Senior Sales Manager

Senior Sales Manager

High-Visibility Leadership Role with a Major Tier-1 Automotive Supplier

Location: Southwestern Ohio

Our client is a highly respected Japanese Tier-1 automotive supplier with a large, well-established manufacturing operation in Southwestern Ohio. We have partnered with this organization for more than 25 years and know them as a stable, quality-focused company with strong customer relationships and a long-term commitment to the North American automotive market.

They are seeking a Senior Sales Manager to lead customer strategy, commercial planning, quoting, pricing, and sales team development across North America.

Reporting directly to the President, this is a highly visible leadership position within one of the company’s largest manufacturing operations. The Senior Sales Manager will work closely with executive leadership, operations, engineering, finance, purchasing, and affiliated group companies to drive profitable growth, strengthen customer relationships, and ensure the organization remains positioned for future business.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced automotive sales leader who understands the Tier-1 environment, can navigate complex customer relationships, and is comfortable leading both strategic planning and day-to-day commercial execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the annual sales plan and long-range business strategy in alignment with company objectives.
• Lead sales forecasting, customer planning, pricing strategy, and commercial performance reporting.
• Build, develop, mentor, and manage the sales team, including performance management, training, work allocation, and professional development.
• Serve as a key commercial contact for Honda and other major automotive customers.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with customers, internal departments, affiliated companies, and global business partners.
• Coordinate communication across sales, operations, engineering, finance, purchasing, and senior leadership.
• Lead the development of sales proposals, quotations, and customer presentations for North American business opportunities.
• Manage costing and quoting activities, ensuring accurate, competitive, and profitable proposals.
• Negotiate price adjustments related to raw materials, exchange rates, labor, inflation, engineering changes, and other commercial factors.
• Identify and develop profit improvement opportunities through pricing actions, cost recovery, value analysis, and kaizen initiatives.
• Support new business development, new model activity, program launches, and customer sourcing opportunities.
• Provide regular sales reports, forecasts, customer updates, and business activity reviews to executive leadership.
• Monitor department expenses and ensure spending remains aligned with budget.
• Maintain a strong working knowledge of the company’s products, manufacturing capabilities, market position, and customer requirements.
• Troubleshoot commercial and product-related concerns while coordinating timely internal resolution.
• Deliver presentations to customers, internal leadership teams, affiliated companies, and global stakeholders.
• Travel to customer locations, affiliated companies, and overseas operations as business needs require.
• Perform additional responsibilities as assigned by executive leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum of 8 years of progressive sales, account management, commercial, or business development experience.
• Automotive OEM or Tier-1 supplier experience strongly preferred.
• Proven experience managing complex customer relationships, quotations, pricing negotiations, and long-term business planning.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop a professional sales team.
• Strong understanding of automotive costing, quoting, pricing, and profitability.
• Experience working cross-functionally with manufacturing, engineering, finance, purchasing, quality, and executive leadership.
• Strong analytical, negotiation, presentation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both domestic and international leadership teams.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Excel and PowerPoint.
• English and Japanese bilingual language skills are preferred but not required.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally, including occasional travel on short notice.

Compensation and Benefits

The company offers a highly competitive compensation package, including:

• Annual bonus opportunity of approximately 20%
• Significant automobile allowance
• Cell phone allowance
• Excellent medical, dental, retirement, and additional employee benefits

Why Consider This Opportunity?

• Direct visibility with the President and senior executive leadership.
• Leadership responsibility within a very large, established manufacturing operation.
• Opportunity to influence North American sales strategy, pricing, customer relationships, and long-term growth.
• Strong annual incentive opportunity and valuable executive-level allowances.
• Stable company with a strong reputation and long-standing automotive customer relationships.
• Collaborative environment with significant interaction across operations, engineering, finance, and global group companies.
• Strategic role with the ability to make a measurable impact on revenue, profitability, and future business.