The Procurement Lead is an integral role for Tovala’s production team responsible for securing the best quality products (raw, prepared, and packaging goods) for our production facility at the most competitive price points allowing us to continue exceeding customer expectations.  This person will plan, develop, and execute the procurement of food and packaging ingredients on a company scale coordinating between locations as we grow using effective negotiation, networking, and market trend research. 

Leadership Responsibilities in the following areas:

• Lead purchasing process and inventory management from end to end - create and refine tools that align demand for materials and packaging with production and sales forecasts

• Lead negotiations for ingredient, component, and packaging contracts

• Implement and execute a vendor onboarding process, ongoing approval process reviews to ensure product specifications, terminate and change vendors as needed

• Implement and execute a vendor performance rating system - Create metrics as required to monitor and evaluate vendor performance. to key attributes (on-time/ complete delivery, adherence to specifications, accurate pricing, etc)

• Partner with Finance to ensure material costs (food, non-food) are within goal and report and explain variances as needed, lead the annual planning process on these components and reforecast as needed

• Maintain a log of purchase orders, reconciling receivables, and invoice payments to ensure accuracy

• Develop a plan to mitigate interruptions of ingredient and material consumption by securing secondary and in some cases tertiary suppliers as needed based on risk

• Coordinate receiving, delivery, and storage of materials with the production team

• Collaborate with R&D team on menu costing; once agreed to, ensuring that timeline deliverables for sourcing products can be met

• Follows Safety/GMP/Food Safety/Quality policies

Role Requirements:

• 3+ years in a food procurement role, experience in production environment preferred 

• Bachelor’s degree in Logistics, Supply Chain, Industrial or Mechanical Engineering, Business or a related field preferred

• Excellent time management skills and strong follow-through and follow-up skills, supported by professional references

• Ability to think and act critically about processes and supply chain systems with a focus on continuous improvement and staying ahead of market trends

• Strong project management, problem solving and planning skills

• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• Ability to use MSOffice, Google for Work/Google Drive and Docs to create useful and transparent electronic tools for demand planning on materials and packaging.

• Food certifications and licenses as required

• Must be able and willing to work in refrigerated coolers (~38⁰F) 

• Ability to kneel, reach, bend, and lift (up to 50 pounds) throughout the work day and to work on your feet for the entirety of the day