Senior Business Development — Food & Beverage

About Us

Spore.

Bio is a deeptech startup founded in 2023, building the next generation of microbiological quality control for food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics manufacturing. Traditional microbiology testing is slow, costly, and a bottleneck to production, where results take days when manufacturers need them in hours. We built something better: a platform that combines advanced optical imaging and deep learning to detect bacterial contamination in 10 minutes, not days.

We're building our first US team in New York and expanding commercially across the country. This role is central to how we grow in the food & beverage market.

We're looking for Senior Business Development for Food & Beverage Applications to own and build Spore.

Bio's commercial presence across the US food and beverage manufacturing industry.

You know the F&B QC world. You understand the pressure that food safety teams are under - regulatory compliance, outbreak risk, shelf-life testing, supplier qualification, and the constant cost of holding product while waiting for micro results. You've sold into these environments before, you know how food safety decisions get made, and you have the relationships to open doors at major food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, co-packers, and contract labs.

This is a senior, quota-carrying role reporting directly to our CEO. You'll be our primary commercial driver in the F&B vertical, working with the founding team to build pipeline, close deals, and establish Spore.

Bio as a trusted partner in food safety and QC.

• Own the full F&B sales cycle from prospecting through close, including pilot agreements, validation coordination, and commercial contracts

• Build and develop pipeline across food manufacturers, beverage companies, ingredient suppliers, co-packers, and food safety contract labs across the US

• Engage and build relationships with QC Directors, Food Safety Managers, Regulatory Affairs leads, VP Operations, and procurement teams at target accounts

• Help customers understand how Spore.
  
  Bio fits into their workflows and compliance

• Deliver technically credible demos and proposals tailored to F&B QC environments - from high-throughput production facilities to specialized ingredient labs

• Lead pricing, negotiation, and contracting discussions

• Develop relationships with food safety distributors, testing equipment vendors, and contract lab networks serving the F&B industry

• Represent Spore.
  
  Bio at food and beverage industry events (e.g. IAFP Annual Meeting)

• Feed market intelligence - customer objections, competitive dynamics, regulatory trends - back to product and R&D teams

• Maintain rigorous CRM hygiene
  , pipeline forecasting, and reporting

Required:

• 8–10+ years of B2B sales experience in food safety technology, food & beverage QC instrumentation, laboratory testing equipment, or related industries

• Demonstrated track record selling into F&B manufacturing, ingredient supply, or co-packing environments - you know how food companies buy and who makes the decisions

• Solid understanding of food safety and regulatory frameworks and how they drive purchasing decisions for testing and QC technology

• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles involving food safety, QC, operations, procurement, and executive teams

• Comfortable engaging both technical stakeholders (food scientists, QC microbiologists, lab managers) and business decision-makers (VP Operations, VP Quality, C-suite)

• A proven hunter mentality
  : you've built pipeline in new markets, opened accounts cold, and know how to earn trust in a conservative, risk-averse industry

• Strong consultative selling skills - you lead with the customer's food safety challenge, not a product pitch

• Proficiency with CRM
  ; disciplined about pipeline hygiene and forecasting

• Based in or willing to relocate to New York City
  ; comfortable with 35–45% US travel

Bonus:

• Background selling rapid microbiology, pathogen detection, environmental monitoring, or ATP/hygiene testing solutions

• Experience selling to large CPG companies (food manufacturers with complex, multi-site QC programs)

• Existing relationships at food safety and QC teams at major…