Sr. Procurement Manager, Ingredients

fairlife•Chicago, IL

21d•Hybrid

About The Position

fairlife, LLC is a Chicago-based nutrition company that creates great-tasting, nutrition-rich and dairy products to nourish consumers. With over $3B in annual retail sales, fairlife’s portfolio of delicious, lactose-free, real dairy products includes: fairlife® ultra-filtered milk ; Core Power® High Protein Shakes, a sports nutrition drink to support post-workout recovery; fairlife® nutrition plan™ , a nutrition shake to support the journey to better health. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola company, fairlife, LLC has been recognized by both Fast Company and Nielsen for its industry leading innovation. To learn more about fairlife and its complete line of products, please visit fairlife.com . job purpose: The Sr Procurement Manager, Ingredients is accountable for leading all activities within strategic sourcing and procurement operations for the entirety of the ingredients portfolio at fairlife. This role is directly responsible for managing and overseeing the development and execution of sourcing strategies that align with fairlife’s strategic objectives: cost improvements, supply resilience, innovation, and supporting growth. The position delivers value to the business by ensuring fairlife sources the highest quality, most cost-effective ingredients from a reliable, high performing supply base. As a key strategic partner to fairlife R&D, you’ll be instrumental to fueling innovation. You will lead high-stakes negotiations for new ingredients, directly impacting and defining the evolution of our product portfolio. You'll be joining a high-growth, collaborative procurement team where our values fuel our results. We own it, pursue better, and take action, delivering success by always doing the right thing and working to win together."

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, procurement, food science, engineering, or related fields required.
5-+7 years’ experience performing strategic sourcing.
Strong knowledge base of ingredient markets, ingredient costing and ingredient suppliers, within flavors, sweeteners, cocoa, stabilizers, etc. enable
Demonstrated track-record of executing year-over-year cost savings initiatives and ability to develop a cost savings project pipeline.
Category management capabilities to mobilize cross-functional teams to mitigate risk and deliver value.
Strong project management background desired with experience in CPG environment
Ability to effectively negotiate and influence business decisions.
Proactive business results-focus, and proven ability to provide insights that generate value.
Strategic thinker that is focused on winning today AND building for the future, leveraging agility + growth mindset.
Able to thrive in a dynamic and fast-moving environment, eager to partner, create value-based relationships with team members up, down and across the organization.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in supply chain or related fields preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead all procurement and category management activities for the Ingredient category at fairlife.
Identify, develop, and implement sourcing strategies that reduce total delivered cost, mitigate inflationary headwinds, and bolster supply resilience.
Manage supplier performance through routine business reviews and cross-functional scorecard evaluation process.
Identify risks and vulnerabilities within ingredients supply base and develop risk mitigation strategies to build a more resilient supply chain.
Lead Request for Proposal (RFP) process to ensure consistent lowest total cost of ownership.
Develop and execute vendor agreements in close collaboration with Legal Team.
Assist in the development and management of annual material cost budgets.
Analyze and forecast market inflation trends and work to address any price variances to budget.
Support Product Development R&D Team in innovation and sustainability projects involving supplier & material selection.
Develop a supply base which creates and sustains a competitive advantage, enabling strong supply chain resilience while effectively leveraging spend, and driving innovation & sustainability.
Monitor, track and report on savings and key performance indicators for category
Stays abreast of industry trends, supplier capabilities, and emerging technologies within the ingredients industry.
Support new ingredient projects, including supplier selection, qualification, improving supply resilience
Resolve any unforeseen problems with suppliers relating to operations, purchasing or quality/performance.
Collaborate with Planning Team on inventory flow & order optimization opportunities.