What are the responsibilities and job description for the General Manager position at Univar Solutions?
A Place Where People Matter.
Start your career journey with Univar Solutions! Here you can make an impact on the world around you and accelerate your career in areas that energize and excite you.
Overview:
The General Manager has full commercial responsibility for all locations across the Great Lakes region (IL, MN, OH, MI, WI). This role leads business performance end to end—driving profitable growth, operational excellence, customer satisfaction, and team engagement—while ensuring compliance with EH&S standards and achievement of financial objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
Business & Financial Leadership
This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days per week in the office, with locations across the Great Lakes region, including Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, or Wisconsin.
Pay & Benefits:
The salary range for this role is USD 184,000 - 200,000. The specific salary offered to a candidate may be motivated by a variety of factors including the candidate’s proven experience, education, training, certifications, qualifications, and work location. In addition, this position is eligible for incentive pay. Available employee benefits include health, vision, and dental. We also provide 401k matching for retirement and paid time off.
Univar Solutions is a leading, global distributor of chemicals and ingredients essential to the safety, health, and wellbeing of our daily lives from life-saving medicines and vitamins to hand sanitizers and industrial materials used for cleaning, construction, and more. Our global team of more than 9,500 employees support our vision to redefine distribution and be the most valued chemical and ingredient distributor on the planet!
We offer a Total Rewards package that includes market aligned pay and incentives as well as a diverse benefits offering to support our employees’ physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing.
Univar Solutions supports sustainable solutions for the world around us so that we can do our part to help keep our communities healthy, fed, clean, and safe!
We are committed to a diverse workforce and a culture of inclusion. Together, we are building a culture that acknowledges the unique experiences, perspectives and expertise of individuals and provides the development and growth opportunities to empower us to redefine our industry.
Univar Solutions is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or other protected classification. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the hiring process, please contact us at careers@univarsolutions.com.
Univar Solutions does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters, employment agencies, or staffing firms (collectively Recruiting Firms). Recruiting Firms must enter into a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Univar Solutions prior to submitting any information relating to a potential candidate. All searches must be initiated by Univar Solutions' Talent Acquisition team and candidates must be submitted via Applicant Tracking System (ATS) by approved vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless the aforementioned conditions have been met. Contacting our hiring managers directly is prohibited.
Start your career journey with Univar Solutions! Here you can make an impact on the world around you and accelerate your career in areas that energize and excite you.
Overview:
The General Manager has full commercial responsibility for all locations across the Great Lakes region (IL, MN, OH, MI, WI). This role leads business performance end to end—driving profitable growth, operational excellence, customer satisfaction, and team engagement—while ensuring compliance with EH&S standards and achievement of financial objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
Business & Financial Leadership
- Own P&L performance for the district, delivering sustainable growth, market share gains, and profitability.
- Develop and execute sales, pricing, and business strategies supported by data-driven customer and segment analysis.
- Review and approve sales forecasts, capital budgets, district profit plans, and expense controls.
- Drive pipeline discipline, reduce churn, increase share of wallet, and improve opportunity flow-through.
- Ensure return on assets, working capital optimization, and achievement of sales and distribution goals.
- Analyze market dynamics, competitor activity, pricing, and product/service trends to inform strategy.
- Partner with Pricing, Credit, Supply Planning, Operations, and Sales Support to balance risk, inventory, service levels, and ROI.
- Collaborate with other Lines of Business to maximize total territory performance.
- Build and maintain strong supplier partnerships aligned with national and local initiatives.
- Leverage internal teams (sales, marketing, customer service, technical, operations, supply chain, transportation) to meet customer and business objectives.
- Build, lead, and develop a high performing, engaged leadership team across the region.
- Directly manage 8 leaders (Sales Managers, Operations, Transportation, etc.) with indirect oversight of district employees.
- Drive performance management, coaching, succession planning, and talent development.
- Administer HR programs and participate in labor relations as required.
- Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred.
- 10 years of commercial and/or operations leadership experience; distribution experience strongly preferred.
- Proven ability to lead P&L performance, drive strategy, and influence across functions.
- Strong business acumen, analytical skills, and decision-making capability.
- Demonstrated success building and developing high-performing teams.
- Strong negotiation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days per week in the office, with locations across the Great Lakes region, including Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, or Wisconsin.
Pay & Benefits:
The salary range for this role is USD 184,000 - 200,000. The specific salary offered to a candidate may be motivated by a variety of factors including the candidate’s proven experience, education, training, certifications, qualifications, and work location. In addition, this position is eligible for incentive pay. Available employee benefits include health, vision, and dental. We also provide 401k matching for retirement and paid time off.
Univar Solutions is a leading, global distributor of chemicals and ingredients essential to the safety, health, and wellbeing of our daily lives from life-saving medicines and vitamins to hand sanitizers and industrial materials used for cleaning, construction, and more. Our global team of more than 9,500 employees support our vision to redefine distribution and be the most valued chemical and ingredient distributor on the planet!
We offer a Total Rewards package that includes market aligned pay and incentives as well as a diverse benefits offering to support our employees’ physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing.
Univar Solutions supports sustainable solutions for the world around us so that we can do our part to help keep our communities healthy, fed, clean, and safe!
We are committed to a diverse workforce and a culture of inclusion. Together, we are building a culture that acknowledges the unique experiences, perspectives and expertise of individuals and provides the development and growth opportunities to empower us to redefine our industry.
Univar Solutions is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or other protected classification. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the hiring process, please contact us at careers@univarsolutions.com.
Univar Solutions does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters, employment agencies, or staffing firms (collectively Recruiting Firms). Recruiting Firms must enter into a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Univar Solutions prior to submitting any information relating to a potential candidate. All searches must be initiated by Univar Solutions' Talent Acquisition team and candidates must be submitted via Applicant Tracking System (ATS) by approved vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless the aforementioned conditions have been met. Contacting our hiring managers directly is prohibited.