Culinary Research Development Jobs in Massachusetts

Only candidates located on the east coast or in the mid-west will be considered!

Position Summary

The Sr Director, MURC and C-Store will lead growth strategy and commercial execution across Kettle Cuisine’s multi-unit restaurant chain and convenience store channels. Reporting to the VP of National Accounts, this leader will manage three direct reports, oversee the MURC broker relationship, and directly own select key accounts and priority markets.

This role is accountable for profitable sales growth, strategic customer development, broker effectiveness, field execution, and cross-functional alignment against revenue, margin, and innovation objectives. The ideal candidate is a disciplined commercial leader who can build senior-level customer relationships, strengthen broker capability, coach regional sales talent, and translate market opportunities into executable account plans.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead channel strategy for MURC and C-store customers, including segmentation, growth priorities, account planning, and execution.
• Manage, train, and support the broker network to build pipeline, strengthen market coverage, improve execution, and deliver results.
• Establish broker expectations, sales priorities, training routines, and performance cadences that drive consistent market activation.
• Identify whitespace opportunities across regional chain and convenience store customers.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with key MURC and C-store customers.
• Own designated key accounts and priority markets, including strategy, customer engagement, execution, and performance delivery.
• Lead, coach, and develop the regional sales team supporting the channel.
• Set clear performance expectations, goals, and development plans for direct reports.
• Partner with Marketing, Culinary, R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, and Customer Service to support customer priorities and ensure disciplined execution.
• Align internal stakeholders on forecasts, product launches, service expectations, and issue resolution.
• Deliver sales, margin, and volume goals for the MURC and C-store business.
• Manage forecasts, pipelines, tradeoffs, and business reviews with rigor and accountability.

Reporting Structure

• Reports to: VP of National Accounts
• Direct reports: MURC Director West, MURC Director Central, and Regional Manager

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; business, marketing, or related field preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive foodservice sales experience, including national accounts, regional chains, MURC, or convenience store channels.
• Proven success leading customer growth strategies and managing complex account portfolios.
• Experience managing key accounts and market-level growth while balancing strategic leadership with hands-on customer ownership.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience, including coaching and developing high-performing teams.
• Experience leading broker partners through training, field support, performance management, and disciplined follow-up.
• Strong commercial acumen across pricing, margin management, negotiation, forecasting, and business planning.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and influence stakeholders across a matrixed organization.
• Willingness to travel as needed to support customers, brokers, and internal teams.

Preferred Experience

• Experience selling branded or manufactured food products into foodservice and convenience channels.
• Knowledge of regional chain operating models, distributor relationships, broker management, and broker-led market activation.
• Experience managing innovation launches and complex commercialization timelines.
• Familiarity with CRM and sales planning tools.

Success Measures

• Delivery against annual sales and margin targets.
• Achievement of innovation growth targets.
• Growth in strategic MURC and C-store accounts.
• Performance of assigned key accounts and priority markets.
• Pipeline growth, quality, and management.
• Broker engagement, capability development, and execution against agreed priorities.
• Forecast accuracy and business-plan execution.
• Team engagement, capability development, and retention.