Director of Sales, West

Title: Director of Sales, West

Company: Leisure Hydration

Location: Western US, preferably California

About the Company:

Leisure Hydration is a next-generation hydration brand redefining what it means to drink well. We're building the defining brand in the emerging lifestyle hydration category — where function meets culture, and hydration becomes part of how people live, not just how they recover. We're at a serious inflection point — expanding rapidly across retail, foodservice, and ecommerce channels through a national network of DSD and natural broadline distributors, with momentum that's turning heads across the industry. We're a lean, high-ownership organization. There's no sales ops safety net or analyst bench — just sharp, autonomous operators who think like business owners and take full accountability for their results.

Role Overview:

The Director of Sales, West is a senior individual-contributor role responsible for driving revenue and distribution growth across the western United States. This is not a coordination role — it's an ownership role. Think of this as running a P&L within a P&L. You'll manage key retail accounts, DSD and foodservice distributor relationships, trade budgets, and promotional ROI — with full accountability for West region volume. You bring the analytical foundation of a finance person and the relationship instincts of a great sales person. We need someone who is proactively in the numbers: building trade plans from scratch, calculating margin and markup with confidence, and projecting volume using both internal depletions and syndicated data. That capability is table stakes here, not a bonus.

Responsibilities:

Key Account Management

• Own promotional planning for 2027 across assigned retail accounts — build account-level promo calendars with clear, documented lift assumptions
• Manage the Trade Calculator by account; apply OI, MCB, and scan-based promotional mechanics correctly and independently
• Build and maintain a true P&L by account — gross revenue, trade spend, depletion trends, and net contribution tracked and updated in real time
• Monitor volume trends, promotional execution, and promo lift; flag risks and opportunities proactively
• Coordinate with brokers and buyers to ensure execution and distribution targets are met
• Owned accounts: QFC, King Soopers, Raley's
• Support VP Sales on HEB and Whole Foods Market

Distributor Management — DSD

• Serve as the primary point of contact for four DSD distributor partners
• Conduct monthly touchbases with each distributor lead to review performance, priorities, and upcoming activity
• Build and actively manage a Tier 2 retailer hitlist and key account distribution target list per DSD territory
• Develop independent channel promotion plans for each DSD partner
• Manage distributor incentive structures and handle billback coordination with VP Sales, Finance, and Operations

Foodservice

• Build and maintain a CRM-based contact list of current and prospective foodservice accounts across the West
• Drive foodservice volume growth of 20% year-over-year
• Coordinate with national foodservice partners in conjunction with VP Sales: Guckenheimer, Canteen, Vistar (monthly AE touchbase), OTG, Sodexo, and regional operators

Data, Analytics & Financial Modeling

• Build trade plans from the ground up — margin and markup calculated independently, no template dependency
• Produce volume forecasts using internal depletion data and external syndicated sources (SPINS); projections must be explainable and defensible
• Navigate SPINS, syndicated data, and depletion reports with confidence; surface insights proactively rather than waiting to be asked
• Develop mastery of Muffin and other relevant data platforms
• Produce sales analyses for account review decks independently
• Deliver quarterly market performance updates to key accounts and distributor partners
• Advanced competency in Google Sheets and Excel — comfortable building and auditing complex formulas, margin models, and promo ROI calculators

Qualifications:

• 7 years of CPG/beverage sales experience, with a focus on natural, emerging, or high-growth brands
• Demonstrated experience managing DSD distributor relationships and retail key accounts
• Proficiency in trade promotion mechanics — including OI, MCB, and scan-based programming — and the ability to build trade plans from scratch
• Experience building and managing account-level P&Ls and trade calculators, including margin and markup modeling
• Ability to pull, interpret, and present data from SPINS, syndicated data, and depletion reporting tools independently and without prompting
• Advanced Excel and Google Sheets skills; comfortable building and auditing complex formulas, forecast models, and promo ROI calculators
• Experience in foodservice sales or distributor coordination
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Existing relationships with QFC, King Soopers, Raley’s, or other Western grocery banners
• Experience working with Vistar, Guckenheimer, Canteen, or similar foodservice partners
• Familiarity with Muffin or similar trade/analytics platforms
• Prior experience at a beverage brand doing $5M–$50M in revenue — you know the hustle of building something from the ground up