Business Unit Overview

Here's what all the hype is about: Premier Nutrition Company (PNC) is one of the fastest-growing companies in the convenient nutrition space showing clear leadership in the category of protein shakes and protein powders. We make the brandsPremier Protein, Dymatize, andPowerBar,which is sold internationally, and we are part of our holding company, BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR).

We have a simple, yet powerful, formula for our success, which we’ve been nailing for over 15 years. We start off with an organization powered by our company purpose—Changing Lives with Good Energy. Then our purpose-driven people are given the support and autonomy to develop and grow. Next, we are super-intentional about designing a culture where everyone feels like they trulyconnect and belong, which is one of our five company core values. Purpose-driven, connected employees who are consistently mastering new skills deliver amazing business results. And winning companies with amazing people and thriving cultures attract and retain top talent, so the cycle becomes self-reinforcing or what we call ourregenerative culture.

We don’t mind sharing our formula since, as people who we believe in the power ofchanging lives with good energy, we think the world would be a better place if more workplaces treated adults like adults and gave them the platform to do the best work of their lives—alongside some truly amazing colleagues. Why don’t more companies do this? It takes deep-in-your-bones conviction to your people, products, and purpose to pull it off. It also takes resisting the urge to try to control people, and instead trusting them to make the right decisions. The results of our vibrant culture speaks for themselves: We were certified as aGreat Place to Work™ for the 8th year-running in 2024. And we currently rank #2 onFortune Magazine’sBest Workplaces in our category, and in the top 12 for each of the last 5 years.

We have a long list of ways we take care of our people, but here are some crowd-pleasers that our employees often say they love most: Year-round ½ day Fridays, in-office massages, free lunches & snacks, dogs in the office, month-long cultural and diversity celebrations, monthly over-the-top in-office events like bring your kids to work day, 6% 401k match after 1 year, as-needed sick leave, generous paid family leave regardless of gender, all positions bonus-eligible, company-wide volunteer days, company-matched charitable donations, no employee handbook, no dress code, coaching conversations instead of performance reviews, walking meetings, free exercise classes, and company-paid gym membership for Emeryville-based employees.

PNC seeks individuals who will flourish in this type of work environment and will add to our culture and help build this high-growth company for the next phase in our amazing journey. Does this sound like you? Then read on…

Responsibilities

The role you’re interested in…

The Vice President of Sales Strategy & Category Leadership is a critical member of the Sales Leadership team supporting overall team culture, leadership, integration across functions, and leading a team that is responsible for developing and implementing strategies designed to deliver top and bottom-line results as well as capability objectives for Premier Nutrition.

The Customer Strategy & Category Leadership Team collaborates with the Customer Sales Team and cross functional teams including RGM, Brand, Omni, Shopper Marketing, Operations and Finance to ensure that our annual business objectives are achieved. This role is a builder and mover of “Big Rocks” at PNC.

The successful candidate will be a ‘hands-on’ leader managing the development of functional capabilities, critical strategic projects, able to identify and drive specific initiatives and projects to achieve sales expectations, grow existing business, and open new points of availability in a highly competitive market within stated profitability goals and the needs of our customers, while aligning with the purpose and values of PNC. Through these efforts, PNC will be positioned to exceed customer expectations and accelerate business growth.

The work environment…

So, what’s it like to work here? If you’re based in the greater Bay Area, you’ll walk into our Emeryville office each Tuesday morning and start the in-person portion of ourhybrid workweek at our weekly all-company meeting and find close to 200 of your colleagues sitting on sofas, beanbag chairs, or the floor excitedly talking through the week ahead and watching a newer teammate tell their personal life and career journey followed by a quick update on any hot topics that might be relevant to the week ahead.

We are a dynamic, HYBRID workplace so every employee who lives within 100 miles of our offices is expected to come in each TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY. We aligned on those two common days way back in 2021 to be intentional about connecting in person for things like innovation, impromptu collaboration, having respectful challenges to get to better decisions, leadership role-modeling, and culture building. Great work cultures are built on stories about what great looks like in practice, and great stories on Zoom meetings are few and far between. The expected pay scale for this role is $260k to $270k, which may vary based on relevant experience, qualifications, geographic area (if applicable), and internal equity for the role.

Our modern 50,000 sq. foot headquarters straddle the border of the cities of Emeryville, Oakland, and Berkeley, California with free onsite parking and many transportation options.

You’re excited about this opportunity because your time will be filled with leading…

Sales Strategy: 15% of your time

Manage and lead the Customer Strategy Team to develop merchandising, assortment, pricing and shelving (MAPS) strategies and tactics aligned with brand objectives with approved trade budgets, and support account planning to identify opportunities, incorporate category and competitive insights, and integrate brand strategies at the customer level.
Enable Customer Strategy to work with customer Strategic Business Units (SBU) to build promotion plans and set trade investment strategies. Identify customer opportunities and lead the development of compelling selling stories, ensuring Customer Sales has all the relevant information they need to sell to our retailers.
Serve as a key partner to the Customer Sales team, Brand team & RGM to drive the customer planning process by developing trade strategies in alignment with brand partners and the PNC’s financial goals.
Serve as the customer advocate responsible for bringing vital customer perspective and insights to the Brand and RGM teams, including new item launches, customer business drivers and the business review forecasting process.

Sales Operations: 15% of your time

Responsible for a team focused on business processes, tools and technologies that support the Customer Sales Team.
Drives a focus on sales enablement tools related to technology, such as: PIM (Product Information Management, Syndication, CRM, etc.
Supports a team that knows how to bring people and systems together to reduce friction in the sales process which will allow the Customer Sales team to sell faster and better.
Ensure sales reports and other internal intelligence are provided to the Customer Sales organization. Leads the development of new reporting tools and reports. Drive the coordination with the Customer Sales team to create efficient and accurate reporting initiatives.
Provides guidance on enterprise KPIs to ensure that the Customer Sales organization has the relevant information needed to plan, manage, execute and optimize their Customer Sales Plans.
Ensures that there is a focus on the integration and harmonization of various data sets in order to deliver reports and solutions that increase learning and action for the total PNC organization.

Category Leadership: 15% of your time

Works closely with the Customer Sales team and Broker Operations team to develop category strategy and assists customer with integrated category strategy development.
Sets strategic and tactical objectives on the Distribution, Shelving, and Merchandising goals to improve overall category performance, working directly with the Customer Sales team and Broker Operations team to execute across accounts of responsibility.
Responsible for developing and managing customer specific presentation of relevant consumer insights, competitive responses, and new item/category selling strategies.
Develops strong working relationships with category buyers and cross functional departments.
Manages Category specific customer calls - e.g. Category Reviews, Business Updates, New Item Presentations and Planogram Work via self and brokered resources

People Management & Cross-Functional Collaboration: 40% of your time

Consistently focuses on people engagement and development to help make PNC the place people want to join, stay and grow with.
Builds peer support and strong internal company relationships with other functional leaders
Fosters a team culture focused on continuous improvement.
Recruits, hires and trains new team members as required.
Works closely with the People Team and Customer Sales Leaders to provide necessary learning and development content for the entire Sales Team.
Embrace and support our Good Energy culture and PNC values.

The daily stuff that everyone does but few quantify: 15% of your time

Attending meetings and presentations
All hands, team, and cross-functional meetings, offsites, training, and industry events
Participating in company-wide activities and events galore
Impromptu conversations with colleagues
Administrivia like email, calendaring, expense reports, etc

Qualifications

What are we looking for?

Education

Bachelor's degree required.

Experience

15+ years of experience in Sales/Sales Strategy managing customers within the Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) industry.
5+ years of experience managing a team
Experience in trade promotion optimization, retail execution, developing MAPS strategies, and developing strategic growth partnerships with retailers, preferably in the food or consumer packaged goods industries.

The 5 capabilities or mindsets most relevant to this role:

Inspire and influence—build trusting, win-win relationships; motivate those whom you lead and peers
Enterprise strategic view—take the full company perspective over departments or channels
Challenge ideas respectfully by sharing your real opinion with conviction; disagree in a way people feel heard
Play to win—exceed stretch goals and have fun doing it along the way
Give guidance—share clear feedback & praise; remove obstacles; coach without micromanaging

You will thrive here and may just do the best work of your life if…

You want to be an integral part of shaping an amazing work culture and being a culture-add
You don’t have a big ego and give credit and praise freely
You like to get sh*t, I mean—stuff done
You can be flexible in your approach and abandon past practices if they don’t make sense
You can be both clear and kind—empathetic yet hold people accountable
You can do periods of focused, deep work on projects that drive the business forward

This may not be your ideal next career move if…

You like a lot of structure, rules, and uniformity
You like hierarchy, and command and control management
You like a “big company” impersonal, cog-in-the-machine vibe—that ain’t us
You want to build a beautiful, orderly bureaucracy
You like things to not change much (we suggest the elevator business for that)
Dealing with ambiguity or experimentation is not your jam
You try to resolve challenging interpersonal situations over instant messaging
You want to work in your own silo-of-excellence

So, if after reading through this long list you’re thinking—I’m not sure I meet 100% of these requirements, should I still apply? YES—if you embody a growth mindset, see challenges as opportunities to develop, and find innovative ways to get the real work that matters done, you sound like our kind of candidate!

Here’s the deal with our not-so-standard, um…standard interview processbecause we know you are the curious type, which is why you’re still reading this…

Quick 30 min phone chat with a high energy member of our Talent Acquisition team to do a quick overview of your background and answer any burning questions you have
Team interviews are kept to a minimum to foster a more efficient, candidate-friendly process (too many interviewers yields little value and drags out the process for you—and who wants that, right?):

A short series of in-person or video interviews in a 1:1 setting; these are usually with the hiring manager, one or two other team members, and a person from another team to get broader perspectives (note: we don’t do panel interviews because they don’t give interviewers a chance to ask you unique questions, and we assign interviewers different roles so we’re probing different capabilities)

A case study or job task to simulate what you’d actually be doing in the role (since your job is not actually to be interviewed for a living, why is that the thing companies rely on so much?) Yes, there will be a small panel for this one so you don’t have to do it more than once, and yes, they might ask you some kind yet probing questions at the end after the raucous applause stops.
Once your interview concludes, the team will meet for an in-depth consultative process to ensure we are hiring the right person for the right job. Interviewers must come in with a strong yes or no vote beforehand to avoid groupthink with supporting reasons. The collective thoughts on your candidacy will be discussed in an environment of safety to challenge ideas respectfully, debate. and be open to all important qualifications of the candidates. A trained, disinterested bias blocker will be present to help mitigate bias so the team can make a sound hiring decision. The moment of truth arrives when the hiring manager makes the big decision. If you nailed the interviews and the case study was brilliant, guess what? The offer is all yours! And the ball is in your court. Will you accept? We sure hope so because this place is the real deal, and don’t just believe us—just ask the 93% of our people who said this is a great place to work in our most recent employee survey.

We strive to create an equitable and inclusive environment to contribute to the success of our organization. Premier Nutrition provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, status as a covered veteran and any other category protected under applicable federal, state, provincial and local laws.