Regional Business Manager Key Accounts Africa

As Regional Business Manager Key Accounts – Africa at Brenntag, you will be responsible for managing and developing strategic relationships with multinational and blue-chip customers across East, West, North, and Southern Africa, including key markets such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. You will drive profitable growth through the execution of pan-African Key Account strategies, commercial initiatives, and value-added customer solutions while engaging with senior customer stakeholders and aligning regional execution with global expectations.

In this role, you will build strong relationships with customer leadership teams and local organisations across the region, drive the development and implementation of strategic projects, and strengthen collaboration between global, regional, and local teams to ensure operational excellence and long-term partnership growth across Brenntag’s African network.

• Lead and manage strategic Key Account customers across the region.
• Deliver key business metrics including gross profit, budget performance, and strategic KPIs
• Drive profitable growth across Brenntag Essentials (BES), Brenntag Specialties (BSP), and value-added services
• Develop and execute Key Account strategies aligned to customer and business objectives
• Continuously identify and implement innovative business models and commercial concepts to support customer growth and operational excellence
• Collaborate with Global and EMEA Key Account teams, Controlling, and regional organisations to develop financial budgets and business development plans
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with senior customer stakeholders and local operational teams
• Drive the development, execution, and regional implementation of strategic customer projects
• Directly manage the Central Key Account Teams, including all aspects of personnel management
• Foster a high-performance, collaborative, and customer-centric culture across the function

You are a highly accomplished commercial leader with extensive experience managing complex multinational or blue-chip customer portfolios within a B2B environment. You have the ability to influence senior decision-makers within global organisations and navigate sophisticated procurement, supply chain, and commercial structures across multiple regions. You thrive in complex matrix organisations, are culturally agile, and have a proven ability to align diverse stakeholders around common commercial objectives.

Skills 

• Strong strategic sales, commercial, and Key Account Management capability within the chemical distribution, ingredients, or specialty chemicals sector
• Proven ability to influence and negotiate with multinational customers operating across diverse industries, including manufacturing, mining, pharma, food, water treatment, personal care, coatings, and industrial markets
• Advanced commercial acumen with expertise in pricing strategies, margin optimisation, contract negotiations, and portfolio profitability management within complex chemical value chains
• Strong understanding of chemical supply chains, sourcing models, regulatory requirements, product stewardship, and distribution networks across multiple countries
• Ability to build and sustain relationships with senior management, procurement leaders, technical teams, supply chain functions, and operational stakeholders within complex customer organisations
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing capability across global matrix environments
• Excellent communication, presentation, and cross-cultural collaboration skills
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking capability with the ability to translate customer needs into scalable commercial and technical solutions
• Strong IT affinity with practical experience using CRM systems, sales analytics tools, forecasting models, and commercial reporting platforms

• Minimum 8 years’ experience in strategic sales, commercial management, or Key Account Management within the chemical distribution, specialty chemicals, ingredients, or related B2B industrial sectors
• Proven experience managing large multinational and blue-chip customer accounts with complex regional or global procurement structures
• Demonstrated success managing customers with multi-country sourcing requirements, supply chain complexity, pricing models, product portfolios, and contractual agreements
• Proven ability to negotiate and influence at senior decision-making levels within multinational customer organisations
• Strong exposure to business development, strategic pricing, commercial negotiations, supplier relationships, and profitable growth management across multiple markets
• Experience operating effectively within global matrix organisations and leading cross-functional commercial initiatives involving sales, procurement, technical, supply chain, regulatory, and operations teams
• Experience driving growth through customer portfolio expansion, cross-selling, solution selling, and new market or project development

• Master’s degree in business administration, Commerce, Chemical Engineering, Supply Chain, or related field
• Excellent English language proficiency essential; additional African or international language capability advantageous depending on regional scope

• Competitive and fair salary

• Retirement savings plan

• Professional development opportunities

Brenntag provides equal employment opportunities to qualified applicants and employees of all backgrounds and identities to create a workplace where difference is valued because it forms a resilient and more innovative organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, religion or belief, parental and family status, or any other protected characteristic. We welcome applications from women, men and non-binary candidates of all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds.