Category Development Manager (Beverage)
$100,000–$135,000 year
Hybrid · Wauconda, Illinois, United States
Job Summary
CDM – Beverage leads the commercial strategy for Synergy’s Beverage business, identifying, targeting, and converting new beverage customers and growth opportunities. Leverages consumer, customer, and market insights to provide strategic guidance and beverage solution recommendations that help customers develop differentiated, market-ready products. Serves as the external face and subject matter expert for Synergy’s Beverage business, guiding prioritization, investment, and resource allocation in collaboration with Sales, Marketing, and technical teams. Acts as the voice of the market to inform opportunity prioritization, pricing strategy, and go-to-market initiatives, and partners with Account Managers, Sales Directors, and VP Sales to drive target beverage accounts and new account conversion. Develops sales enablement tools, messaging, and training to support customer engagement; represents the business at industry events and engages with global colleagues to share best practices. Role requires onsite presence three days per week with up to 30% travel, and the USA location is Wauconda, Illinois.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree in Business/Marketing (with strong technical acumen) or Food Science; Master’s Degree a plus
- 8+ years job related experience in product management, marketing, and/or sales in the food ingredients and/or flavor industry
- Direct beverage industry experience with experience in marketing ingredients to beverage companies a plus
- Experience in new product development from conception to market launch
- Experience in leading cross-functional teams to execute strategies
- Strong commercial and solution-selling skills with a track record of identifying opportunities, engaging customers, and converting them into growth
- Compelling communicator with executive presence; able to sell ideas, insights, and value propositions to customers, partners, and senior leaders
- Leads through influence, aligning cross-functional teams and driving action without formal authority
- Deep understanding of the flavor and food ingredient marketplace and competitive landscape
- Role is onsite 3 days per week with up to 30% travel to support customer engagement and industry presence
Apply with one swipe on Sorce. We auto-fill applications and apply on your behalf — no cover letters, no 40-minute forms.
Hiring someone like this?
Get your role in front of qualified candidates on Sorce.