Director of Purchasing

Innovative Dining Group•West Hollywood, CA

5d•Remote

About The Position

Innovative Dining Group (IDG) is seeking a highly organized, analytical, and hospitality-focused Director of Purchasing to oversee food, beverage, and operating-supply procurement across its restaurant portfolio. The role ensures effective purchasing practices, accurate inventory management, and strong cost controls across all locations. It is a home office position based in West Hollywood, or remote in Las Vegas or Austin, with regular travel to restaurants across California, Texas, Nevada, and Arizona. The Director serves as IDG’s Restaurant365 (R365) subject-matter expert for purchasing, inventory, and recipe management, and is the primary owner of cost-of-goods accuracy and analysis across the portfolio. The role works closely with restaurant leadership, finance, operations, and vendors to maintain accurate pricing and product data, identify cost-saving opportunities, monitor purchasing and inventory practices, and support restaurant financial performance. The Director provides guidance and oversight to restaurant teams, establishes and maintains purchasing standards, and supports new restaurant openings and other company initiatives. The position owns R365 purchasing, inventory, and recipe modules across all locations; maintains recipe, product, vendor, and ordering data; manages Toast POS integration and menu mapping; and trains restaurant teams in R365 practices. It develops purchasing strategies and policies, sources and negotiates with vendors, monitors commodity pricing, and partners with culinary and beverage leaders. The Director produces food-cost reporting and variance analysis, supports beverage COGS analysis, oversees inventory counts and valuation with Accounting, and provides menu engineering and recipe-costing support. The role also oversees R365 purchase-to-pay workflows and purchasing controls, resolves vendor discrepancies, manages non-food and operating-supply purchasing, and leads pre-opening procurement and system setup for new restaurants. Regular travel is required. The position involves working in busy or confined restaurant spaces and lifting or moving items up to 50 pounds.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited college or university.
At least 7 years of progressive experience in purchasing, inventory, or finance, including at least 2 years directly in a food and beverage environment focused on purchasing or inventory.
Experience implementing an inventory and purchasing system in a food and beverage environment.
Extensive hands-on Restaurant365 experience, including system setup and ongoing maintenance, recipe builds, item and vendor setup, inventory, and purchasing modules.
Solid understanding of finance and accounting, including COGS, theoretical-versus-actual variance, and P&L impact.
Strong Microsoft Excel skills and comfort with data analysis and reporting.
Exceptional attention to detail and a high standard for accuracy.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills and strong follow-up skills.
Ability to drive results through and with others across culinary, beverage, operations, and finance teams.
Proven vendor negotiation track record.
Ability to work in busy or confined restaurant spaces, including walk-ins, storerooms, and kitchens.
Ability to lift and move items up to 50 pounds.
Ability to travel regularly to restaurants across the company’s portfolio.

Nice To Haves

Multi-unit fine dining experience.
Experience implementing or expanding R365 across multiple locations.
Knowledge of wine, spirits, sake, and specialty proteins.

Responsibilities

Serve as the system owner for R365 purchasing, inventory, and recipe modules across all locations, including setup for new openings.
Build and maintain recipes, sub-recipes, prep items, and menu-item mappings so theoretical food costs are accurate.
Support the Director of Beverage on R365 work for bar, wine, and sake programs, including recipe and item builds, vendor setup, and inventory.
Maintain item masters, units of measure, pack sizes, vendor items, and order guides as menus, specials, and pricing change.
Manage Toast POS integration and menu-item mapping so sales flow correctly into theoretical usage.
Train and support chefs, general managers, and bar managers on ordering, receiving, inventory counts, and waste logging in R365.
Continuously improve R365 configuration, workflows, and data integrity.
Develop and implement purchasing strategies that reduce cost while protecting fine-dining quality standards.
Establish and enforce procurement policies, order guides, par levels, and approval workflows.
Identify purchases made through non-approved channels and move them into approved vendor and supply-chain channels.
Source, evaluate, and select vendors based on quality, price, reliability, and service; negotiate contracts, pricing agreements, rebates, and delivery terms.
Track prices for key commodities, benchmark prices against contracts, and follow up on vendor commitments.
Partner with culinary and beverage leadership on ordering, specifications, and substitutions, and work with regional vendors serving locations outside California.
Produce mid- and end-of-month food COGS reports by location, including actual-versus-theoretical costs, variance analysis, and error checking.
Support beverage COGS reporting and analysis by category, including analysis of waste, pour costs, pricing, comps, and inventory counts.
Oversee period-end inventory counts and valuation in R365 alongside Accounting.
Provide menu engineering and recipe-costing support for new menus and price changes.
Design and oversee R365 purchase-to-pay workflows covering purchase orders, receiving, invoice matching, approvals, and accurate vendor payments and coding across entities.
Resolve vendor pricing discrepancies, credits, and short shipments.
Maintain internal controls over purchasing and receiving.
Manage purchasing of non-food and operating supplies, including china, silverware, glassware, smallwares, branded merchandise, and to-go packaging.
Lead pre-opening purchasing for new restaurants in coordination with the VP of Operations, Corporate Executive Chef, and Director of Beverage.
Coordinate opening orders, vendor setup, delivery timing, and R365 location setup so new restaurants are stocked and system-ready before opening.
Support purchasing standards at managed and licensed locations as needed.
Complete other ad hoc projects as assigned.
Travel regularly to Los Angeles-area restaurants and periodically to locations in Northern California, Nevada, Texas, and Arizona.