Sales Representative, East Africa

As Area Sales Manager, East Africa, you will drive profitable growth across East Africa and selected English-speaking West African markets. You will develop new business, grow strategic accounts, manage distributors, lead three customer-facing employees and coordinate the local delivery of a complex cross-functional programme supporting Ingredion's long-term regional growth strategy.

What you will do:

• Lead and develop the team: Set clear direction, coach performance and build accountability across two Sales Representatives and one Customer Service Representative.
  
• Drive profitable new business: Build and execute growth plans, win new customers and expand share of wallet across Texture and Healthful Solutions, with a focus on solution selling rather than account maintenance.
  
• Lead local programme execution: Coordinate cross-functional stakeholders and implementation activities for a major capability investment in Kenya, managing milestones, timelines, risks and delivery outcomes.
  
• Own commercial performance: Deliver net sales, gross profit, margin and volume objectives, using data to guide pricing, product mix, forecasting, pipeline priorities and resource deployment.
  
• Grow strategic customers and channels: Manage selected regional and global key accounts, lead negotiations and develop distributors serving small and medium-sized customers.
  
• Advance priority markets: Drive growth in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana while supporting opportunities in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
  
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery: Partner with Technical Service, Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing and Customer Service to accelerate customer projects and support relevant office and site responsibilities.
  

What you will bring:

• Education and industry knowledge: Bachelor's degree in business, food science, food technology or a related field, or equivalent experience, combined with knowledge of food ingredients, processes and applications.
  
• Commercial growth experience: Strong B2B sales and new-business development experience in food ingredients, flavours, beverage ingredients or a comparable solution-based ingredient business.
  
• Proven people leadership: Direct experience leading and developing a commercial or customer-facing team. This is essential for the role.
  
• Commercial ownership: Experience managing strategic or global key accounts and distributors, with a strong understanding of pricing, gross profit, margins, net sales and product mix.
  
• Project execution and mobility: Demonstrated success leading complex cross-functional projects with multiple stakeholders, timelines and deliverables, plus fluent English and willingness to travel regularly across the region.