Customer Business Manager, Whole Foods Market

Who You Are:

You are a scrappy, humble, and hungry Customer Business Manager who is highly analytical with a deep understanding and passion for Whole Foods Market. You possess an entrepreneurial spirit and want to work in a fast-paced environment to maximize market penetration. You are someone who works collaboratively with cross-functional teams with a “we” (not “me”) mindset. You’re an expert at “rolling up your sleeves” and getting to work immediately to get products sold in highly competitive marketplaces.

The Task at Hand:

The Customer Business Manager (CBM) will support the internal Whole Foods Market sales organization and assist with external category needs across the portfolio. Internally, this role partners closely with the National Account Manager and operates at the intersection of Sales, Marketing, Customer Development, and Operations. The CBM is responsible for ensuring successful product launches, strong retail execution, and delivery of WFM sales targets.

This individual will collaborate with Sales to execute promotional and shopper marketing initiatives while working cross-functionally to drive multi-category growth and maximize portfolio penetration. The role requires a balance of customer-facing sales experience and strategic, as well as tactical, leadership to achieve both short and long-term objectives. Working closely with the Sr. Director of Sales, National Account Manager, and cross-functional partners, the ideal candidate demonstrates strong collaboration, analytical rigor, and deep expertise across WFM and UNFI.

In This Role, You Will: Demonstrate a proactive, organized approach to sales development, managing certain day-to-day operations while assisting in providing strategic direction for WFM and UNFI. Candidates should have a strong CPG sales background, established retailer relationships, and expertise in data-driven selling, analytics, and go-to-market execution. Key focus areas include cross-functional leadership (particularly with Brand/Shopper Marketing, Customer Development and Operations), data analysis and reporting, new product launches, in-store execution, and driving meaningful distribution gains. All business activities must be done in a way that underscores the social mission of Once Upon a Farm.

Sales Growth and Customer Strategy:

Support the Senior Director of Sales and National Account Manager in achieving annual gross and net sales, distribution, market share, and profitability targets across categories.

Help shape 24-month selling priorities by integrating Once Upon a Farm and Whole Foods Market objectives to drive mutual growth.

Identify and pursue incremental distribution, merchandising, and expansion opportunities across core and emerging platforms.

Lead sell-in support for new product launches, line extensions, and strategic promotional initiatives.

Translate brand, product, and category strategies into compelling retailer-facing presentations and sell stories.

Joint Business Planning and Commercial Execution:

Support the development and execution of the Whole Foods Market Joint Business Plan, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities and financial objectives.

Lead the UNFI relationship, strengthening the three-way partnership with Once Upon a Farm and Whole Foods Market to unlock mutual growth.

Partner with Sales and Trade teams to optimize pricing, trade investment, and promotional calendars, improving program effectiveness and ROI.

Manage Whole Foods Market merchandising activities in partnership with Sales and Customer Development, optimizing the annual budget to maximize impact and cost efficiency.

Ensure flawless execution of merchandising and secondary-display programs, including inventory positioning, signage, trade programming, and shopper support.

Support the Category Review process by coordinating inputs across Brand, Shopper Marketing, Category and Consumer Insights, and Customer Development.

Proactively identify execution gaps, business risks, and growth opportunities, developing solution-oriented action plans with internal and external partners.

Analytics, Forecasting, and Performance Management:

Analyze Nielsen syndicated data, Whole Foods Market Vendor Central POS data, and UNFI data to identify growth opportunities and guide business decisions.

Develop insight-driven category stories and recommendations to improve velocity, distribution, market share, and profitability.

Partner with Whole Foods Market, UNFI, Operations, and National Account Manager to improve forecast accuracy, volume pacing, inventory management, and in-stock performance.

Monitor KPI’s —including sales, share, ACV, margin, weeks of supply, fill rates, spoilage, and promotional lift—and recommend timely optimizations to drive Net Sales.

Develop and maintain business scorecards and weekly/monthly reporting that clearly communicate performance, competitive activity, risks, and opportunities.

Track new product launches and innovation performance, translating results into actionable recommendations to improve distribution and productivity.

Cross-Functional and Omnichannel Leadership:

Serve as a key liaison across Sales, Brand Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Operations, Customer Development, and Category Insights.

Align internal stakeholders around customer strategy, business priorities, and growth initiatives, influencing effectively across functions.

Coordinate cross-functional innovation planning and launch readiness, ensuring alignment on forecasts, pricing, merchandising, and marketing support.

Develop cohesive go-to-market strategies that connect trade programming with in-store, digital, and social activations.

Drive omnichannel growth in partnership with internal teams and agency partners across Whole Foods on Amazon.

Strengthen enterprise-wide collaboration and alignment behind Whole Foods Market and UNFI initiatives.

In This Role, You’ll Bring With You:

5+ years of retail sales experience, including 3+ years directly supporting Whole Foods Market and working with UNFI

Bachelor's degree in business, Marketing, or related field, or equivalent professional experience

Preference for candidates located in Austin, TX

Proven track record of exceeding sales targets through strong cross-functional collaboration

Ability to align company strategy with WFM growth objectives to overdrive plan

Strong planning, organizational, and communication skills, including executive-level presentation capability

Exceptional strategic and analytical acumen

Proven cross-functional leadership experience

Strong Digital expertise with expert knowledge of WFM/Amazon Digital ecosystem

Excellent interpersonal, written/oral communication and presentation skills

Proven success with respected consumer packaged goods companies and/or relevant retailer experience

Ideally, experience in both large and small companies thereby possessing the vision for the elements of a highly successful larger enterprise balanced with a more hands-on approach

Strong expertise in managing trade budgets and optimizing promotional strategies to deliver strong ROI & trade efficiencies

Knowledge base for successful retail execution

Applicants should be able to manage/update digital content for existing and new items that appear on .com sites

Solid knowledge of Microsoft Suite, Outlook, Slack, AI tools, and other professional platforms

Up to 10% travel required for those based in Austin, TX. Note that those based outside of Austin, TX or the surrounding areas will be required to travel up to 20%. Although this role is a remote work-from-home position, we “Farmers” do meet as a company and/or as a department a few times a year. Anticipate possible travel up to a few times each quarter

Genuine passion for improving childhood nutrition for a healthier and happier planet

Desire to contribute to a dynamic high-growth, purpose-driven work env