Director Strategic Contracts

JOB SUMMARY

Reporting to the VP of Supply Chain and Procurement, the position is responsible for all strategic contracts, RFQ’s, and market-based opportunity purchases. This position will also manage and negotiate the indirect spend for all of Kettle’s sites. You will participate in the budgeting process along with managing strategic vendor partnerships.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITES

• Lead, develop and align food ingredient strategies to support current and future business requirements.
• Drive team to develop deep market intelligence for strategic ingredient categories by monitoring the category supply base, industry dynamics, and underlying price indices.
• Develop aligned category strategies by understanding current/future business needs, with key stakeholder support.
• Deliver multiple strategic category plans annually.
• Lead the negotiations for Master Supply Agreements with selected strategic suppliers.
• Drive teams to create formula-based pricing agreements for food ingredients.
• Manage and lead supply and commodity risk strategy and mitigation plans for ingredient categories, including accountability for coverage strategy.
• Assist in annual budgeting process along with senior director of procurement and sourcing.
• Co-Manage purchase price variance (PPV) for the ingredients procurement team.
• Stay abreast of market trends, cost optimization, innovation, and latest technologies to identify new ingredient opportunities by analyzing industry research and attending trade shows.
• Develop and maintain senior-level relationships at strategic ingredient suppliers.
• Assist quarterly business reviews to review aligned KPIs with select, strategic ingredient suppliers.

As A Leader Within the Kettle Cuisine Team You Are Expected To:

• Model and support Kettle’s Core Values and safety culture.
• Manage performance of all team members.
• Build a strong, committed, and collaborative team.
• Develop individual team members & their careers.
• Conduct annual reviews and PDPs for all direct team members.
• Create a culture of accountability & performance.
• Drive a focus on quality and continuous improvement.
• Plan work, track results and resolve variances.

LEVEL OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Works independently. Determines long range, strategic direction of the functional area within confines of overall strategic plan.
• Influence action at a senior level including interactions with customers and vendors.
• Receives customer questions and responds within prescribed areas of knowledge.
• Position is responsible for planning and managing, directly and through direct reports, revenue generation and realization across the organization.
• Ineffective actions could have a major impact on the organization's public image or on the organization in terms of development, external relations, delays or attainment of organizational goals. Errors are often irreversible resulting in financial or public image loss extending over long periods.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Responsible for the work and results of employees within area of responsibility, influences others within organization.

SKILL REQUIRED

• Bachelors degree.
• Requires 10-15 years of experience.
• 3-5 years’ experience in senior leadership role.
• Proficient with the Microsoft Office Suite.

WORKING CONDITIONS AND PHYSICAL EFFORT

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those a Director of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

Physical Demands/Efforts

• Work requires little or no physical effort.

Mental & Visual Demands

• Work performed by this position requires a significant level of mental concentration to manage multiple complex tasks.
• Work requires frequent visual effort for extended periods of time.

Work Environment and Hazards

• Employee typically works in a normal office environment free from noise and hazards with occasional exposure to heat and cold.
• This position has limited exposure to hazards that require the exercise of caution with the little likelihood of injury.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Proven working experience as a manager.
• Demonstrated excellence in driving consistently strong profitable sales growth.
• Experienced working with Procurement/Supply Chain Planning.
• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
• Financial and business acumen.
• Ability to gather and analyze data to reach decisions.
• Knowledge in chilled/refrigerated manufacturing industry.
• Strong negotiation skills, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving ability.
• Strong working knowledge of Purchase to Pay business process.
• Strong understanding of ERP Systems.
• Ability and willingness to build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to read and interpret raw material specifications and supplier documents.
• Self-starter able to conceptualize and drive initiatives forward.
• Positive attitude and motivated by contributing to the overall success of the team.
• Obsessive attention to detail, well organized and able to juggle many projects at once.
• Comfortable moving at a fast pace and in ambiguous environments.
• Willing to address difficult situations head on with patience and respect.
• Passionate about food.