Vendor Marketing Programs & Rewards Owner

Be part of a growing, successful company in an exciting and challenging field. Border States is 100% employee-owned, which means you’re empowered to make decisions, find solutions and receive rewards for your hard work.
 
This position will be located in: Fargo, ND  

Application Deadline: March 16, 2026

Please note that the position may be filled before or after the listed application deadline. Applications will only be accepted while the posting remains active.

Job Summary

The Vendor Marketing Programs & Rewards Owner designs, manages, and operationalizes vendor marketing programs that accelerate vendor growth and impact sales order behavior. This position partners cross-functionally with sales and field leadership, vendor relations, category management, sales operations, and marketing to deliver impactful field incentive and reward programs, coordinate employee-owner enablement and vendor training, and build internal marketing campaigns that strengthen vendor engagement and drive program ROI.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

• Designs, builds and manages an enterprise vendor rewards program, supporting thousands of end users and multiple vendor suppliers.
• Owns end-to-end program data integrity and vendor lifecycle management, including pulling and analyzing sales reports, managing vendor onboarding and offboarding, ensuring accurate inclusion/exclusion of products, and overseeing points loading and verification to resolve partner inquiries.
• Creates, implements, and operationalizes order taker reward and incentive structures that increase sales, drives account manager engagement, and builds brand loyalty. 
• Aligns program design with core market strategies, regional sales initiatives, and category priorities.
• Partners with Demand Generation teams and Category to execute internal integrated marketing campaigns that influence end-user behavior to maximize reward programs.
• Supports program ROI measurement in collaboration with internal teams, leveraging CRM-driven reporting and analytics.
• Builds scalable platforms and infrastructure, performance metrics, and engagement frameworks to support future enterprise growth. 
• Leads outreach plans to increase program participation and executes regional and local engagement strategies to accelerate program adoption.
• Serves as support for supplier/manufacturer relationships to improve retention and program advocacy.
• Coordinates with the Category team to identify needs from strategic vendors, secure their participation in the company rewards program, and coordinate vendor Market Development Funds (MDF). 
• Creates and maintains vendor marketing programs and rewards with tracking software.

Non-essential Functions

• Develops and streamlines processes and management of vendor partner training needs in the field and supports onboarding resources to ensure order takers are enabled and educated.
• Assists with special projects as needed.
• Provides backup support for related marketing operations tasks during peak periods or team member absences. 
• Participates in training sessions, team meetings, and cross-functional discussions to build understanding of marketing workflows and systems. 
• Participates in company events and industry engagements as needed, including occasional travel for activities (e.g. Sales Kickoff (SKO), NAED conference, or other industry events) as required. 
• Performs other duties as assigned by supervisor or designate.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or related field or equivalent work experience required. 
• 5+ years experience in marketing roles or incentive program management preferred. 
• Experience with Core Rewards, AwardCo, ITA Group, or similar programs highly preferred. 
• Experience working within B2B distribution is a plus.
  Working technical knowledge of rewards program infrastructure and building of requirements strongly preferred. 
• Strong working knowledge in Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Access, and PowerPoint).

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment and maintain an upbeat and positive attitude under pressure.
• Exceptional communication skills, with an ability to manage multiple stakeholder voices, including executive leadership and external partners.
• Strong project management and organizational skills from conception following through to execution.
• Willingness to speak up, challenge the current state and learn from both success and failure. 
• Ability to prioritize, multitask and manage multiple initiatives with minimal direction; ability to delegate acros