Director Commercial Operations
Frontmatec, Kansas City, MO, United States
Location: United States
Reports To: Vice President / President
Travel: 30–40%
About the Role
We are seeking a Director, Commercial Operations – North America to lead commercial execution and drive disciplined revenue growth across our capital equipment portfolio serving the food processing industry.
This role is responsible for developing and executing the North American sales strategy, improving sales execution, and ensuring predictable pipeline performance across complex capital equipment projects.
The Director will lead a cross-functional commercial team including sales, sales engineering, application engineering, and pricing, ensuring alignment between customer requirements, technical solutions, and profitable project delivery.
The role emphasizes structured sales management, forecast discipline, and cross-selling expansion within the installed base and drive disciplined sales execution across long-cycle capital projects (6–18+ months).
Scope of Leadership
Direct leadership of:
- Sales Engineers
- Application Engineers
The Director will also collaborate closely with:
- Operations and Project Execution
- Product Management
Core Responsibilities:
Revenue & Capital Project Execution
- Lead complex engineered capital equipment sales across North America.
- Drive disciplined sales execution across long-cycle capital projects (6–18+ months).
- Improve win rates in competitive, multi-stakeholder sales environments.
- Ensure commercial commitments align with technical feasibility and operational capacity.
- Support major proposal and negotiation processes for strategic projects.
The Director is responsible for executing a structured commercial management cadence thru a daily management system, including:
- Weekly stage-gated pipeline reviews
- Formal sales forecast governance
- Opportunity aging and slippage tracking
- CRM compliance (>90%)
- Structured bid review processes for major capital projects
- Margin monitoring and pricing discipline
- Cross-sell opportunity tracking
The objective is predictable revenue performance and disciplined sales execution.
- Ensure clear visibility into deal progression and risk factors.
- Proactively manage opportunity development and resource allocation.
Value Selling & Margin Discipline
- Ensure value selling discipline to maximize market pricing
- Balance growth objectives with profitability targets.
Leadership & Team Development
- Build a performance-driven sales culture focused on accountability and execution.
- Strengthen collaboration between sales, engineering, and project execution teams.
- Coach and develop sales talent across the North American organization.
- Promote data-driven decision making within the commercial team.
Cross-Selling & Installed Base Growth
- Expand share-of-wallet across key food processing accounts.
- Increase penetration of multi-product solutions within the installed base.
- Identify strategic opportunities for upgrades, expansions, and modernization projects.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, or related field (MBA preferred).
- 8–12 years of progressive sales experience.
- Minimum 5 years in capital equipment or engineered systems sales.
- Experience in the food processing industry strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated success managing long-cycle, complex B2B sales processes.
- Experience implementing structured pipeline and forecast management practices.
What Success Looks Like Within 12–18 months:
- Improved forecast reliability and pipeline transparency
- Increased win rates on strategic capital projects
- Growth of installed-base business and cross-selling penetration
- Strong commercial discipline and CRM adoption
- Consistent margin performance across North American projects