Senior Key Account Manager

LIPTON Teas and Infusions is the world's largest tea business with a remarkable portfolio of over 30 world-class brands, including iconic names like Lipton, PG Tips, TAZO, Brooke Bond, and B-Corp certified Pukka and T2. Based in the Netherlands and operating in more than 100 countries, we pioneer innovative, premium and sustainable teas and infusions to delight our consumers daily. Our commitment is to drive the entire tea industry upwards and create value for all and the planet, from farmers to consumers, retailers, team members, partners, and shareholders. We take a long-term approach, investing in innovative and sustainable practices that deliver responsible growth, with a keen focus on meeting the needs of our customers and consumers, protecting the environment, and making a positive impact on people's lives.

Job title: Senior Key Account Manager

Location: remote (Germany)

Type: permanent

Who we are and what we do:

LIPTON Teas & Infusions is the world’s leading tea business, home to iconic, purpose‑driven brands like Lipton, Pukka, Tazo, T2, Lyons and PG Tips.

We craft great teas for every occasion, to bring joy and inspire a healthier lifestyle. Guided by our values of people first, ownership, passion for excellence, and consumer and customer centricity, we create long‑term value for our people, trade partners, suppliers, and the communities where we operate.

If you’re a diverse thinker who takes personal ownership to connect ideas and make impactful things happen, someone who shares our values around humanity and courage and someone who enjoys a good cup of tea (on the house!), then we could be a good match! 🍃✨

Your role:

We are looking for an experienced Senior Key Account Manager (KAM) to drive the growth of Lipton across Germany’s largest retail customers. This role requires a commercially strong, highly experienced FMCG sales professional with a proven track record of managing and developing relationships with leading German retailers.

The Senior KAM will take end-to-end responsibility for selected strategic accounts, including annual negotiations, joint business planning, pricing and promotional strategy, assortment development, forecasting, and execution. The successful candidate will combine strong customer relationships with analytical and strategic thinking to deliver sustainable revenue, market share, and profitability growth for Lipton.

Your key responsibilities:

• Own and develop strategic relationships with major German retail customers, ideally including experience with groups such as EDEKA, REWE, Schwarz Group (Lidl/Kaufland), Aldi, dm, Rossmann and/or Müller.
• Lead annual customer negotiations, including pricing, terms and conditions, assortment, promotions, listings, and commercial agreements.
• Develop and execute customer-specific strategies and Joint Business Plans (JBPs) aligned with Lipton's overall German commercial strategy.
• Identify opportunities to increase distribution, shelf presence, assortment, promotional effectiveness, and market share.
• Take ownership of customer P&L, revenue, gross margin, trade investment, and profitability targets.
• Build compelling, data-driven customer presentations and sell-in stories using market, category, shopper, and consumer insights.
• Work closely with Category Management, Shopper Marketing, Revenue Growth Management, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Finance.
• Develop promotional plans and evaluate promotional ROI to continuously improve trade-spend effectiveness.
• Lead negotiations for new product launches and ensure strong execution of Lipton innovation within key customers.
• Monitor competitor activity, pricing, category developments, and changing retailer strategies.
• Provide accurate sales forecasts and proactively manage risks and opportunities.
• Represent Lipton as a strategic business partner to customers and build relationships across multiple levels of the retailer organization.

What we are looking for:

• 5–8+ years of Key Account Management / Sales experience within FMCG, beverages, food, or another highly relevant consumer-goods category.
• Significant hands-on experience managing one or more of Germany's largest grocery/drugstore retailers.
• Demonstrated success in complex annual negotiations and commercial contract management.
• Strong understanding of the German retail landscape, including centralized and decentralized customer structures.
• Proven ability to manage significant customer revenue and trade-investment budgets.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with confidence working with P&Ls, margins, pricing, promotional mechanics, and customer profitability.
• Excellent negotiation, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Strong analytical capabilities and ability to translate data into clear commercial actions.
• Entrepreneurial, proactive, and comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and ability to influence without direct authority.
• Fluent German and English are essential.

What’s in it for you:

Join a team where your contributions matter. We offer a competitive reward package, ongoing learning and development opportunities, career progression paths, and a supportive environment that helps you grow both professionally and personally.

What to expect from us:

We know that the whole recruitment process can be stressful, so we promise to make it as straightforward as possible. Our process is usually 2-3 stages (depending on the seniority of the role) and we are aiming to review every CV within 2 weeks. 

We are an organization committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. We are interested in every individual bringing their whole self to work and this includes you!