Team Lead Vendor at Ocean Bottle

Job title: Team Lead - Vendor

Location: London, hybrid

Capacity:  Full-time, permanent

Salary: £60k - £65k + commission, depending on experience

Role grade: M4

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About Ocean Bottle:

At Ocean Bottle, our vision is to restore the health of the ocean to a better state than we inherited it. We do this by bringing people together to fund plastic collection. We create award-winning reusable bottles and cups, with every product sold funding the collection of 1000 plastic bottles in weight - before they reach the ocean. To date, we’ve collected the equivalent of 1.7 billion plastic bottles from ocean-bound regions.

We believe that we don’t need a handful of people doing sustainability perfectly, we need millions doing it imperfectly. Our products and solutions enable consumers and businesses to drive this change and support refill behaviour whilst funding plastic collection. 

As a brand, we are change makers - we bring people together, we pioneer solutions and we connect others to the power of the ocean. Are you ready to join us on this mission? 

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What you’ll be doing:

As we approach the next stage of growth, we’re looking for our next Team Lead - Vendor to join our Sales team. Reporting to our Head of Sales, the purpose of this role is to manage the day-to-day operations and performance of our Vendor sales team, while also directly managing a portfolio of strategic partners, playing a key part in scaling our presence with distributors and resellers globally to build a best-in-class promotional merchandise channel.

This is a hands-on role that combines strategic thinking with day-to-day team leadership. You’ll bring a strong sales mindset, deep industry experience, and a passion for building processes that drive efficiency and growth.

Additionally, you will be:

• Leading and managing the daily performance and development of the Vendor sales team

• Acting as a player-coach: owning and growing your portfolio of key accounts while coaching team members to drive performance and exceed targets

• Supporting the Head of Sales in delivering the GTM and commercial strategy across vendor partners and promotional merchandise channels

• Scaling our Vendor business across new territories, leveraging both inbound and outbound strategies

• Building strong, commercially viable relationships with promotional merchandise distributors and resellers – global experience is highly valued

• Bringing a structured and strategic sales methodology to the team, embedding best practice sales processes, frameworks, and CRM usage 

• Supporting team members with deal coaching, pipeline reviews, and account strategy planning

• Driving team accountability through reporting, forecasting, and performance metrics

• Identifying opportunities to improve our operations, processes, and systems to unlock further growth

• Representing Ocean Bottle with impact, enthusiasm, and clarity across both customer and internal stakeholder conversations

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What you’ll get:

In addition to your salary, we offer the following benefits:

📈Stock options so you’re as invested in our future growth as we are!​

🏝️Enhanced annual leave, including your birthday off and discretionary EOY leave

⏰ Flexible working model to support our employees

🍼 Enhanced family leave for primary and secondary caregivers

🩺 Private Medical Insurance through Vitality 

🧠 Mental Health Support through the Spill platform

📚 Learning support including professional coaching through More Happi and £200 learning allowance

🚴 Travel benefits including access to electric vehicles through WeVee and Cycle to Work scheme

👕 Team merch including your very on OB when you join and staff discount to OB product

🐶 Supportive and (pet) friendly workspace in Shoreditch

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At Ocean Bottle, we're as passionate about creating sustainable change as we are about creating an inclusive environment for all. We believe in the power of diverse perspectives, identities, and backgrounds to drive us forward and build a team that truly reflects the world we want to impact. So, whether you see yourself in every part of this job description or only some, we want to hear from you. If the role excites you and you're eager to contribute to our mission, please consider applying—your unique experiences and ideas could be exactly what we need to make a splash.

What you’ll bring to the role:

• 5+ years of experience in commercial sales roles with a focus on both key account management and fast-turn sales via distributors or resellers

• Prior experience managing or mentoring a sales team, ideally within the promotional merchandise industry or adjacent B2B sectors

• Experience working with (or for) a promotional merchandise distributor -a global network is a plus

• A natural ability to lead by example, inspire confidence, and bring a high-performance mindset to those around you

• A strong strategic mindset, comfortable thinking big-picture, building commercial plans, and aligning with the overall business strategy

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the confidence to engage senior buyers and stakeholders

• Advanced CRM knowledge (preferably HubSpot), including pipeline management, reporting, and process automation

• Proven track record of exceeding revenue targets and scaling commercial operations

• A collaborative, proactive, and “no task too small” attitude - willing to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in

• A passion for sustainability and purpose-driven business is a strong bonus

• Embodying our core principles: Think like a detailed and rigorous founder, Champions do extra, and Give a sh*t and go all in on the mission.

What good looks like:

• Proactively develop and execute tailored growth plans for each key account, identifying new revenue opportunities and securing long-term commercial value

• Build and nurture strong relationships with decision-makers, ensuring partners feel supported, valued, and aligned with Ocean Bottle’s mission and goals

• Lead commercial negotiations end-to-end, confidently balancing partner needs with Ocean Bottle’s margin and sustainability targets

• Work fluidly across sales, marketing, operations, and product teams to deliver seamless activations, custom solutions, and strategic campaigns

• Always connect the commercial opportunity back to positive environmental and social impact, helping partners unlock the power of their purchase beyond the product