Channel Manager, North America

Are you the kind of person that is always thinking, sketching, seeking, and adjusting? Who needs to understand how things work and then figure out how they can work better? Are you a passionate, tenacious, solver who loves to work with others who share your drive? Are you positive, constructive, and ingenious?

Are you always solving?

Then we’d like to meet you and bet you’d like to meet us.

Ashland has an exciting opportunity for a Channel Manager to join our Ashland Life Sciences business. This is a very visible, significant role within the Company. This position will report to the Head of Strategic Accounts and Market Development.

The responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Develop and execute the North American channel strategy to support Ashland Life Sciences growth objectives.
• Onboard and develop high-performing channel partners.
• Establish annual business plans, revenue targets, and growth initiatives with channel partners.
• Build and maintain strong executive and operational relationships with key distributors and channel partners.
• Conduct regular business reviews to assess performance against sales targets, strategic objectives, and customer satisfaction metrics.
• Develop joint account plans, marketing programs, and business development activities with partners.
• Manage distributor agreements, performance expectations, and compliance requirements.
• Monitor sales pipelines, forecasting accuracy, inventory levels, and demand planning activities.
• Implement programs that improve channel effectiveness, customer engagement, and conversion rates.
• Develop and deliver training programs that equip channel partners with technical, product, and commercial knowledge.
• Ensure channel partners are effectively positioned to communicate Ashland's value proposition and innovation portfolio.
• Actively contribute to the organizational goals by taking initiative, executing on goals and focusing on performance and safety
• Improve the organization capacity and capabilities through building collaborative relationships, optimizing diverse talent and utilizing positive communications and influence with others.

In order to be qualified for this role, you must possess the following:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Chemistry, Life Sciences, Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or related field.
• 3+ years of experience in channel management, sales, business development, or distributor management within the specialty chemicals, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, excipients, nutraceuticals, or life sciences industries.
• Strong commercial acumen and experience developing growth strategies.
• Proven ability to influence and negotiate at executive and senior management levels.
• Strong analytical, forecasting, and business planning skills.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and relationship management capabilities.
• Ability to travel approximately 30-50% within North America.
• Demonstrate responsible and ethical behavior at all times
• The ability to help the company drive greater value through understanding the business, making complex decisions and creating the new and different

The following skill sets are preferred by the business unit:

• Experience in pharmaceutical excipients, nutraceutical ingredients, biopharmaceutical solutions, cell culture media, microbiology, or related life science markets.
• MBA or advanced degree in Business or a Life Sciences discipline.
• Experience working in a matrixed global organization.
• Proficiency with CRM and sales analytics tools such as Salesforce.