Technical Sales Specialist - Food & Beverage

Wellington, NZ Taranaki, NZ

Permanent

About your role

Looking for a role where you’re out on site, solving real problems, and building trusted relationships — not stuck behind a desk?

We’re hiring a Technical Sales Specialist to support a well-established portfolio, supporting a diverse range of Food & Beverage customers across the Manawatū, Whanganui, Hawkes Bay & Wellington regions — from red meat and dairy processors through to breweries and wineries.

You’ll spend most of your time on customer sites, working directly with operations, quality, technical, H&S and production teams to help them solve their problems, improve processes, enhance cleaning & hygiene outcomes and build trusted relationships.

This is not a purely technical role — success comes from being able to work with different people, adapt to different environments, and deliver practical solutions that customers rely on every day.

What’s on offer

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• Competitive salary and bonus with a global, established organisation
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• Autonomy – manage your own territory and customer relationships
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• Variety – split your time between site visits, troubleshooting and account management
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• Established customer base – you’re not starting from scratch
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• In depth onboarding process to help you hit the ground running
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• Ongoing learning and development opportunities, including study support
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• Career growth through internal mobility, secondments and promotion pathways
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• Flexible working options to support work-life balance
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• Paid volunteering leave and a strong focus on diversity and inclusion
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Key Responsibilities

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• On-site engagement with customers, supporting cleaning, sanitation and chemical processes
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• Troubleshooting plant issues, chemical application and improving performance
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• Building strong relationships across operations, QA, H&S, inventory and production teams
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• Delivering training, plant assessments and technical service programs
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• Identifying opportunities to grow accounts and introduce new solutions
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• Acting as the go-to expert and first point of call for your customers
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Who are we looking for?

We’re open to different backgrounds, but you’ll likely bring:

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• Experience in Food & Beverage environments (e.g. dairy, protein processing, beverage, food production)
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• Strong understanding of food safety, hygiene and quality requirements in a food production environment.
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• Proven ability to work directly with customers in a B2B or site-based environment
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• Excellent communication skills — confident dealing with a wide range of personalities and understanding their specific needs.
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• Practical problem-solving mindset — able to adapt in dynamic situations
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• Self-motivated and driven to achieve business wins and positive outcomes.
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• Comfortable working independently in a field-based role
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Nice to have (not essential):

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• Technical background in chemicals, sanitation or food processing
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• Prior account management, sales experience or B2B customer role
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This role covers the Manawatū, Whanganui, Hawkes Bay and Wellington regions.

To be successful, you’ll need to be based within the region or nearby (generally within ~1 hour) due to the regular on-site customer work. Preference is Palmerston North or surrounds as this is central to the territory.