Business Development Manager

Job Title: Business Development Manager, North America 

Division: Ornua Ingredients Ireland (OII) 

Reports To: Commercial Manager OII  

Location: Hilbert 

Ornua is a leading dairy co-operative which sells premium dairy products globally on behalf of its Member Co-operatives, Ireland’s dairy processors and, in turn, Irish dairy farmers.  

Ornua has revenues of €3.4 billion and is supported by a global team of approximately 2,800 employees. The Group operates as a commercial organisation across 10 business units, including 12 production facilities located in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa.  

The commercial organisation is responsible for the marketing and sales of Ornua’s consumer brands including Ireland’s most successful food export: Kerrygold. Consumer markets are served by production facilities in Ireland, Germany and the UK and by in-market Sales & Marketing Teams in Asia, Germany, Ireland, MEA, Poland, Spain, rest of Europe and North and Latin America.  

It also manages the procurement of Irish and non-Irish dairy products, the sale of dairy ingredients to food manufacturing and foodservice customers globally, and the implementation of de-risking and trading strategies to manage market volatility. These activities are supported by production facilities and in-market teams in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. 

The Role 

The Business Development Manager will have responsibility for existing customer commercial management and new business generation for Irish powder ingredients (casein, caseinate and MPC’s) in North America (USA & Canada). The successful candidate will lead business development in North America for Ornua Ingredients Ireland and our Irish Supplier Members. As Business Development Manager, they will also support other global ingredient business units with the strategic purchase of USA powders and cheeses as the opportunities arise.  This is an exciting new role, reporting into the Commercial Manager, with ongoing strategic discussions with the Managing Director for Ornua Ingredients Ireland.  

Key Areas of Responsibility 

• Develop & Implement a Sales & Route to Market Strategy for North America with a specific focus on: 

• Acid casein/caseinate usage within snacking, nutritional’s, and beverage categories  

• Identify the relevant brand-owners and primary producers within these categories.  

• Identify the co-packers employed to produce these products 

• Rennet casein within processed, imitation and cheese powder categories 

• Identify the relevant brand-owners and primary producers within these categories. 

• Formulate a relationship building, business generation plan to grow our business organically in the region (mainly USA & Canada) over the next 5 years. 

• Identify a “short list” of B2B customer contacts (focused, sustainable opportunities) and produce a detailed customer plan on the strategy required to deliver volume and value. 

• Lead & participate in trade fairs/customer presentations to promote the Ornua values and our global ingredients portfolio. 

• Review our existing customer network & make an early assessment and recommendation of their capability and whether we continue to supply to the customer. 

• Manage the commercial and operational business in line with OII and Ornua Group policies. 

• Provide input into the wider OII customer development strategy: 

• Apply customer segmentation & CRM to improve customer understanding and optimise relationships. 

• Focus on extracting more value from our increased volumes. 

• Contribute to our global customer initiatives as we move toward a more commercially connected model for important customer management. 

• Support other projects and ad hoc requests as required 

• Leverage the existing procurement and trading expertise within Ornua Ingredients North America, to identify and develop trading opportunities for US/Canadian product for sale into our global Ingredients export markets (mainly supporting the OII customer base in SE Asia & International Business Units in MENA). 

• Liaise closely with the Ornua Trading team to provide market intelligence and gather information from the market to better inform global sales policy decisions. 

Key Skills/Attributes 

• Ideally 5 years minimum commercial experience within the FMCG sector. 

• Excellent customer relationship building skills & capability. 

• Ability to think strategically and work effectively within a global environment.  

• Excellent leadership, communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills. 

• Self-starter with the ability to work alone. 

• Interested in growing their commercial experience in a fast-moving customer-centric growing Western market. 

Closing date: Tuesday 24th February 2026