The posting
Job Summary
The Senior Director, Regional Sales, Utility is accountable for setting and leading the multi-year commercial strategy for KEEN's U.S. specialty, better footwear, and regional account businesses. This role owns revenue, profitability, distribution quality, and market-share outcomes across the assigned channels, translating brand and long-range plan (LRP) objectives into integrated channel, account, and organizational plans. As a senior commercial leader, the role shapes enterprise go-to-market decisions, builds executive-level partner relationships, and leads a high-performing, multi-layer sales organization to deliver sustainable growth and strengthen the long-term health of the KEEN brand.
Essential Functions
Description
- Owns the multi-year regional and channel commercial strategy and annual operating plan, establishing priorities and delivering revenue, profitability, market-share, distribution-quality, and brand-health goals aligned with the LRP.
- Leads and develops a multi-layer sales organization, including sales leaders and territory managers. Sets the organizational structure, talent strategy, performance expectations, succession plans, and leadership capabilities required to deliver current and future growth.
- Sets channel, distribution, and partner-portfolio strategy in partnership with the VP of Sales and executive leadership. Establishes segmentation principles, account standards, and commercial policies; directs their execution and makes recommendations on entering, expanding, or exiting strategic partnerships.
- Builds and stewards executive-level relationships with priority retailers and strategic partners. Leads joint business planning and high-impact commercial negotiations, including terms, growth commitments, branded space, assortment, marketing investment, and performance expectations.
- Owns the financial and demand-management cadence for assigned channels, including annual plans, monthly forecasts, futures bookings, at- once business, sell-in and sell-through performance, inventory health, shipping targets, and gross-to-net. Provides executive leadership with clear insight into performance, risk, and opportunity.
- Leads cross-functional go-to-market planning with Product, Merchandising, Marketing, Planning, Finance, Credit, Customer Operations, and Digital teams to align consumer targets, assortment, pricing, inventory, activation, service, and channel differentiation.
- Uses consumer, customer, competitive, and marketplace insights to identify white-space opportunities, guide investment decisions, refine the selling model, and build scalable playbooks that increase availability, visibility, conversion, and profitable sell-through.
- Establishes the business operating system for the function, including goals, leading indicators, accountability mechanisms, and weekly, monthly, and seasonal business reviews. Drives timely decisions and corrective actions based on performance data.
- Sponsors commercial transformation and continuous improvement across sales planning, account management, tools, processes, and ways of working. Ensures changes are adopted consistently and produce measurable improvements in productivity and partner outcomes.
- Represents the regional sales perspective in enterprise planning and leadership forums. Serves as a strategic advisor on broader brand, product, marketplace, and organizational decisions and models KEEN's values in all internal and external relationships.
Please note this job description is not designed to contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without cause.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration or related field required.
- Master's Degree in Business Administration or equivalent advanced degree preferred.
- Twelve (12) years progressively responsible sales and commercial leadership experience, preferably in footwear, apparel, consumer products, or a related wholesale environment. Demonstrated experience owning a significant revenue portfolio, including at least five (5) years leading managers and multi-layer teams across multiple channels, categories, or geographies.
- Executive-level strategic account leadership, complex commercial negotiation, channel strategy, and cross-functional go-to-market experience required.
Any equivalent combination of experience and education which clearly indicates the ability to perform the essential functions of the position may substitute on a year for year basis.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Deep expertise in the U.S. footwear, apparel, or consumer-products marketplace, including wholesale economics, channel dynamics, retailer needs, and emerging industry trends.
- Demonstrated ability to translate enterprise strategy and consumer insight into multi-year commercial plans, investment choices, and measurable business outcomes.
- Strong financial and business acumen, with experience owning revenue and profitability performance, budgets, forecasts, gross-to-net, inventory productivity, and risk management.
- Advanced knowledge of channel segmentation, distribution strategy, strategic account planning, and brand-building within a multi-channel environment.
- Exceptional executive presence, influence, and negotiation skills, with a record of building trusted relationships and navigating complex, high-stakes partner decisions.
- Advanced analytical capability and fluency with sales planning, forecasting, reporting, and data tools; able to convert complex information into clear decisions and action.
- Proven success building high-performing organizations, leading through managers, developing senior talent, strengthening succession pipelines, and managing performance.
- Ability to lead through influence across Product, Merchandising, Marketing, Planning, Finance, Operations, Digital, and other enterprise functions.
- Track record of sponsoring transformation, improving commercial processes and operating models, and driving adoption across a distributed organization.
- Global business acumen and cross-cultural agility, with the ability to balance regional marketplace needs and broader brand priorities.
- Advanced verbal, written, and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate complex business issues and recommendations to executive audiences.
- Sound judgment, resilience, and adaptability when operating with ambiguity, competing priorities, and significant travel in a fast-paced environment.
Travel Required: Yes, up to 40% - 60% of the time.
MVR Required: Yes
Base Salary: $206,000 - $220,000
The salary range posted for this position represents the anticipated hiring range for this role. Offers are made within this range based on factors such as relevant experience, skills, education, internal equity, and market considerations. This is the hiring range for the position; compensation above the posted maximum is not typically available at the time of hire.
Work Location: Remote
Please note: At this time, we are only able to hire candidates who, upon hire and throughout the duration of their employment, maintain their primary residence and work location in one of the following states:
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, or Wisconsin.
Why Work at KEEN: Driven by a passion for life outside, KEEN is a values-led, independently owned brand from Portland, Oregon, that’s on a mission to create original and versatile products, improve lives, and inspire outside adventure. Founded in 2003, KEEN launched a revolution in the footwear industry with the introduction of the Newport adventure sandal and has donated more than $18 million to non-profit organizations and causes around the world to promote responsible outdoor recreation, including conservation efforts to protect open spaces. KEEN strives to show the world through its products and its actions that a business for good can actually be good for business. By giving back, reducing impact, and activating communities and individuals to protect the places where we work and play, KEEN puts its values in motion and takes action to leave the world a better place.
Fuerst Group, KEEN, and Chrome are equal opportunity employers. We value an inclusive and diverse community. Qualified candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply and will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability.
