Sales Director - East Africa

Job Description:

Sales Director East Africa – Mars Snacking Nairobi, Kenya

As our Sales Director East Africa at Mars, you will lead our East Africa Sales organization to drive sustainable, profitable growth across core markets, including Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. You will own the customer and distributor agenda, oversee end-to-end commercial operations and P&L delivery for the Mars Snacking portfolio, and act as a pivotal enterprise leader representing East Africa on the Africa Business Team and Sales Leadership Forum. Bringing an enterprise mindset, you will partner cross-functionally to convert customer and shopper insights into impactful route-to-market strategies while inspiring and developing an agile, high-performing team.

What are we looking for?

• Ideally, you’ll have 15–20 years of commercial and sales leadership experience within Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), with a proven track record in distributor management, customer partnerships, sales execution, and route-to-market (RTM) strategy across diverse African markets.

• A completed university degree is required; an MBA or relevant post-graduate business qualification is strongly preferred.

• Proven track record in full P&L ownership, financial acumen, and resource allocation across Traditional Trade, Modern Trade, and D-Commerce channels.

• A strong, values-led people manager with proven experience in recruiting, mentoring, and developing diverse teams, succession planning, and driving high associate engagement.

• A strategic thinker with strong negotiation, stakeholder engagement, and collaborative leadership capabilities who embodies an enterprise-first perspective.

What would be your key responsibilities?

• Strategic Growth: Lead the formulation and execution of short- and long-term sales strategies across East Africa (with a key focus on Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) to deliver category and market share growth for Mars Snacking.

• Distributor & Customer Agenda: Strengthen strategic partnerships with distributors and retail customers, implementing optimized route-to-market, cost-to-serve, and category solutions across all retail channels.

• P&L & Performance Ownership: Maintain full accountability for East Africa P&L delivery, managing Net Sales Value (NSV), Gross Margin, Controllable Contribution, and operational resource efficiency.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Strategic Demand, Supply, and Marketing teams to embed shopper and trade partner insights into integrated commercial plans and demand forecasts.

• People & Team Leadership: Lead, inspire, and develop a team of 17 Associates (including 5 direct reports), fostering an inclusive, high-performance culture and building a robust talent pipeline for the region.

• Enterprise Governance: Represent East Africa on the Africa Business Team and Sales Leadership Forum, contributing to broader Sub-Saharan Africa strategic initiatives, peer learning, and best-practice sharing.

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.

• Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.

• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.

• An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.