Territory Manager, Foodservice

About Square Roots

Square Roots is the technology leader in indoor farming. We create meaningful jobs in modern farming, empowering a new generation of leaders in agriculture. With production farms in Grand Rapids, MI, Kenosha, WI, Springfield, OH and Brooklyn, NY (with more to come in 2023!), Square Roots is on a mission to responsibly bring our locally grown food to people in cities around the world, all year round.

The way we operate our business and operate our farms is better for local communities. Everyone on the Square Roots team—from farmers to engineers, commercial experts to operations specialists—is supported, connected, and empowered to do their best work to help Square Roots achieve its goals as a company.

About the Role:

In this role, you will partner and execute our foodservice strategy to achieve sales goals with existing partners and grow our customer base in target markets. You will partner with our Director of Sales, Foodservice to execute a holistic channel strategy that demonstrates a clear path for growth over the next 12-24 months, supporting current and future Square Roots farms.  You will engage with your assigned GFS Division to close new business and develop strong relationships with Square Roots customers.

You will: 

• Be accountable for the planning and executing of sales targets for the foodservice channel by building and maintaining strong customer relationships and internal processes to ensure optimal execution of company OKRs.
• Manage all GFS division relationships for your assigned GFS division(s) to build a strategic growth plan for the next 12 months that is consistent with Square Roots’ longer-term foodservice strategy. 
• Identify and lead new foodservice customer opportunities in assigned markets to continually build our distribution footprint while remaining mindful of production capacity and ROI.
• Support Director of Sales, Foodservice  to develop forecasts, create sell-in presentations, and lead engagement with distributor sales teams.
• Collaborate with SQR Marketing and Communications team members to support customer-specific marketing efforts.
• Negotiate and execute all corporate contracts, portfolio decisions, pricing, and terms for assigned market.
• Address all customer-specific requests and requirements.
• Ability to travel as needed for customer appointments, etc. Anticipate 50% travel, largely focused in the Midwest. In compliance with company COVID protocols.
• You will ideally be within proximity to your assigned territory. 

You have experience with:

• 3 - 5 years of foodservice sales experience in CPG companies, and experience  calling on GFS required.
• Food experience required. Produce category experience is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree required.
• Established relationships and demonstrated success working with GFS.
• Experience negotiating terms, and managing engagement and communication with external sales partners required.
• Experience optimizing sales execution across all sales levers/controllables to address changing business priorities.
• Proficient in understanding and creating actionable insights to drive customer/channel growth from complex data sets (e.g. customer forecasts and reports, historical shipments, syndicated data).
• Proficient in MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel) or comparable tools in G-suite (Google Slides, Google Sheets).

You are:

• Passionate about real, local food.
• Values-aligned.
• Extremely flexible and enjoys a "high-change" environment where priorities and tasks can shift from day to day.
• A great listener who iterates quickly.
• Comfortable in a flatter culture where you stretch up and down in your role.
• Ability to work independently while being a strong team player that wears many hats.
• Seeks and shares outside experience and inspiration to make our team and organization better.
• Dedicated to COVID safety in all internal and external interactions.

You'll love working at Square Roots because: 

• We're here to change the food system. You'll have the opportunity to play a significant role in our work at the intersection of technology, farming, and the global food industry - and we're only just getting started. 
• Our team is driven by a shared set of values. These keep us aligned and remind us how to show up every day in the face of growth and ambiguity. Whether you’re working remotely or on the farms,  collaboration, respect, optimism and humility are all embraced, and we seek to empower people at every step. Ask us about the rest!

Benefits and perks, of course. We're all here first and foremost to play our part in the mission, but medical, dental, and vision coverage, flexible work life culture, and lots of samples of the delicious food we grow certainly do not hurt.

COVID-19 Vaccination Policy:

New employees are required to be fully vaccinated prior to their start date. The definition of fully vaccinated includes a booster for those that are eligible.

You are considered fully vaccinated if: 

• You have received a full series of the vaccine recently (meaning 2 doses within 5 months for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, or 1 dose within 2 months for Johnson and Johnson). 
• You received your full series over 5 months ago for Pfizer and Moderna or over 2 months ago for Johnson and Johnson, and have also received a booster shot. 

Proof of vaccination is required during the hiring process, and employees will be required to get booster shots as they become eligible to maintain their fully-vaccinated status.  

As federal guidance on booster shots evolves, the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ may change.  

In accordance with EEOC guidance, if you are not vaccinated or do not intend to be due to medical reasons or deeply held religious beliefs, you may make an accommodation request and Square Roots will make a reasonable effort to accommodate you, subject to the requirements of the role you are applying for. 

Failure to be fully vaccinated by the start date without a documented accommodation will result in offer rescindment or termination.