Director of Commercialization

Position Summary

The Director, Commercialization is responsible for translating the company’s brand, consumer, category, and business strategies into compelling go-to-market strategies and actionable commercial plans that drive sales growth across channels.

This role serves as a critical connector across Marketing, Sales, Consumer & Shopper Insights, Category Management, and Innovation, synthesizing complex information into clear, differentiated sales narratives and tools that enable the organization to win with customers.

The Director leads the national commercialization strategy and sales narrative, ensuring priorities are clearly articulated and customized for the unique needs of each sales channel and customer. This individual also owns the national sales toolkit and supports innovation commercialization.

Key Responsibilities

Go-to-Market Strategy & Commercialization

• Collaborate cross functionally to help shape go-to-market strategies for key business priorities, including portfolio initiatives, major brand programs, innovation launches, and strategic growth opportunities.
• Establish commercialization frameworks, processes, and timelines that align cross-functional teams and ensure effective execution.
• Identify the critical selling opportunities, proof points, and activation requirements needed to drive customer adoption and business growth.
• Partner with Sales leadership to ensure commercialization strategies are practical, differentiated, and aligned with customer needs.

National Sales Narrative & Channel Customization

Lead the development of compelling national sales narratives that articulate the company’s growth story, category opportunity, portfolio strategy, and reasons for customers to partner with the business.

Synthesize inputs from Marketing, Insights, Category Management, Sales, Finance, Innovation, and other functions into a cohesive and compelling commercial story.

Translate the national narrative into tailored selling stories for different channels, customers, and selling occasions, maintaining consistency with the overarching brand and business strategy while addressing distinct customer needs and dynamics.

Partner with Sales leadership and account teams to continuously evolve the narrative based on customer feedback, market dynamics, and business performance.

National Sales Toolkit & Commercial Content

• Own and maintain the national sales toolkit, serving as the central source of truth for sales messaging, selling stories, category insights, brand assets, product information, innovation materials, and supporting proof points.
• Establish standards and governance for sales materials to ensure consistency, accuracy, quality, and ease of use.
• Develop and maintain core sales presentations, one-pagers, sell sheets, talking points, customer narratives, FAQs, and other commercial materials.
• Establish processes to regularly refresh sales materials based on new insights, business results, product changes, competitive activity, and evolving customer needs.
• Ensure sales teams have the right materials available at the right time to support customer meetings, line reviews, selling cycles, and business planning.

Cross-Functional Integration

• Serve as a conduit and collaborator between Marketing, Sales, Consumer & Shopper Insights, and Category Management, ensuring teams are aligned around common commercial priorities and narratives.
• Commercial governance + alignment rituals — establishing the cadence, checkpoints, and cross-functional forums that keep commercialization on track.
• Identify gaps or inconsistencies in the commercial story and proactively bring the appropriate functions together to resolve them.
• Provide mentorship to cross functional partners to elevate commercial storytelling, sales readiness, and customer engagement.

Innovation Commercialization

• Partner with Marketing, Innovation, Insights, Category Management, and Sales to develop commercialization strategies for new products and major innovation initiatives.
• Translate innovation strategies into compelling customer selling stories that clearly communicate the consumer need, category opportunity, product differentiation, and retailer/customer value proposition.
• Retailer-specific innovation commercialization — tailoring innovation, sell-in and launch plans and timing for key customers.
• Develop launch toolkits and sales materials to support innovation presentations, customer line reviews, sell-in, and launch execution.
• Establish commercialization milestones and ensure sales readiness ahead of key innovation launches.
• Capture post-launch learnings and incorporate them into future commercialization strategies.

Sales Enablement & Organizational Effectiveness

• Serve as a strategic resource to Sales leadership and account teams, helping teams effectively communicate the company's growth strategy and customer value proposition.
• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales organization by creating scalable, repeatable commercialization processes and tools.
• Identify opportunities to simplify complex information and make insights more actionable for customer-facing teams.
• Monitor usage and effectiveness of sales tools and continuously improve content based on feedback and business needs.
• Stay current on customer, category, competitive, consumer, and industry trends to ensure commercial materials remain relevant and differentiated.

Key Cross-Functional Partnerships

• Sales: Customer strategy, selling stories, channel customization, customer presentations, sales readiness, organization of information
• Marketing: Brand strategy, positioning, campaigns, consumer messaging, innovation
• Consumer & Business Insights: Consumer trends, shopper behavior, research, segmentation, key insights and implications
• Category Management: Category growth drivers, retailer/customer insights, assortment, pricing, merchandising, and category strategy
• Innovation: Product pipeline, launch strategy, commercialization timelines, and innovation selling stories
• Finance: Business cases, financial implications, growth priorities, and commercial performance
• Operations/Supply Chain: Launch readiness, product availability, and commercialization requirements

Job Qualifications

Education

Bachelor's degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Experience

• 8+ years of experience in CPG, preferably across commercialization, sales strategy, category management, shopper/consumer insights, marketing, or related commercial functions.
• Demonstrated experience developing go-to-market strategies and translating complex business information into compelling commercial narratives.
• Experience developing sales enablement tools, customer presentations, and commercialization materials.

Knowledge

Proficiency with PowerPoint and other tools used to develop and communicate commercial strategies.

Language Skills

Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex information into clear, persuasive messages.

Other Skills & Abilities

• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple high-priority initiatives and deadlines simultaneously.
• Strong understanding of CPG sales channels, customer dynamics, and the retail landscape.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical, storytelling, and presentation skills.
• Success in the Role
• Success in this role will be measured by the ability to:
• Create a clear, differentiated national commercial story that aligns the organization, strengthens customer selling, and customizes effectively for different channels and customers.
• Develop go-to-market strategies that translate business and brand priorities into actionable sales plans.
• Equip Sales with best-in-class, easy-to-use commercial tools and increase sales readiness ahead of innovation launches.
• Improve connectivity across Marketing, Sales, Insights, Category Management, and Innovation through scalable, consistent commercialization processes.
• Working and Environmental Conditions
• Use of computer, keyboard, and telephone required.
• Occasionally functions in the manufacturing environment where temperatures are around 35 degrees.
• May be required to travel via car or airplane, up to 10% of the time, or as needed. Requires occasional work on nights and weekends.

Physical Demands

• Ability to sit for extended periods of time.
• Occasional lifting of equipment that may weigh up to 20 lbs.
• Requires extended periods of sitting and working at a computer screen.

Compensation and Benefits

Come thrive at Suja Life! We offer a competitive benefits package, including:

Salary ranges from $150,000-175,000

• Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and more
• Paid Parental Leave – 12 Weeks at 100% Pay
• 401(k) match to help you plan for the future
• Paid time off: vacation, sick days & holidays
• Juice benefits: yes, we keep you fueled and refreshed!

#INDHP

Suja Life is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer seeking to create a welcoming and diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, genetics, age, or veteran status or any other applicable legally protected status or characteristic. The Company complies with all federal/local/state regulations regarding pay.