Head of Sales Marketing

***THIS IS NOT A JOB WITH FORCEBRANDS***

About the role

A new early-stage consumer brand is seeking a Head of Sales & Trade Marketing to help build its commercial foundation from the ground up. This is a highly hands-on leadership role for someone who can connect retail strategy, in-store execution, customer relationships, shopper marketing, and early brand-building in a business that is still in its launch phase.

Working closely with the CEO and founding team, this person will help shape how the product enters the market, how retailers and shoppers experience the brand, and how the company learns quickly during its initial test-and-iterate phase. The role will focus on driving product movement off shelf, developing strong retail partnerships, building trade marketing programs, and translating early market feedback into smarter go-to-market decisions.

This is an opportunity to join as a true early commercial leader, contribute across both sales and trade marketing, and play a meaningful role in shaping the company’s path toward broader retail expansion.

What you’ll be doing

• Build and execute the company’s early sales and trade marketing strategy, with a focus on retail activation, trial, velocity, and sell-through during the initial market launch.
• Partner with the CEO and founding team to support early retail relationships, including local and regional accounts, while helping prepare for broader expansion into larger natural and conventional retail channels over time.
• Develop and manage trade and retail marketing programs, including demos, merchandising concepts, promotional strategies, retail collateral, shopper education tools, and other tactics that encourage discovery and purchase.
• Work closely with early retail partners to test placement, programming, and execution details in store, using learnings to refine the brand’s go-to-market approach.
• Translate insights from launch activity, shopper response, retailer feedback, and store-level performance into clear recommendations on what is working, what needs adjustment, and where to invest next.
• Collaborate with internal creative and brand resources to ensure retail-facing materials and campaigns are aligned with the company’s positioning, voice, and broader consumer strategy.
• Help identify and coordinate external resources needed to support field execution, distribution, retail readiness, and in-market activation in a lean, fast-moving environment.
• Contribute to the broader commercial roadmap by helping define how sales, trade marketing, customer strategy, and channel priorities should evolve as the business scales.

What we’re looking for

• Experience in CPG, ideally in food, beverage, or another category where retail execution and shopper conversion are critical to growth.
• A strong background in sales, trade marketing, retail marketing, or in-store activation, with clear evidence of helping products succeed on shelf.
• Familiarity with high-growth or emerging brands and an understanding of what it takes to build structure, process, and momentum in an early-stage business.
• A builder mindset: someone comfortable creating playbooks from scratch rather than stepping into a fully built system.
• Strong judgment around balancing strategy and execution, including the ability to move between retailer conversations, field activation, commercial planning, and hands-on problem-solving.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work closely with founders, creative partners, retail customers, and external stakeholders while keeping priorities clear and moving.
• A scrappy, flexible, and collaborative working style; someone energized by ambiguity and willing to pitch in wherever needed.
• Curiosity about consumer behavior and a practical mindset for testing ideas, learning quickly, and improving performance based on real-world feedback.
• Interest in joining a mission-driven business at an early stage, with excitement for helping shape both the role and the company as it grows.
• Genuine enthusiasm for building a differentiated consumer brand in a well-established category with significant room for fresh thinking.

What you’ll need

• Proven experience leading or owning commercial responsibilities across both sales and trade marketing in a retail-focused CPG environment.
• Demonstrated success supporting or driving retail launches, customer sell-in, or store-level execution for products entering new markets or channels.
• Hands-on knowledge of trade marketing fundamentals, including demos, promotions, merchandising support, retail collateral, shopper education, and other tools used to drive trial and velocity.
• Experience working with or alongside retailers, distributors, brokers, field teams, or other channel partners in a way that supports strong execution and relationship building.
• Comfort working within a small, lean team where responsibilities may stretch across functions and where not everything is already built.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities at once and stay organized while launching, testing, and refining initiatives in real time.
• Strong partnership skills and confidence working with senior leadership while also being willing to handle day-to-day execution details directly.
• Likely alignment with a director-level scope, though candidates may come from different title structures depending on company stage and size.
• Preference for candidates based in Seattle; the Bay Area is also of interest, and occasional flexibility may be considered for an exceptional fit.
• Willingness to travel as needed for retailer meetings, in-market execution, and other business priorities tied to launch and expansion.

What we offer

This is an opportunity to join an early-stage consumer brand at an unusually influential moment, with the chance to help build the commercial engine of the business from the ground up. The role is designed for someone who wants more than a narrow functional lane and is excited by meaningful ownership, close partnership with the founding team, and the ability to shape how sales and trade marketing evolve as the company grows.

You’ll be working on a brand with a clear mission, a differentiated point of view, and strong creative support. The position includes equity participation, reflecting the company’s belief in meaningful ownership for early team members. The company is also putting foundational employee support in place, including healthcare reimbursement and time-off policies, with additional details to be shared during the process.

For a commercial leader excited by early-stage building, retail launch strategy, hands-on market learning, and long-term upside, this is a chance to make a material impact from day one.