Careers

Job Summary

We are seeking a Manager, International Sales to join our team.  This role at Sparx is responsible for leading the company’s commercial efforts in our geographies outside of North America.  This includes both our consumer and commercial customer segments. Consumer sales sell through our DTC, distributor, and retail sales channels.  Commercial sales are sold directly to our customers (retailers, rinks and teams), for their own commercial use, through Sparx Hockey sales representatives. This role will have an impact across many different groups here at Sparx Hockey. 

About Us

Founded in 2013, Sparx Hockey is a privately held corporation located just outside of Boston in Acton, Mass. Sparx Hockey is a developer and manufacturer of skate sharpening equipment and related accessories for ice hockey, figure skating and sled hockey. The Sparx Sharpener, the company’s flagship product, is an affordable, automated product that allows anyone, anywhere, with no prior skate sharpening experience, to easily sharpen hockey and figure skates with pro-level accuracy. Thousands of customers in the U.S. and Canada are currently sharpening their skates with Sparx, including individuals, families, teams, rink operators and pro shops. The company is focused on building a leadership position in skate sharpening by providing customers with the most advanced, accurate and easy to use skate sharpening equipment on the planet.

In addition to Sparx Hockey’s exceptional products and record-setting growth, we also pride ourselves on being a fun place to work. Although it’s not an employment prerequisite, many of our employees still play, coach, and parent hockey players. We do more than just build great hockey products, we use them ourselves. When we’re not working hard or playing hockey our team can be found having a blast at our annual summer outing and impromptu barbecues that fill in the rest of the Sparx annual event calendar.

Our global headquarters are located in Acton, MA and are home to our R&D, Operations, Marketing, Sales, and Finance teams as well as our production lines and warehouse/distribution center.

Being a sports technology company, the culture here at Sparx is team focused and our employees work hard every day toward our mission statement:

Provide the most advanced, accurate, and easy-to-use skate sharpening experience while delivering industry-leading customer service.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Tactical Planning for New Geographies
• Identify & review (with R&D) 3rd party repair locations
• Collaborate with Sparx Finance, Marketing, and Commercial Sales to develop pricing strategies
• Collaborate with Marketing & Commercial sales to develop Go-to-Market strategies
• Initial Installs
• Ring Sales (increasing usage)
• Support Sparx Operations and Finance to review & secure 3rd party logistics

• Training
• Create training materials for new sales representatives
• Deliver in-person and remote training session

• Sales & Sales Management
• Represent Sparx in a sales capacity in current and new geographies
• Recruit and Manage Sales Infrastructure (Distributors, Sales Representatives, and other partners)
• Collaborate with Sales Representatives to build pipeline, close deals, and achieve quotas
• Travel to new geographies (when int'l travel permits) for business reviews
• Assist Sparx Marketing and Sales departments for events and Trade Shows worldwide
• Create and Maintain Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database
• Develop and Manage Key Account Relationships

• Product Quality
• Work with Sparx Customer Support to build infrastructure to handle customer inquiry in new geographies
• Monitor product service activity and collaborate with Sparx R&D to ensure an unrivaled customer experience

• Marketing
• Collaborate with Sparx Marketing to create powerful messaging for new geographies
• Work with Marketing and Operations on packaging and fixturing for Sparx products in new geographies

• Product Development
• Work with Marketing & Engineering to define enhancements to existing products as well as new products for the Sparx Hockey portfolio

Qualifications and Skills:

• College degree or equivalent and/or proven experience in the skate sharpening/hockey equipment industry
• Customer-oriented selling personality with strong influencing skills
• Well-structured and independent worker with good planning/organizational skills
• A solid team player
• Strong follow-up and sales negotiating skills
• Strong communication skills (oral and written)
• Effective presentation skills before a group
• Reliable and self-motivated
• Analytic skills and open to improvements / changes
• Ability to perform in fast changing work environment.
• Excellent problem solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability to make complex decisions.
• 10+ years’ experience managing small to medium teams.
• Ability to travel up to 15% of the time.  (we estimate 1 overseas travel trip per quarter)

Benefits:

• Work for an exciting company in the hockey industry
• Grow business from the ground up with ample career growth opportunities
• Competitive compensation package

No relocation available, local candidates only.  No agency submissions accepted at this time.

To apply for this position, please fill out the form in the following link:  https://sparxhockey.typeform.com/to/EORHwEJ3