Vice President, Sales USA & International Markets
- Agropur
- Eden Prairie, Minnesota
- Full Time
People are at the heart of our success. Our culture encourages collaboration, transparency, and accountability in order to generate value and achieve sustainable results. Being part of the team means committing to an environment where everyones impact truly matters.
At Agropur, each role aims to generate value and have a tangible impact on collective performance.
The Vice President, Sales USA & International Markets is accountable for developing and executing the commercial sales strategy for Agropur Ingredients outside of Canada, with full responsibility for regional sales performance, customer development, portfolio valorization, and customer experience.
This role has a dual strategic commercial mandate:
- Accelerate the integration and growth of a new portfolio of valueadded whey and milk proteins, through regionspecific commercial strategies aligned with customer needs, application requirements, and market maturity.
- Ensure continued, disciplined valorization of Agropurs commodity portfolio, including whey, permeate, and lactose, while managing market volatility and optimizing customer and channel mix.
A critical expectation of this role is the development of new customer bases globally, expanding Agropurs commercial footprint beyond existing relationships and systematically opening new enduse segments, customers, and strategic partnerships.
The role leads all sales organizations outside Canada, including the United States, Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, and owns the deployment of a Key Strategic Account (KSA) methodology, ensuring consistent, valuedriven account management across all regions.
In addition, the role oversees the Customer Experience (CX) organization, embedding a customercentric mindset and ensuring service excellence supports commercial growth objectives.
As a member of the Ingredients Management Committee, this role contributes to enterpriselevel decisions related to portfolio strategy, growth prioritization, commercial investment, and longterm value creation.
Where you will drive value:
Global Commercial Sales Strategy (Outside Canada)
- Define and execute regional commercial sales strategies for the USA and international markets.
- Develop integrated regional sales plans by geography, balancing:
- Valueadded whey and milk proteins
- Commodity products (whey, permeate, lactose)
- Establish clear volume, revenue, margin, and contribution targets by region and portfolio.
- Ensure alignment between global portfolio priorities and regional market realities.
ValueAdded Portfolio Growth (Whey & Milk Proteins)
- Lead the commercial integration and scaleup of valueadded whey and milk protein portfolios across all international regions.
- Define regional positioning, segmentation, pricing strategy, and channel approach.
- Partner with Marketing, Innovation, and R&D to translate technical capabilities into compelling customer value propositions.
- Drive portfolio mix evolution toward highermargin, more strategic applications.
Commodity Portfolio Valorization
- Ensure continued, profitable valorization of whey, permeate, and lactose globally.
- Define regionspecific commodity strategies that balance:
- Volume placement
- Market exposure
- Margin protection
- Actively manage customer and channel mix to mitigate volatility and structural risk.
New Customer Development & Market Expansion
- Own the development of new customer bases across all international regions.
- Identify, prioritize, and pursue:
- New customers
- New applications
- New industry segments
- Establish clear prospecting, qualification, and conversion disciplines across the global sales organization.
- Ensure growth is driven not only by existing accounts, but by structured, sustainable customer acquisition.
Key Strategic Account Methodology & Sales Process Improvement
- Design, deploy, and institutionalize a Key Strategic Account (KSA) methodology across global sales teams.
- Define criteria for strategic account designation and management.
- Ensure consistent application of:
- Account planning
- Valuecreation roadmaps
- Executive engagement models
- Elevate sales execution from transactional to longterm strategic partnership management.
- Implement continuous process sales improvement
Regional Sales Leadership & Execution
- Lead and develop regional sales organizations across the USA, Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
- Provide strategic direction while empowering regional leaders to adapt execution to local market conditions.
- Ensure rigorous sales discipline, forecasting accuracy, pricing governance, and deal approval processes.
- Personally engage in key global and regional customer relationships and strategic negotiations.
Customer Experience Leadership
- Oversee the Customer Experience (CX) organization supporting USA and international markets.
- Ensure a customercentric operating model delivering:
- High service levels
- Responsiveness and reliability
- Consistent and professional customer interactions
- Align CX priorities with commercial strategy and growth objectives.
- Leverage customer insights to drive continuous improvement across commercial processes.
CrossFunctional & Executive Collaboration
- Act as the senior commercial counterpart to Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and Innovation for international markets.
- Ensure alignment between:
- Production availability
- Customer commitments
- Regional logistics and inventory models
- Represent international markets and customer perspectives on the Ingredients Management Committee.
- Provide market intelligence, risk assessments, and growth recommendations to executive leadership.
What will enable you to have an impact:
Education
- Bachelors degree in Business, Science, or related field required.
- MBA or equivalent graduate degree preferred.
Experience
- 1215+ years of senior sales and commercial leadership experience in dairy ingredients, food ingredients, nutrition, feed, or commoditybased industries.
- Proven success leading multiregion or global sales organizations.
- Demonstrated ability to grow both existing accounts and new customer bases.
- Experience implementing disciplined key account or strategic account frameworks.
- Strong understanding of international trade, customer structures, and regional market dynamics.
Leadership & Capabilities
- Enterpriselevel sales leader with strong strategic and execution discipline.
- High commercial judgment in pricing, contracts, and risk management.
- Ability to lead change, standardize commercial practices, and elevate sales capabilities globally.
- Strong executive presence and credibility with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders.
A role aligned with what creates the greatest collective impact.
Agropur welcomes people from all backgrounds and origins. We are proud to be an employer with a diverse community and are committed to providing a respectful and inclusive experience for all employees and applicants. We will work with candidates who request accommodation. Please note that an adequate knowledge of French is required for positions in Quebec. Agropur uses artificial intelligence technology to assist our recruiters in screening, assessing, or selecting applicants for this position.
In this text, the use of the masculine gender to designate persons is intended only to lighten the text.