Regional Sales Director - Central

Rishi Tea & Botanicals is one of the fastest-growing and category-leading premium tea brands in the U.S. Our remarkable teas and botanicals are served in tens of thousands of premier cafés, restaurants, and hospitality destinations globally, as we partner with the most respected names in the culinary and hospitality world. Founded in 1997 by Josh Kaiser, Rishi charted a new course for the tea industry: sourcing teas and botanicals from the world’s best producers, building long-term relationships directly with farmers, and bringing exceptional quality to market without compromise and with culinary creativity.

As a result, Rishi has become a vanguard of Direct Trade within the tea industry. This philosophy defines our brand as both consumers and operators alike increasingly seek transparency, authenticity, and excellence.

Today, Rishi is a rapidly scaling omnichannel brand expanding across eCommerce, Away From Home, and retail with a diverse product portfolio spanning loose leaf tea, sachets, matcha, iced tea, tea concentrates, and ready-to-drink sparkling tea. The pinnacle of our assortment is our limited-release Garden Direct tea program. Garden Direct represents the highest expression of Rishi’s sourcing expertise: ultra-small-lot teas selected directly from exceptional gardens, often harvested seasonally and produced in limited quantities.

These teas showcase rare varietals, distinctive terroir, and craftsmanship that cannot be replicated at scale.

As Rishi continues to rapidly-scale and redefine the premium tea category, this is a moment to join a brand with momentum, purpose, and the ambition to shape the future of how the world experiences tea.

The Regional Sales Director is responsible for overseeing the strategic growth of the region and investing in the long-term career development and tea journey of our teams. A key focus will be supporting and honoring legacy partnerships while growing our multi-unit food service footprint along with developing both coffee and food service distributor networks in each state throughout the territory.

Base Range: $120,000-$150,000 + annual bonus

The essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Direct distribution growth within the region, with particular emphasis on tier 1 and tier 2 markets:
  • Existing relationships – Support balanced lead referrals, conduct regular business reviews, ensure distributors are well trained on tea and fully supported with selling collateral and programing. Draft, and with internal approval, present distributor agreements to all distributors.
  • Expand distributor footprint – Prospect and onboard distributors in coffee, food service and nontraditional channels that will unlock access to incremental outlets in the market, generate healthy competition in the market, with an emphasis placed on minimizing distributor account cannibalization.
• Prospect new accounts across the region:
  • Equal focus spent on identifying revenue-driving multi-unit opportunities across the region, as identifying the halo accounts within each sub channel in tier 1 markets that will continue to build the brand presence, consumer awareness, brand desirability, and positive trial in the market.
• Provide strong team leadership through celebrating successes, coaching to opportunities, providing servant leadership and effective delegation and development. Support the long-term career development of the sales team. Recruit, onboard and support career growth for Regional Sales Managers, Territory Sales Reps, and Account Managers within the region.
• Support the tea journey of your team, by seeking customer and tea cupping activities, and working with other Sales…