Leaft Foods is pioneering planet friendly ingredients and proteins from green leaves. At the cutting edge of science and technology, we are seeking talented people to join our mission in creating a new food system.

Leaft's purpose is to reduce the environmental impact of food production through partnering with farmers on the Canterbury plains to produce a sustainable and environmentally friendly protein for human consumption. The protein, Rubisco, is found in the green leaves of plants and has incredibly unique properties compared with other plant proteins available on the market.

Our team is based just out of Christchurch, New Zealand and has recently completed a very successful capital raise alongside significant government funding for our R&D initiatives. This has set Leaft up to scale its R&D and production capabilities and bring products to market. Now is an amazing time to join this incredibly innovative and rewarding company.

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Be at the forefront of an entirely new food category.

• Sustainable protein innovator - world-leading technology.
• A unique opportunity in petfood and FMCG ingredient sales.

• Global ambition. Innovative, future-focussed food business.

  Leaft Foods’ purpose is to reduce the environmental impact of food production while creating sustainable and amazing food ingredients and products.

  Leaft Foods is the world leader in leaf protein production. Leaf protein is a tasty, nutritious, and highly functional protein made from leafy greens like alfalfa (aka lucerne), oats, and kale.

Leaf protein and its co-products have some of the lowest embedded carbon profiles of all proteins and food ingredients, making them an exciting new food source that will rapidly decarbonise global food supply chains.

Here at Leaft Foods, we’re helping companies and brands achieve their net-zero goals by offering first access to an incredible suite of new food ingredients.

We’re seeking a Business Development Manager (Ingredients) to be at the forefront of bringing these new food ingredients to a global market.

Now is a fantastic time to join this incredibly innovative and rewarding company.

The opportunity

Our existing team has made significant progress on early customer engagement and product development, and now we are seeking an ambitious business development leader with a proven track record to accelerate our go-to-market plans.

This is a highly sought-after opportunity in nutritional and functional ingredient sales. Your superpower is establishing trusted working relationships with technical teams and commercial decision-makers within local and large multinational petfood, FMCG and animal nutrition businesses.

The role

This role adds to our go to market team. Success in this role requires quickly understanding our commercialisation plan and executing sales opportunities.

Building strategic relationships is a key part of this role, as you'll be dealing with a wide variety of customers - and will need to be able to adapt to their individual needs.

You’ll have a knack for identifying opportunities for new products utilising Leaft’s ingredients based on emerging nutrition and science trends. Plus a deep understanding of pet food and high-value nutritional categories, and a familiarity with technical aspects of nutritional product development and timelines.

You will be working closely with our CEO, CFO, Head of Sales and Marketing and our team of food technologists.

These are some of the key attributes:

• Bachelor of Food Science, Food technology or an equivalent degree
• Proven sales record in the FMCG and/or pet food industry
• Self-starter with a high level of autonomy
• Strong project management skills and experience
• Ability to work well with a team, and on a multicultural global basis.
• Commercial experience in multiple geographies, building relationships, contract negotiations etc.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Willingness to work on global leads where customers have different time zones.
• Organised, analytical, and results-orientated individual who enjoys a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment.
• Experience working in a start-up environment is a bonus