Category Director - Pectin & Texturants
Meet Our Recruiter
About the Role
We are supporting an established international ingredients business with the appointment of a Category Director for Texturants, with an initial focus on pectins.
The business has recently secured an exclusive agreement with one of the world’s largest pectin manufacturers and is now looking for an experienced technical and commercial leader to build the category across the United States.
This is a newly created position with considerable autonomy, investment and growth potential.
You will effectively operate as the CEO of the category, taking ownership of the commercial strategy, technical positioning, supplier relationship, procurement, inventory, pricing and go-to-market plan.
The opportunity is substantial, but so is the expectation. The successful candidate must combine genuine technical expertise in food-grade pectin with the commercial judgement and drive required to build a major US business line.
The Role
You will lead the development of the company’s pectin offering across the United States, while also supporting growth across the wider texturants portfolio, including gums and hydrocolloids.
Working alongside an established US sales team, you will provide the technical and commercial leadership needed to convert an existing pipeline of qualified customers and develop new opportunities across food, beverage and nutritional applications.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Leading the US commercial and technical strategy for the pectin category
- Owning the category P&L, growth plan, pricing strategy and commercial performance
- Developing and managing the relationship with the company’s global manufacturing partner
- Supporting customer formulation, product matching and technical troubleshooting
- Working directly with customers across gummies, beverages, jams, jellies and wider food applications
- Enabling the existing sales team through technical training, customer support and product positioning
- Managing procurement, inventory planning, supply strategy and pricing negotiations
- Identifying and developing new customer and market opportunities
- Coordinating marketing activity, including trade shows, digital campaigns and customer engagement
- Driving cross-selling opportunities across gums, hydrocolloids and complementary texturant products
- Managing selected strategic accounts directly where commercially appropriate
About You
This role requires someone who can move comfortably between the laboratory, the customer meeting, the supplier negotiation and the commercial strategy discussion.
You may have developed your career through technical services, food formulation, product management or category leadership, but you must now be able to demonstrate both technical authority and strong commercial judgement.
To be considered, you must have:
- At least 10 years’ experience working within the pectin sector
- Strong technical knowledge of food-grade pectin formulation and applications
- The ability to evaluate, match and reverse-engineer customer formulations
- Experience leading technical discussions with customers and manufacturers
- Demonstrable commercial and business development capability
- Experience owning or materially influencing a product, category or business-unit P&L
- The credibility to engage senior stakeholders across suppliers, customers and internal sales teams
- The ability to translate technical knowledge into a clear commercial proposition US residency and unrestricted US work authorisation
- Willingness to travel extensively across the United States and internationally
- Experience across broader texturant categories, including gums and hydrocolloids, would also be valuable.
Why Consider It?
For the right person, this is a rare opportunity to take full ownership of a technically complex, commercially significant category at the beginning of its growth journey.
You will have:
- Genuine autonomy over the category
- Direct access to senior decision-makers
- An exclusive manufacturing partnership
- A strong existing customer pipeline
- The ability to shape the technical and commercial strategy
- Significant earning potential linked directly to the value you create
Due to the specialist nature of the search, applications will only be considered from candidates with meaningful technical experience in food-grade pectins.