The Manager, R&D (Technical Sales) serves as the technical lead and strategic partner between Sales, R&D, Operations, Marketing, and customers to drive growth, innovation, and customer satisfaction across the portfolio. This role translates technical product capabilities into customer-focused solutions, supports key business development initiatives, and provides leadership in evaluating product performance, customer opportunities, and competitive positioning. The Manager, Technical Sales acts as a trusted advisor to both internal stakeholders and external customers, ensuring technical excellence while advancing commercial objectives. 

How You Will Make Contributions That Matter  

• Serve as the primary technical liaison between Customers, Sales, R&D, Operations, and Technical Services to drive customer satisfaction, business growth, and value creation.  

• Lead customer-facing technical initiatives by partnering with customers to understand product requirements, application needs, emerging opportunities, and quality concerns, translating these insights into actionable business solutions.  

• Partner with Operations and R&D to support product development, commercialization efforts, process improvements, and product performance evaluations, including assessing the impact of manufacturing and process changes on product quality and application performance  

• Develop and maintain key customer application, performance, and market intelligence data to support business development, innovation initiatives, and informed decision-making.  

• Evaluate customer quality issues, technical challenges, and product opportunities, coordinating cross-functional teams to ensure timely resolution and a superior customer experience.  

• Support strategic customer accounts by providing technical expertise during customer visits, product evaluations, application reviews, and new business development activities.  

• Partner closely with Sales to provide rapid and effective responses to customer needs, including sample requests, product recommendations, technical support, and commercialization activities  

• Evaluate competitive products, market trends, and customer requirements to identify opportunities for portfolio growth, product differentiation, and competitive advantage.  

• Analyze product performance, customer feedback, and application data to generate insights and recommendations that support continuous improvement, innovation, and customer value creation.  

• Present technical findings, product performance evaluations, customer opportunities, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership and key stakeholders.  

• Support the Sales organization through technical training, product expertise, and guidance on customer opportunities, applications, and sensitive quality matters.  

• Foster strong cross-functional collaboration and act as a positive ambassador for Saputo's culture, values, and commitment to operational excellence and customer success. 

You are best suited for the role if you have the following experience, skills, and qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Chemistry, Engineering, or a related technical discipline required; advanced degree preferred.  

• 7+ years of experience in technical sales, technical service, product development, R&D, applications, or a related customer-facing technical role within food, dairy, ingredients, or CPG industries.  

• Strong knowledge of dairy products, dairy ingredients, food manufacturing, and customer application requirements.  

• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical information into business solutions for both technical and non-technical audiences.  

• Proven experience leading customer projects from concept through commercialization.  

• Strong business acumen with the ability to balance technical considerations with commercial objectives.  

• Experience collaborating effectively across Sales, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing, and Quality functions.  

• Excellent communication, presentation, influencing, and relationship-building skills.  

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, with the ability to interpret technical data and generate actionable recommendations.  

• Highly organized with demonstrated project management and prioritization skills in a fast-paced environment.  

• Ability to lead multiple customer initiatives simultaneously while maintaining a high level of responsiveness and execution.  

• Willingness to travel approximately 30–40% to support customer visits, trials, business development activities, and industry events. 

We support and care for our employees by providing them with… 

• Development opportunities that enhance you career fulfillment. 

• Meaningful compensation & benefits that help you care for your family. 

• Opportunities to contribute to your community and enhance the lives of others through Saputo products.