Functions Build and execute a 3-year co-pack growth strategy targeting branded CPGs, private label, foodservice, and DTC/e-commerce brands.Personally lead Tier 1 pursuits while coaching the team on mid-market deals.Develop dynamic pricing models incorporating raw material volatility, labor, energy, changeover costs, and capacity utilization.Negotiate multi-year MSAs with risk-sharing clauses (volume tiers, raw material pass-throughs, capex contributions).Deliver GP% expansion of 2–4 pts YoY through mix optimization and cost-to-serve discipline.Partner with Operations to validate plant capabilities, run rates, and changeover feasibility for RFPs.Collaborate with R&D/QA to accelerate co-pack product development (NPD cycle Work with Supply Chain to lock in ingredient pre-buy commitments and mitigate commodity risk.Maintain a live database of 200+ co-pack prospects (funding stage, SKU velocity, incumbent packer pain points).Position the company as the preferred co-packer for low acid aseptic technology.Advanced Excel modeling: build fully loaded cost models (absorption, contribution margin, breakeven analysis).Comfortable presenting IRR / NPV scenarios for capex requests tied to customer commitments.History of margin recovery post-commodity spikes (e.g., dairy, oils, freight).Qualifications Deep understanding of SQF, HACCP, FSMA, USDA/FDA requirements for co-pack.Familiarity with high-speed lines (RTE, beverages, snacks, frozen, aseptic, HPP).Experience with private label retailer specs (Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Whole Foods).Team builder: recruited and scaled high-performing co-pack sales teams.Executive presence: credible with C-suite (CEO, CFO, VP Supply Chain) of $100M–$5B brands.MBA or finance courseworkBilingual (Spanish/English)Prior role at a top 20 co-packerExperience with Shopper Marketing fund integration in co-pack deals