Job Description

About the Role

We’re looking for an exceptional Sales, Marketing & Innovation (SMI) Director to lead and transform our commercial organisation across Belgium, Netherlands, Slovakia, Austria, Czechia and Switzerland.

This is a high-impact, senior leadership role with end-to-end accountability for shaping and executing the commercial strategy across a complex, multi-country region. You will play a pivotal role in driving sustainable growth, strengthening customer partnerships, and positioning the business as a market leader in innovation and value-led solutions.

You will lead a broad and diverse SMI function spanning Key Accounts, Account Management, Design & Innovation, and Commercial Operations, while working in close partnership with Customer Experience and Marketing teams in a highly matrixed international environment.

A core focus of the role is to translate market insight into actionable commercial strategies, ensuring the region is well-positioned to capture growth opportunities and respond effectively to changing customer and market dynamics. You will act as the central commercial voice for the region, influencing both regional and central leadership agendas.

Key responsibilities include:

• Defining and delivering the regional commercial strategy, aligning local market plans to wider regional and group objectives

• Owning and delivering against a full suite of commercial KPIs, including EBIT, revenue growth, volume, pricing, market share and customer penetration

• Leading the end-to-end commercial planning cycle, ensuring robust pipeline development, disciplined execution and strong conversion of opportunities into revenue

• Acting as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, contributing to strategic decision-making at both country and regional level

• Building deep, strategic customer relationships across multiple levels, strengthening influence and positioning the business as a partner of choice

• Driving new business development and market expansion, identifying priority segments and optimising resource allocation to maximise growth potential

• Embedding a high-performance, results-driven culture, focused on accountability, continuous improvement and commercial excellence

• Leading and developing a multi-disciplinary, cross-border team, enhancing capability across sales, innovation and commercial operations

• Championing innovation and value-based selling, ensuring strong alignment between customer needs, design capability and commercial outcomes

• Driving pricing discipline, margin optimisation and operational efficiency, working closely with finance and commercial operations teams.

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of the SMI function across a key growth region, combining strategic leadership with hands-on commercial impact in a dynamic, international business.

About you  

You’re a senior commercial leader with a track record of delivering growth in complex, international environments.

We’re looking for:

• Significant experience in senior Sales / Marketing / SMI leadership roles within large, matrixed organisations

• Proven ability to drive profitable growth and market share in competitive, customer-centric markets

• Strong leadership capability with experience building and leading high-performing, cross-functional teams

• Experience influencing at executive and C-suite level, both internally and with major customers

• Demonstrated success in leading organisational change and transformation programmes

• Expertise in commercial strategy, pricing, customer segmentation and pipeline management

• Ability to operate effectively in a multinational, matrix environment

• Degree qualified, with an MBA or business-related postgraduate qualification advantageous

• Experience managing large-scale proposals and international customer contracts

About us

We are DS Smith, together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 60,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Become part of a world-leading organisation and do your best work with us!

“To fulfil our purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world, we aim to build a diverse, motivated, and engaged workforce. Our goal is to create a culture of inclusion where everyone is treated fairly, differences are valued, and everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.

Our people come from diverse backgrounds, bring different perspectives, ideas and experiences to generate unique solutions focused on present and future sustainability challenges. We welcome all candidates to apply, even those not meeting all criteria.”

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