VP, Retail Sales (Poultry)

Purpose of the Position Simmons Foods is in a defining moment of retail transformation. This Vice President of Retail Sales will lead the charge—building and executing a retail growth strategy that expands the company’s footprint across grocery, club, and mass, while bringing innovation-led, consumer-driven products to market. This is not a maintain-the-business role. This leader will shape the retail future of the Poultry division by developing premium positioning, forging strategic customer partnerships, and driving new go-to-market strategies that connect operational capability with consumer insight. The VP of Retail Sales will lead a high-performing retail team, own P&L performance for the retail channel, and serve as a catalyst for cross-functional alignment across Sales, Marketing, R&D, and Operations to deliver exceptional growth and quality at every shelf. Essential Position Responsibilities - This is a salary exempt position. Leads the retail sales team for the Poultry division. Owns the retail growth agenda—building and scaling the team, activating new distribution, and bringing consumer-led innovation from concept to shelf. Maintains a deep understanding of the company’s product portfolio and pipeline and relentlessly pursues new retail opportunities that align with the company’s strategic vision. Develop plans and strategies to achieve the company’s retail sales goals. Establishes clear priorities, performance targets, and operating rhythms that drive consistent execution and profitable growth. Manages annual sales budgets; aligns resources to the highest-value opportunities; and ensures communication is coordinated across customers, internal teams, and leadership. Develops and executes customer-specific business plans for key retail accounts, leveraging category insights, syndicated data, and shopper analytics to strengthen selling stories, expand distribution, and improve share. Builds and leads a high-performing retail sales organization. Recruits, coaches, and develops talent; sets clear performance expectations; and partners with Human Resources on selection, onboarding, compensation alignment, and performance management. Establishes training, tools, and consistent operating rhythms that enable the team to execute customer plans, deliver against targets, and sustain a strong, values-based culture. Defines and improves sales processes that enable predictable performance. Documents and reinforces consistent sales disciplines (planning, pipeline management, forecasting, and customer engagement) to drive desired outcomes. Builds the infrastructure, tools, and reporting needed to support the retail sales function. Proactively manages customer expectations and resolves issues to maintain high customer satisfaction. Partners with divisional counterparts to advance a compelling retail strategy aligned with the organization’s short- and long-term goals. Assesses market potential and identifies new business opportunities across retail channels. Expands the business by translating category and customer insights into actionable growth plans. Identifies whitespace opportunities across grocery, club, mass, and discount channels by analyzing category trends, competitive positioning, and retailer needs. Provides detailed and accurate sales forecasting and maintains robust customer and prospect interaction data. Monitors customer, market, and competitor activity and share timely insights with company leadership. Manages key retail relationships at the buyer and executive level (e.g., grocery, club channels, and emerging accounts) and leads or supports negotiations to close strategic opportunities. Drives in-person customer engagement and travel as needed to advance partnerships and develops and executes go-to-market plans for new retail product launches. 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 as 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. 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. Physical Activities: Enters and locates information on a computer. Visually verifies information, often in small print. Presents information to small or large groups. Communicates with Customers, Vendors, or Employees via telephone, in-person, and/or electronic mail. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): As required by each facility. Travel: Travels domestically to retail customer headquarters, industry trade shows, and company facilities as needed. This may be 30-50% per month. A valid passport is required. Technical Experience: 10+ years of progressive sales leadership experience within CPG, food manufacturing, or protein/poultry industry, with a strong emphasis on retail channel management preferred. 5+ years managing retail customer relationships at the buyer or executive level with major retailers. Demonstrated success in private label sales, branded retail programs, and/or co-manufacturing partnerships. Preferred experience with trade spend management, promotional planning, and retail margin analysis. Proficiency in syndicated data tools (e.g., Nielsen, IRI/Circana) and category management principles. Proven ability to build and execute customer-specific business plans that drive distribution gains and profitable growth. Strong financial acumen, including P&L management and pricing strategy. Positive attitude, strong work ethic, proven ability to influence cross-functional teams, excellent organization, communication, and presentation skills. Industry Experience: Experience within the food processing or CPG industry with a strong preference for poultry or another commodity protein. Retail grocery channel experience is required; experience with private label, licensed brands, or owned brand development is highly preferred. Minimum Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Business or related field, or 10+ years relevant business experience. Preferred Education: Related Master’s degree. We value military experience and welcome veterans to join our team.