Category Buyer, Procurement

Position: Category Buyer, Procurement
Department: Procurement
Reports To: CPO
Salary Type:
Location: Irwindale
Salary: $92K-115K

Groupe Bonduelle is a company that is making a positive impact

Groupe Bonduelle is the world leader in ready-to-use plant-rich food. By joining our company you will have an opportunity to make a positive and sustainable impact on yourself, others and the planet. You will play an active part in our mission to inspire the transition toward a plant-rich diet to contribute to people's well-being and planet health.

Groupe Bonduelle Fresh Americas is the U.S. business unit of France based Groupe Bonduelle (BON.PA). We are the first business unit of Groupe Bonduelle to become a Certified B Corporation. We operate four processing facilities throughout the U.S. and employ nearly 3,000 Associates who focus on producing and bringing to market fresh vegetable products, prepared salads and plant-based meal solutions.

Groupe Bonduelle is a 170 year old French family-owned company that has been at the forefront of plant rich food innovations since 1853. Our ready-to-use plant-rich food products are grown on 173,000 acres by our grower partners and marketed in nearly 100 countries. The company currently employees more than 12,000 Associates globally.

Join us at Bonduelle Fresh Americas for an opportunity to advance your career in a culture that places people first and makes contributing to a better future through plant-based food our top priority.

Position Summary:

Category Buyer will be accountable for the creation, implementation, management, and performance of sourcing strategies for packaging categories.

He/she will assess, select and develop strategic suppliers to improve cost structure, risk management and performance goals while leveraging the business stakeholders and suppliers collaboration platforms. You will be directly responsible for the sourcing decisions, the cost analytics and negotiations, the contracting excellence and the supplier relationship management.

By your key position in our company, you will support our environmental and social initiatives to drive progress against our corporate social responsibility and B Corp ambitions.

What will you be doing:

• Set ambitious vision and objectives in competitiveness, innovation and sustainability to reach and develop procurement categories Strategy for the company
• Understand needs, brands strategies and business priorities linked to his or her packaging categories.
• Build and share market analysis taking into account brands and business priorities.
• Select & validate suppliers / Optimize suppliers portfolio according to strategy and negotiate contracts and supply agreements & ensure implementation
• Guaranty category performance: risk management, suppliers capacity, quality, Total Cost, security of supply, sustainability program…
• Manage and enhance the overall performance of Procurement through effective relationships and communication with key stakeholders.
• Ensure effective relationships with suppliers (SRM): ensure fundamentals in place (Safety, Legal, Quality and Environmental compliance), drive growth and capture innovation through collaboration, managing suppliers risk to ensure business continuity and avoid potential crisis.
• Launch Request For Quotation (RFQ), manage tenders process in coordination with Stakeholders.
• Spread Cost-Out-Value-In initiatives in the procurement teams and support innovation coming from outside to inside
• Represent Procurement outside the company (purchasing and suppliers associations, etc) building effective relationships.
• Manage P&L impact of prices and predictability through Market Risk Management.
• Map & identify sustainability stakes and risks and address them in the strategy
• Leveraging key connections across the broader Bonduelle Group to improve BFA’s approach to packaging Procurement
• Managing the spend across a set of categories of packaging ($70M)

Procurement Competencies

• Excellent negotiation, communication and supplier management skills
• Good networking capabilities
• Be able to interface and exert influence across multiple functions in the organization
• Ability to design and implement tenders using e-sourcing tools
• Goal & Performance oriented
• Employment of CSR governance & policies

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic agility
• Business acumen
• Autonomy
• Approachability
• Action-oriented
• Interpersonal Maturity

Main interfaces

• CPO, Operations peers
• Finance, R&D, I&D, packaging engineering, quality, HR and Marketing teams,
• Suppliers and trade associations

Key performance indicators

• Security of Business: Contracts in place, Safety & Food Safety compliance, no supply shortage, time to market, effective SRM
• CSR: Bpact compliance
• Quality & Environment contribution to Quality performance and sustainable sourcing
• Service Level : quality of services & Service Level Agreement
• Cost & Cash : contribution to cost competitiveness of Bonduelle’s products
• Innovation & Development: value creation/innovation brought to Top Line

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Procurement, Supply Chain or any related business/ technical background in packaging
• 5 years of experience with visible progression in capability and leadership in Procurement.
• Proficiency level in the specific areas of category management, strategic sourcing, risk management, fact-based decision making, decision analytics
• Demonstrated experience in analytics