Director, Sourcing & Inventory Management

Bagel Brands•Brooklyn Center, MN

About The Position

As Director, Sourcing, and Inventory Management, you lead Caribou’s strategic sourcing and inventory management functions to manage direct (beverage ingredients, food, packaged coffee, merchandise, retail packaging) and indirect (store supplies, store equipment) sourcing, demand planning, supply planning, and inventory management capabilities for all business channels. Your team delivers value to Caribou by developing and maintaining a reliable, diverse supplier network and inventory strategies that drive global retail sales growth, achieve cost and expense objectives, and support unit growth through efficient use of inventory assets. To be successful in this role, you will clearly articulate the Sourcing and Inventory Management vision and roadmap and put transparent measures in place to stay on track while maximizing resources and growing company value through rigorous cost management, planning, and prioritization. You lead cross-functionally by partnering with the Product Innovation, Store Operations, Supply Chain, Quality Assurance, Legal, and Finance teams to implement sourcing, demand planning, supply planning, and inventory management strategies and tactics in support of delivering Caribou’s company goals and objectives.

Requirements

4-year degree in relevant field
Minimum 10 years of experience working in a retail or foodservice company with product sourcing/purchasing and supply chain experience and an understanding of how to bring new products to market
Minimum of 2 years of experience leading people
Proven experience in strategic planning, financial planning, and contract management
Lead a high-functioning team by consistently demonstrating and championing Caribou’s culture and core values: Support One Another, Take Ownership, Make Fun Happen, Serve with Love, Be Yourself
Strong business and financial acumen - prioritize guest and team when establishing plans and decision frameworks
Strategic vision – establish clear roadmap and vision for success and impact to the organization
Decision making – demonstrate confidence to make strong decisions, eensuring rationale, decisions, and outcomes are transparently communicated and admit mistakes while instilling confidence in overall abilities and capabilities
Build teams – foster and explore diverse perspectives to ensure voices are heard and ideas are evaluated on their merit and rationale
Drive results and manage performance - foster a results-oriented mindset that drives continuous improvement in team and business performance. Elevate Caribou’s talent and culture through transparent performance management
Develop strong relationships - build and maintain productive, trusted relationships with leaders, peers, and cross-functional partners
Influence others - create buy-in and excitement through ability to influence internal and external partners
Organizational agility and flexibility - create structure in ambiguous situations to enable forward progress while preserving flexibility

Responsibilities

Develop a Sourcing vision and roadmap that supports Caribou’s growth objectives and sourcing-related ESG commitments and informs the company’s annual operating and long-range planning processes
Oversee the management of Caribou’s supplier matrix to ensure the company maintains reliable, cost-effective access to all inventory, store supplies, and store equipment required to deliver sales, profit, and quality objectives in all business channels
Partner with Culinary R&D, Category Management, and Supply Chain teams to develop and enable sourcing solutions that fully integrate into the company’s Product Lifecycle processes
Foster the creation and maintenance of efficient processes for supplier identification, qualification, approval, contracting, onboarding, and item specification management
Lead the contract management process and oversee the negotiation and implementation of new/renewing purchasing contracts for relevant product, supplies, and equipment categories
Maintain an item cost management model that provides visibility to all item cost components – as inputs to related and dependent processes – and supports ongoing cost monitoring with suppliers and Caribou’s distribution partners
Champion item data management to ensure all purchasing- and logistics-related item attributes are maintained in the system(s) of record to enable an accurate view on the company’s inventory assets
Lead the development of annual planning inputs for COGS and profit based on sourcing strategies and in coordination with product category sales and store operations plans
Oversee processes to collect, validate and aggregate multi-channel demand forecasts to support Product Lifecycle processes, inbound supply planning, efficient inventory flow, reliable outbound replenishment, and optimized store inventory levels
Enable the integration of store segmentation into demand and supply planning to support store-level inventory optimization
Oversee the management and execution of new item launch and limited time offering store-level inventory allocation planning
Partner with cross-functional teams to enable the creation of inventory forecasting and efficiency KPIs and metrics that directly support financial objectives and resource utilization targets
Oversee inventory purchasing and movement through the supply chain to support replenishment, new item launches, promotions, limited time offerings and new store openings
Enable inventory management tactics that are directly connected to sales and demand plans, ensuring the complete integration of the inventory management capability into Caribou’s business planning processes
Oversee processes and systems to create orders, track and manage purchase order logistics, and troubleshoot replenishment and forecast metrics in order maintain optimized inventory levels within our distribution centers