Sales & Business Development Manager

Company Description

NOVAIS Foods is a family-owned food company based in the district of Porto, Portugal, operating since 2019. The company produces, packages, and distributes a wide range of food products, with a particular focus on bars, bites, baked products and powders for snacks and nutrition.

NOVAIS Foods maintains a modern factory that complies with all HACCP requirements, ensuring high standards of hygiene and safety. The team is committed to continuous improvement in production efficiency, product quality, and food safety standards, creating a reliable environment for both customers and employees.

Role Description

We are looking for a Sales & Business Development Manager to lead and shape our sales strategy, build strong relationships with leading retailers and partners, and turn commercial opportunities into successful product development projects.

This is not just a sales role. We are looking for someone who can think strategically about where we should play, identify the right opportunities and customers, and take ownership of the commercial journey from the first conversation to closing.

What you'll do:

You will lead and continuously develop our sales strategy, identifying priority markets, customers and opportunities across Portugal and international markets.

You will build and nurture strong relationships with national and international retailers, brands and key decision-makers, understanding their challenges, ambitions and product needs.

A key part of your role will be to create new business opportunities, identifying and approaching potential customers, opening doors and developing relationships that can grow into meaningful partnerships.

At the same time, you will work closely with our existing customers to deepen relationships and uncover new opportunities, helping them explore new products, concepts and categories.

You will manage opportunities throughout the commercial process, driving projects forward with a clear focus on closing. From the initial brief and product concept to development, validation and commercial agreement, you will make sure momentum is maintained and the right people are involved at the right time.

Sales backed by product development:

One of the things that makes this role different is that you won't be selling from a catalogue.

You will have the permanent support of our in-house R&D team and laboratory, allowing you to work with customers to transform ideas, needs and market opportunities into real products.

Our laboratory and R&D capabilities are a fundamental part of our commercial approach: they allow us to prototype, test, iterate and develop solutions alongside our customers.

You will act as the bridge between the customer and our internal teams, coordinating opportunities with Project Managers, R&D specialists and other teams to ensure that commercial ideas become technically feasible, compelling products and, ultimately, successful business.

What we're looking for:

We are looking for someone who combines commercial instinct, strategic thinking and execution.

Someone who is comfortable opening new doors and starting conversations, but equally capable of building long-term relationships with senior stakeholders.

You should be able to understand a customer's business beyond the immediate opportunity, identify where we can create value and bring together commercial, technical and project teams to make it happen.

Experience working with retail, FMCG, food, private label or product development is highly valued, particularly if you have experience working across international markets.

Above all, we are looking for someone with a strong drive to turn opportunities into results.

The opportunity:

This is an opportunity to take a central role in our growth, with real influence over our commercial strategy, customer portfolio and international expansion.

You'll have the freedom to pursue opportunities and build relationships, while being backed by a team capable of turning customer ideas into actual products.

If you enjoy building businesses, creating relationships and turning ideas into products people can find on the shelf, we'd love to hear from you.