Technical Sales Director DACH & CEE

About us:

Tate & Lyle is a global provider of distinctive high-quality ingredients and solutions for the food beverage and other industries. Listed on the London Stock Exchange the company was founded in 1921 and is considered a global leader in the production and worldwide marketing of industrial and nutritional ingredients.

At Tate & Lyle we are dedicated to making more than extraordinary ingredients. We are a purpose driven company dedicated to transforming lives through the science of food by supporting healthy living building thriving communities and caring for our planet.

About this role:

The Regional Technical Sales Director oversees the Technical Sales function leading its strategy execution and performance across categories while providing technical leadership and support for regional accounts distribution partners and selected key accounts within the region. This role ensures full alignment of technical sales activities with customers leveraging solution selling and compelling value propositions to expand the opportunity pipeline increase win rates and materially support regional P&L objectives.

Working closely with senior leadership this role shape customer satisfaction and commercial success by integrating the voice of the customer into solution development technical guidance and account planning. The Regional Technical Sales Director drives opportunity pipeline-led growth ensuring robust opportunity identification prioritization and technical validation across the region. Through these actions the role supports growth acceleration of sustainable healthfocused solutions within Sweetening Mouthfeel and Fortification - aligned with Tate & Lyles mission and strategic objectives.

The Regional Technical Sales Director serves as a senior technical interface for selected regional customers and distribution partners fostering long-term relationships and unlocking new opportunities.

This role collaborates closely with Europe leadership Sales and Marketing teams to position Technical Sales as a valuedriven customercentric enabler of commercial success.

Accountabilities:

• Develop and oversee the implementation of the regional strategy for Technical Sales ensuring strong alignment with commercial priorities and consistent application of solutionselling principles to deliver differentiated value across categories and priority accounts.

• Grow revenue and margins (in line with Plan) through the creation and development of technical opportunities from the deployment of our regional categories growth priorities (L1/L2 Pipeline projects NPD campaigns chassis) ensuring strong technical qualification prioritisation and acceleration of opportunities that strengthen regional pipeline-led growth.

• In coordination with the KA Commercial team and the KA Technical Sales team provide regional technical support for Enterprise Accelerators and Partners accounts ensuring consistency excellence and customercentred delivery that reinforces our value propositions.

• Serve as the senior technical interface for selected customers fostering executivelevel relationships that enhance trust shape joint roadmaps and unlock growth opportunities.

• Provide leadership for the regional Technical Sales function fostering a high-performance environment that champions customercentricity solutions selling capabilities a winning mindset and crossfunctional collaboration.

• Identify regional capability-gaps and collaborate with the Category Expertise team to prioritize and develop the necessary technical capabilities required for successful execution.

• Resource allocation and prioritization across EU CI&CCs for the region and across categories ensuring deployment that maximises value creation and pipeline advancement.

• Partner with senior leadership across Sales Marketing and Business Development to refine technical offerings for customers aligning them with the evolving voice of the customer and market trends.

• Gather competitive technical and commercial insights from customer interactions and ensuring these are communicated effectively to Commercial Marketing Business Development and product management teams.

• Champion and drive large complex customer technical development in collaboration with key stakeholders (Product managements R&I Applications & Solution Operations).

• Collaborate with regional Commercial Leaders to jointly develop key customer relationships and take accountability for developing and executing strategic customer growth plans based on opportunity sizing and pipeline conversion priorities.

• Manage high-priority customer escalations providing strategic guidance on issue resolution.

• Establish and monitor performance metrics to maintain high standards across the Technical Sales function.

• Identify and implement innovative solutions and tools to enhance the efficiency of the technical support process.

• Drive change management within the Technical Sales team to ensure adoption of solutionselling methodologies foster a growth/hunting mindset and readiness for future industry trends.

• Second line supports to the TMEA Technical Sales team.

About you

• Bachelors degree or equivalent experience in technical discipline. Masters degree or equivalent experience preferred.

• Expert knowledge in multiple related specialised fields disciplines tools and approaches within the Technical Sales function.

• Experience in managing and developing customer facing and preferably lab-based teams across geographies.

• Advanced communication skills to convey highly complicated and sometimes commercially sensitive information with a diverse audience.

• Demonstrated proficiency in German both written and verbal is essential to effectively collaborate with internal and external stakeholders.

• Able to significantly influence the decision-making across categories at regional and global level engaging with relevant stakeholders and forums.

• Demonstrated successes in value-based selling (i.e. using technical and commercial elements across customer touch points to demonstrate total value delivery to customer).

• Developing short to mid-term (1-3 years) strategies and delivering longer-term strategies (3-5 years).

• Able to identify emerging and future technical needs across categories and more broadly across F&B.

• Demonstrated ability to network with peers counterparts and stakeholders at regional and global levels to identify cross-region/category learning opportunities and ensure the global initiatives pipeline supports growth aspiration of the category.

• Able to solve highly complex problems which require advanced decision-making original thought and new solutions.

• Proven ability to close critical deals or contracts by effectively influencing and negotiating with internal stakeholders and Leadership Team.

• Demonstrated success in negotiating and securing high-value partnership with senior external stakeholders (i.e. customer counterpart such as category R&I Application and Solutions/Innovation leaders) showcasing strong persuasion and negotiation skills

Desired Competency Profile:

• This role requires an advanced level of Portfolio Expertise & Category Technical Expertise encompassing a strong understanding of competitor offerings their applications and technical trends. This allows individuals to inform competitive positioning and lead in-depth technical discussions with customers to address challenges and shape opportunities.

• An advanced level of Business Development & Opportunity Prioritisation is needed in this role using diverse data sources to identify growth areas and contributing leading technical expertise to shape a holistic view of opportunities. This includes prioritising opportunities based on evolving market conditions ensuring sufficient resources and leading the technical execution of high-value opportunities within the pipeline.

• Expert Solution Design & Project Management anticipates market and regulatory shifts to identify strategic opportunities engaging senior stakeholders to establish new technical standards. Leads cross-functional teams to architect high-value solutions co-leading lab based research and development to establish best practices and taking accountability for long-term project success.

• An advanced level of Solution Selling involves collaborating with stakeholders to gain a holistic view of customer needs including those uncommunicated. This expertise enables individuals to develop tailored solutions combining products and services while supporting Sales in understanding cost and value propositions. Communicates technically complex solutions clearly and prepares data-driven proposals.

• Expert Solution Commercial & Financial Effectiveness involves supporting innovative financial analysis and decision-making to enhance commercial effectiveness. Individuals support leadership teams in scenario planning and risk management for technical solutions manage cross-portfolio solution commercials to identify strategic opportunities and evaluate large-scale innovation. They also align technical efforts with company financials to drive overall commercial strategy.

• An advanced level of Customer Relationship Management & Market Engagement involves understanding priority customer business strategies and building long-term senior relationships with those customers. Will position the company as a thought leader in industry forums and provide visible leadership. Can strategically adjust engagement to optimise value.

• Expert Capability Development & Coaching is demonstrated by regularly assessing team competency benchmarking performance and balancing market needs with business ambitions to prioritise development. Roles at this level will drive the competency agenda collaborating with L&D to define needs and continuously improve training pathways. They Internal Use Only will also manage underperformance effectively and play a leading role in shaping the companys coaching and development culture.

What we can offer you

As a business operating in 50 countries worldwide we offer a global rewards package to all employees alongside a range of country-specific addition to the flexible working policy hybrid working model & competitive salary we offer.

Tate & Lyle is an equal opportunity employer committed to the strength of an inclusive workforce.