Technical Sales/Account Executive - Food and Drink

Centre for Industrial Rheology · Warnford, Hampshire (hybrid) · £50–60k base · £65–75k on target · £90k+ for over-performers · uncapped · share options

We're a specialist materials characterisation lab that helps R&D teams at some of the world's best-known manufacturers understand why their products behave the way they do, and how to make them behave better. We're hiring an experienced Account Executive to own and grow our Food & Drink sector.

You'll take over a portfolio of live and target accounts along with an active pipeline for you to close. You'll be supported as part of an established commercial team, with a focus on building and closing your own pipeline with net new business. Success is growing the sector into a unit you could eventually lead.

If you've done the big-corporate sales thing and found that the org chart, the lead-routing rules and the quarterly re-org got in the way of actually selling, this is the opposite of that.

Also growing in Advanced Materials. A second Account Executive role covering inks, coatings, adhesives, polymers and batteries follows in the coming months.

About us

The Centre for Industrial Rheology is an independent UK lab specialising in rheology, interfacial science and the physical properties of soft materials: how they flow, spread, stick, slip and break. Our customers are R&D scientists and formulators in life sciences, personal care, food and drink, advanced materials and emerging tech. They come to us when a product separates on the shelf, won't pump, prints badly, feels wrong in the mouth, or when they need hard data to settle an argument. Founded 2012; profitable and growing.

In food and drink, our customers range from global brands to ingredient houses and contract manufacturers. The problems are texture, mouthfeel, stability, pumpability and processing: how a sauce holds on a shelf, why a bar crumbles on the cutter, how a plant-based emulsion compares to the dairy original. You'll be talking to product developers, process engineers and food scientists.

What you'll do

• Build pipeline. Open conversations with R&D and technical leaders at target accounts. We have marketing, content, SDRs and a CRM, but the pipeline is yours to generate.
• Sell consultatively. Turn a customer's product problem into a scoped test programme, with our technical team behind you on the science.
• Close and grow. Projects run days to weeks, not months; you'll be scoping, quoting and closing every week.
• Own live accounts. Take over an existing account base from day one and become the person they call.
• Get out there. Customer visits, trade shows and conferences; regular UK travel, occasional Europe.
• Work the cadence. Keep the CRM honest and join weekly pipeline reviews with our Sales Director.

Must have

• A track record of self-generated pipeline. We'll ask what proportion of your last two years' revenue you originated yourself.
• Proven closing at £5–50k project scale on short cycles; you've carried and hit a personal target in the £250–500k range.
• A science or engineering background, or several years selling technical services, instruments or consumables to R&D buyers. Rheology not required; holding your own with a formulation chemist is.
• Comfort selling something the customer has to be taught. You can write and present well enough to teach it.
• The temperament for a small company: direct access to every decision, and no cover.
• A network in food and drink R&D, whether in ingredients, contract research, process technology or brand-side product development.
• Time at a large company followed by a deliberate decision to leave it.

How you're paid

Base salary of £50,000–£60,000 depending on experience, plus uncapped commission on everything you bill. Earnings are £65,000–£75,000 on target and £90,000 or more for over-performers, and the scheme is built so that the further past target you go, the bigger the share you keep:

• Accelerators. Your commission rate steps up when you beat your monthly target, and steps up again for everything you bill above that. Pass your annual target early and the top rate applies to every invoice for the rest of the year.
• Ramp guarantee. On-target commission is guaranteed for your first quarter while you learn the science and the accounts.
• No cap. We'll walk you through the full scheme, with worked examples, at interview.

Quarterly league.

The whole commercial team competes in a quarterly points league, with points for top billing, for beating target by the widest margin, and for every new account you open. Prizes are chosen to be enjoyed with a partner or family: a weekend away, a spa day, dinner for two.

This is a sector-owner role with a designed progression: grow the sector, lead a small team within it, then a route to sales management across the business as we scale. We're building the commercial function now; you'd help shape it.

The rest of the package:

• Share options
• Hybrid, based at our lab in Warnford, Hampshire (Winchester / Petersfield area)
• 37.5 hours per week, flexible around travel and events
• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays, the Christmas shutdown on us, and your birthday off
• Travel expensed