Senior National Account Manager

Based in Liverpool, the Senior National Account Manager will take ownership of John West’s strategically important accounts, playing a key role in driving our ambitious growth agenda. You will be responsible for shaping and executing customer plans that strengthen relationships, deliver on volume, value, and profit targets, and balance both commercial and category needs. Leveraging our market-leading position, you’ll bring together internal resources to showcase the strength of the John West brand and create value for your customers. This role reports directly to the Commercial Controller.

Your Responsibilities:

Relationship Building

• Build solid relationships with the customers, establishing a breadth and depth of cross-functional contacts to enhance the John West brand's credibility and confidence.
• Develop strong relationships with top retailers to achieve effective execution of sales activities, including Joint Business Plans (JBP’s).

Strategic Planning & Execution

• Develop, negotiate, execute, and track an annual Joint Business Plan with the customer to support the Sales and Brand strategy.
• Identify new business and category growth opportunities within the customer’s operations.

Account Management Standards

• Maintain high standards of account management administration, adhering to brand, commercial, legal, and financial guidelines and policies.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with John West’s cross-functional teams—Brand Marketing, Category Management, Finance, and Supply Chain—to co-design and activate in-market brand, NPD, and category initiatives.

P&L Responsibility

• Assume total P&L accountability for the John West-customer relationship, ensuring the achievement of sales, margin, and category growth targets according to the budgeted scorecard.

Implementation & Execution

• Ensure the timely implementation and execution of NPD listings, category fixture plans, promotional activities, and all other relevant Joint Business Plan elements.

Why Choose Us?

• Our Values: We believe our values set the culture within the organization and they are so important to us. We are a team of passionate, humble, and respectful individuals driven by a responsible, collaborative, and innovative approach to our work.
• Collaborative Environment: At John West, you'll join a team-oriented environment where you’ll work alongside Marketing, Sales, and Supply Chain experts. Our collaborative culture brings together diverse perspectives, helping you grow and succeed through shared expertise and innovative
• Meaningful Impact: In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to make a real difference. Your contributions will directly support our growth objectives, enhance customer relationships, and strengthen our brand’s presence in the market, allowing you to see the results of your work in action.
• A new chapter for your career: We believe in nurturing talent. You’ll have access to ongoing learning opportunities and mentorship, empowering you to advance your skills, broaden your expertise, and grow within a John West and Thai Union Group.

About You:

• Passion & Energy: Brings high energy and enthusiasm to work within an engaged, collaborative team, embodying resilience and determination in challenging commercial environments.
• Experience & Expertise: Holds a graduate-level background with at least 3 years in FMCG sales, ideally with experience on the top 4 retailer accounts.
• Proven JBP Success: Experienced in developing, negotiating, and executing full Joint Business Plans, with demonstrated success in achieving key scorecard metrics.
• Commercial & Analytical Acumen: Exhibits strong commercial insight, numerical and analytical skills to manage daily P&L accountability and drive profitable results.
• Strategic Adaptability: Regularly assesses and adjusts plans to mitigate risks and seize opportunities, ensuring consistent over-delivery on goals.
• Team Player & Cultural Fit: A collaborative team member, balancing individual accountability with collective responsibility, and embodying John West’s core values and behaviours for sustained success.

About Us

John West Foods is part of Thai Union, who are committed to “Healthy Living, Healthy Oceans.” With a focus on health and wellbeing across our portfolio, John West fits perfectly as we have been delivering natural protein powering body and mind since 1857. We take our responsibility to sustainable fishing and the marine environment seriously – in 2016 Thai Union launched SeaChange – our strategy for looking after the oceans and managing our waste, our responsibility to our people working around the globe and the communities we work with. We set ourselves and our peers some challenging targets to be more sustainable and we’re making great progress.

Our values drive how we approach our work and engage with our people and customers. These values are to be passionate, humble, respectful, responsible, collaborative and innovative. We do great work, the right way, in challenging times, but we have a strong team that gets the job done.

Our people are full of positivity, resilience, fortitude and humour.

We are committed to creating an inclusive work environment where everyone feels valued and recognized for who they are. This is a critical component of our success. Each of our employees adds value to the company regardless of gender, education, religion, origin, nationality, disability or age.

What we can offer you

• A competitive salary (dependent on experience)
• 4 days in the office and up to 1 day at home
• 27 days holiday plus bank holiday (the ability to purchase an additional 3 days annually)
• Discretionary bonus (based on company and personal performance)
• A defined contribution pension scheme (maximum employer contribution of 7%)
• Private Medical Insurance – individual membership paid for by John West
• Life Insurance
• Flexible Benefits – gym discount, cycle to work, holiday buy, wellbeing at home, flex pot into pension etc
• Employee Assistance Programme – which provides support to help you navigate personal or work related challenges
• 1 day paid volunteer day
• Annual awards (linked to John West values, company and team events)

Next Steps

If you’re passionate about making a difference and thrive in a collaborative setting, we’d love to hear from you!

We will review your application and if we think you meet the criteria of the role, we will reach out.

You will have a call with one of our recruitment team and then if we move to the next stage, we will set up an interview with your potential new manager either face to face or via Teams. Final stage interviews are usually face to face.