Manager, Supplier Management

KeHE Distributors, LLC•Naperville, IL

20h•$97,350 - $115,500

About The Position

Good people, working with good people, for our common good. Sound good? KeHE-a natural, organic, specialty and fresh food distributor-is all about "good" and is growing, so there's never been a more exciting time to join our team. If you're enthusiastic about working in an environment with a people-first culture and an organization committed to good living, good food and good service, we'd love to talk to you! The Supplier Manager is responsible for monitoring, measuring, and maximizing supplier profitability and operational performance, identifying areas opportunity, and managing the business relationship with a subset of our supplier partners. The teams’ overall goal is to establish strategic connections with our supplier partners and ensure supplier partner success and a positive experience around ease, cost, and speed of doing business with KeHE. The Supplier Manager is responsible for collaborating with Category Management, Supply Chain, Finance, Pricing, and Freight to optimize business processes and positively impact their supplier relationships from an administrative perspective.

Requirements

4-year bachelor’s degree in business or related field of study.
Experience within the food and/or distribution industry with 3+ years.
Successful negotiator and ability to drive influence and change.
Articulate and persuasive communication skills. Excellent written, oral and presentation skills.
Ability to synthesize information and make clear, concise recommendations on course of action.
Strong relationship management skills and ability to guide at senior management level both internally and externally.
Demonstrated ability to analyze, budget and proactively manage profit drivers such as gross margin %, promotional spend, spoilage, fees, and other program expenses.
Demonstrated skills transferring information gained through analysis to fact based, action-oriented presentations for delivery to both internal and external stake holders. Need to provide examples of PowerPoint, Excel and other tools used to transfer this product and program knowledge.
Proficiency in MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Possess a sense of urgency and attention to accuracy and detail.
Ability to effectively manage a wide variety of tasks simultaneously and often with minimal direction or time conflicting pressures.
Willingness to travel domestically, occasionally over weekends (about 10%).

Responsibilities

Identify, monitor, and track supplier profitability and operational performance opportunities for a subset of our supplier partners:
KeHE brand scorecard improvement
Inbound and outbound service standard compliance
Supplier Policies & Procedures execution and negotiation
Supplier Inbound Routing Guide expectations
Administrative aspects of supplier partnership
Manage and improve supplier profitability and operational performance negotiations, Policies & Procedures execution, deduction management, dispute resolution, on time delivery and delivery quality compliance.
Ensure timely, accurate, and efficient processing of supplier questions and disputes, while providing performance metrics and facilitating processes and supplier business improvement initiatives.
Hold suppliers accountable for key profitability and operational performance indicators: terms, spoils, value-added programs, inbound fill-rate, on-time performance, delivery quality.
Proactively educate new and small suppliers on Supplier Policies & Procedures, Supplier Inbound Routing Guide, deduction management and dispute resolution.
Host regular business reviews with subset of supplier partners that clearly outline profitability and performance expectations in comparison to actual experience, areas of improvement, and areas of opportunity.
Create and foster a supplier friendly, relational environment of continuous improvement, accountability, and innovation.
Lead a small team that supports suppliers with root cause research and resolution on administrative aspects of supplier partnerships.
Collaborate internally, in a cross-functional manner, to improve business processes that impact suppliers in their administrative and support activities with KeHE.