Head of Retail Sales

About the role

ZBiotics is hiring our first Head of Retail Sales to own and lead the entire Retail Sales function and be a senior leader at this company. You will set overall sales strategy, build the retail sales organization and represent ZBiotics at the most senior levels with retailers, distributors, and partners. You will operate with full ownership and autonomy over the sales engine, using long-term judgment to build across the whole function, rather than in a single channel.

About ZBiotics

In 2019, we launched the world's first genetically engineered probiotic: ZBiotics® Pre-Alcohol, a 14mL probiotic drink designed to break down an alcohol byproduct that leads to rough mornings after drinking. Since then, ZBiotics' business has continued to grow rapidly year over year. We've sold over 10 million bottles of Pre-Alcohol, with over half those bottles coming in 2025 alone. And in 2024, we launched our second product: ZBiotics® Sugar-to-Fiber, a genetically engineered probiotic that creates fiber from the sugar you already eat, contributing to microbiome health.

Your Responsibilities

• Set and own overall retail sales strategy and results

• Own ZBiotics’ entire physical retail and on- and off-premise sales strategy and performance. You set the strategy and execution with guidance from the COO. Your job is to expand thoughtfully, deliberately, and with pace. You should do what makes sense for the long-term health of the business and brand. Not growth at all costs.

• 2026 priorities are concentrated in three channels — the first two being the core revenue engines:

  • Off-Premise Liquor (Specialty Alcohol): double down on what’s working, improve velocity, expand regionals, and prove and scale DSD execution; make shelf execution frictionless.
  • Natural / Grocery: validate and scale in larger-format accounts, with a strong point of view on premium display and education to differentiate and teach the shopper.
  • On-Premise / Hospitality: partner with the Sr. Director of Omnichannel to build the sales motion, land high-credibility “whales,” and create a scalable staff-training capability; menus are a key awareness driver.

• You’ll keep lower-priority channels running in a way that supports brand and learning (Boutique), while being willing to cut effort in very-low-priority areas (and explicitly not chasing mass / club / drug / c-store as 2026 launches). As the business scales, you will own the strategy for how and when we enter those broader channels.

• Lead national and key account strategy

  • Build and personally lead the most strategic national and regional account relationships, with the executive presence and negotiation skill to hold your own in the highest-level retail conversations.
  • Structure sophisticated national deals and joint business plans that protect ZBiotics’ economics and brand over the long term.
  • Protect the big wins and manage concentration risk. Ensure flawless execution in the highest-concentration accounts while continuing to expand independents and other wins to reduce risk.

• Negotiate with careful commercial and contract discipline

  • Negotiate carefully around brand positioning, product claims constraints, marketing constraints, DTC protection, and distributor and retailer risk.
  • Enforce clear pricing and margin guardrails, approval workflows, and contract discipline across the function.
  • Avoid training retailers and customers to wait for discounts, and prioritize brand-oriented value creation over price cutting.
  • Ensure placement strategy supports the brand and economics (e.g., checkout or alcohol set, rather than Health & Beauty).

• Build and lead the sales organization

  • Lead and develop the Sales org and associated field and merchandising resources. Build the coverage model, roles, incentives, training, and performance management needed to scale.
  • Build the operating rhythms: weekly business review, monthly forecasting and reporting, quarterly planning, and account and channel deep dives.
  • Hire ahead of need and raise the bar with every addition, building a high-trust, accountable, people-first culture.

• Build a distributor and execution engine that scales

  • Own distributor strategy end-to-end: partner selection, onboarding, performance management, scorecards and JBPs, and escalation paths.
  • Standardize what “great execution” means across distribution, pricing, promotion, display, merchandising, and in-stock — and ensure we can measure it.
  • Partner with Retail Operations to scale store visits via the right mix of internal coverage, merchandising partners, and distributor capability; tie this directly to velocity and in-stock performance.
  • Make stockout reduction a core operational priority (anticipation, faster reorders, retailer prompting ahead of known holidays).

• Drive analytical rigor and decision quality

  • Own sales forecasting, reporting, and performance insights across accounts, regions, and channels.
  • Use data (from whatever sources are necessary) to understand distribution, velocity, pricing, and category trends, translating insights into action.
  • Evaluate promotions, trade spend, and pricing strategies; make recommendations grounded in learning and margin discipline.

• Lead cross-functionally and help build the company

  • Partner with Marketing on brand-building and demand generation in priority markets. We intend to hire a Retail / Shopper Marketing person in the future. How the Head of Retail Sales role works with Marketing:- Marketing owns brand, messaging, creative, and paid media strategy.
  • Retail Sales owns retail strategy, execution, distributor performance, and velocity.
  • Decisions are made collaboratively, with an explicit bias toward long-term brand health and repeat customers.

About You

This is a senior leadership position. We expect ownership, autonomy, and strategic altitude — the ability to set direction for the whole function and execute through teams and partners without close oversight. You bring breadth across retail channels, not just depth in one, and the judgment to navigate complex commercial decisions carefully.

Desired Qualifications

• 12+ years in CPG sales with significant senior leadership experience, including owning a full sales function (P&L, strategy, and team) — ideally as a VP, Head of Sales, or CCO at a growth-stage consumer brand.

• Proven national account strategy and leadership across multiple retail channels (regional and national), with the executive presence and negotiation skill to lead the highest-level retail conversations and structure sophisticated national deals.

• Demonstrated breadth beyond any single channel — experience scaling a brand across multiple off-premise channels (natural / grocery and wine & spirits especially), not solely alcohol / DSD.

• Deep distributor management experience, including building performance systems, driving DSD where relevant, and holding partners accountable while maintaining strong relationships.

• Careful, disciplined commercial style suited to a brand with claims, marketing, and DTC constraints — strong on contract discipline, pricing architecture, and risk management.

• Strong analytical fluency: forecasting, syndicated data, trade-spend discipline, pricing architecture, and margin awareness.

• High judgment in a fast-moving environment with shifting priorities; strong written and verbal communication; the strategic sharpness to be trusted with the whole function autonomously.

• People-first leader who builds clarity, accountability, and a high-trust culture; open-minded, adaptable, kind, and empathetic.

Nice-to-Have Experience

• Functional beverage, alcohol / bev, or health & wellness experience, particularly with premium or new-category products.

• Experience building sales motions and fostering novel-product adoption in on-premise channels (bars, restaurants, hospitality).

• Experience designing display and merch strategies that drive velocity without compromising premium positioning.

• Omnichannel brand experience selling products with a substantial DTC and/or Amazon business.

• Experience leading a sales function through a DTC-to-retail transition at an early- or growth-stage brand.