National Account Manager - New Business

National Accounts Manager- New Business

Position Summary

Kettle Cuisine is seeking an experienced, driven, and highly connected new-business hunter to lead the next phase of national-account growth. This individual contributor will identify and build relationships with high-potential national and multi-unit foodservice operators—including quick-service, fast-casual, casual-dining, pizza, deli/café, and emerging restaurant concepts—and convert those relationships into qualified opportunities, customer trials, and long-term partnerships.

The ideal candidate is energized by opening doors, understanding operator needs, and bringing the right internal resources together to create differentiated menu solutions. Working closely with Marketing, Culinary, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, Customer Service, and broker partners, this role will develop custom offerings that solve customer challenges, reflect consumer and menu trends, and delight the end consumer.

Key Responsibilities

New Business Development

• Build and manage a targeted prospect list of national and multi-unit restaurant and foodservice operators aligned with Kettle Cuisine’s growth priorities.

• Create new connections with executive, culinary, procurement, operations, and supply-chain decision-makers through strategic outreach, industry relationships, referrals, brokers, and trade shows.

• Develop and execute account-entry strategies that move prospects from initial connection through discovery, ideation, sampling, commercialization, and launch.

• Lead discovery conversations to understand menu strategy, consumer needs, operational constraints, sourcing priorities, and whitespace opportunities.

• Build a measurable pipeline of qualified opportunities, maintain accurate CRM activity and next steps, and deliver reliable forecasts aligned with growth targets.

• Represent Kettle Cuisine’s branded and custom capabilities—including culinary-led development, small-batch craftsmanship at scale, flexible manufacturing, and customer-specific solutions—to prospective operators.

Operator-Driven Innovation

• Partner with customers and Kettle Cuisine’s Marketing and Culinary teams to translate consumer insights, menu trends, and operator needs into compelling concepts.

• Develop best-in-class custom menu offerings that differentiate the customer, simplify execution, and deliver an exceptional consumer experience.

• Leverage internal Culinary, R&D, and Marketing resources to create customer-ready concepts, presentations, prototypes, samples, and commercialization plans.

• Support the development of custom soups, sauces, broths, sides, mac and cheese, sous vide items, and other kettle-crafted offerings that showcase Kettle Cuisine’s full capability set.

• Monitor key foodservice, consumer, ingredient, packaging, and competitive trends and convert relevant insights into prospecting priorities and customer ideas.

• Bring the voice of the customer back to the organization to influence innovation priorities, product development, and commercial strategy.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Marketing, Culinary, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and Customer Service to ensure a coordinated customer-development process.

• Coordinate customer ideation sessions, sample reviews, plant visits, trials, and presentations with clear objectives and documented next steps.

• Partner with broker and chain-sales resources to expand reach, increase access to target operators, and accelerate qualified introductions.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive foodservice sales, business development, or national-account experience, with a demonstrated record of opening new accounts and creating profitable growth.

• Proven success selling to national or multi-unit restaurant operators and navigating relationships across culinary, marketing, procurement, operations, and supply chain.

• Demonstrated ability to convert an initial connection into a qualified opportunity, customer trial, and commercial win.

• Experience partnering cross-functionally—especially with Marketing, Culinary, R&D, and Operations—to develop and commercialize custom products.

• Strong understanding of foodservice buying processes, menu development, operator economics, and the path from concept to launch.

• Willingness and ability to travel regularly for customer meetings, trade shows, industry events, and internal collaboration.

Skills and Attributes

• Hunter mentality with the initiative, resilience, and curiosity to create opportunities where none currently exist.

• Exceptional prospecting, relationship-building, discovery, negotiation, presentation, and storytelling skills.

• Commercially astute, with the ability to connect customer needs to differentiated solutions and measurable business value.

• Passionate about food, culinary innovation, consumer trends, and creating menu solutions that delight consumers.

• Self-directed, collaborative, highly organized, and disciplined in follow-through.

• Proficient in Salesforce, Microsoft Office Suite, and foodservice analytics and reporting tools.

• Comfortable influencing without authority and coordinating multiple internal and external stakeholders.

• Able to represent Kettle Cuisine with credibility, energy, and professionalism at every customer touchpoint.

Travel

Regular travel is expected for customer meetings, trade shows, industry events, plant visits, and internal collaboration.