Tea Market Development Manager at Rainforest Alliance

Position summary:

At the Rainforest Alliance we are looking for a collaborative and results oriented Tea Market Development Manager to join the Certification Led Sectors team within Markets Transformation. The individual is responsible for embedding our tea sector strategy tea markets strategy with the global account management portfolio. In this role there is a particular emphasis on supporting the trader accounts in various countries, and on building emerging markets for tea. The individual will directly manage a select portfolio of global trader accounts and support them on all elements relevant to tea certification. 

Responsibilities: 

• Broaden and diversify Rainforest Alliance’s market reach by growing corporate sustainability commitments relevant to tea.
• Build current and new markets for certified/sustainable tea, both domestic and cross-border, and so drive the uptake of Rainforest Alliance tea in those markets and strengthen our value proposition in those markets as appropriate.
• Support tea account managers to ensure they are equipped to represent the full range of solutions Rainforest Alliance has in tea and drive deeper market engagement and impact.
• Work closely with all tea account managers to provide them with the necessary analysis and resources, especially in emerging markets
• Extract key market-specific insights that have a bearing on the implementation of the sector strategy and providing those to the tea Sector Lead and the Strategic Account Manager, Tea.
• Manage a portfolio of high-value / high-impact global trader accounts.
• Build specific account strategies for the global trader accounts to maximize opportunity for growth and impact.
• Regularly meet with the global trader accounts and partners to review progress against commitments, investigate opportunities for further collaboration and proactively address sector and supply chain risks.
• Build an understanding of and identify the opportunities in key priority tea markets to drive stronger engagement.
• Explore and package the business case for tea certification in key domestic and import emerging markets.
• Create and co-manage a tea emerging markets strategy within the tea strategy.
• Identify and build partnership opportunities in key emerging markets in tandem with local regional teams;
• Work closely with the Key Innovation Accounts Manager, Tea and also Marketing and Communications teams to align strategies between existing key accounts’ emerging market businesses to prove the business case for and strengthen uptake of Rainforest Alliance certified tea and other interventions and tools;
• Work with account managers across the Markets Transformation team to identify opportunities to drive deeper engagement and sales of certified / sustainable tea by leveraging the footprint key account companies have in emerging markets.
• Identify and develop the necessary analysis, resources, and systems for information sharing on the tea program to keep the global tea program relevant.
• Other duties, as assigned and as the role develops.

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, Business Administration, Business Economics or equivalent in relevant field;
• 7 years of relevant experience, demonstration of experience in forging connections with diverse teams and finding innovative solutions to tap new markets;
• Understanding of the sustainability discourse in developing and emerging markets (beyond Europe) is a must;
• Experience in the tea supply chains and/or tea marketing a must;
• Proven experience in working in independent contributor roles;
• Superior analytical and communication skills, ability to synthesize and present complex analysis; and
• Ability to travel up to 20% per year, including internationally.