Strategic Category & Sourcing Manager; Food Wholesaler

Strategic Category & Sourcing Manager (Food Wholesaler)

Job Title:
Manager, Strategic Category & Sourcing

Location:
Gardena, CA | Hybrid (2–3 days on-site)

Salary Pay Range and Other Compensation: The salary range for this position is expected to be between $ – $ per year, depending on geographic location, experience, and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

Employment Type:
Full-Time | Direct Hire

FLSA Status:
Exempt

Schedule:
Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

About the Role: Join a leading food distribution company as the Manager of Strategic Category & Sourcing, where you'll lead a team of five buyers (3 Senior Buyers, 2 Associate Buyers) while personally owning high-impact categories, complex negotiations, and innovation priorities. In this player/coach role, reporting to the Sr. Inventory Planning & Procurement Manager, you'll set sourcing strategy and ensure buying decisions drive customer service, growth, margin, quality, and working capital.

This is a highly visible leadership role with direct influence on Private Label and National Brand initiatives, executive-level recommendations, and the development of the next generation of buying talent.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Senior and Associate Buyers through structured coaching, progressive category ownership, and exposure to negotiations, supplier management, and commercialization.
• Personally own selected strategic categories, critical suppliers, complex negotiations, and priority commercialization initiatives.
• Lead category reviews using spend, demand, market, supplier, margin, and inventory data to identify sourcing opportunities, portfolio gaps, cost reductions, and commercial risks.
• Lead major competitive sourcing events, business cases, contract negotiations, and executive recommendations.
• Establish supplier governance for strategic suppliers, including performance and business reviews, scorecards, corrective actions, and escalation protocols, in partnership with Procurement.
• Own the consolidated sourcing and category pipeline, setting category strategies and annual/quarterly objectives that balance strategic value, customer need, capacity, timing, and risk.
• Partner with Finance and business leaders to quantify savings, margin, total cost, and working-capital impact.
• Drive cross-functional execution across sourcing, innovation, quality, marketing, inventory, and sales, ensuring initiatives have clear owners, business cases, specifications, and launch gates, and removing roadblocks with suppliers and co-manufacturers.

Qualifications:

• 8–10+ years of progressive experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, category management, supplier management, food buying, or commercialization, including 3+ years leading people or major programs.
• 3+ years of focused strategic sourcing and category management experience within the domestic food industry.
• Bachelor's degree in supply chain, business, food science, finance, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success in negotiations, supplier improvement, commercialization, and delivering measurable cost or margin outcomes.
• Strong commercial judgment, analytical problem-solving, and the ability to deliver clear, executive-ready recommendations.
• Proven cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder influence skills, with proficiency in Microsoft Office.

Preferred:

• Experience in Center of Plate Proteins.
• Strong knowledge of food distribution, private label, co-manufacturing, commodities, and inventory management.
• Advanced degree or relevant professional certification.
• Experience with ERP, BI, and workflow tools.

Benefits:

• Medical, Dental, Vision
• 401(k) + match
• Paid Time Off

Disclaimer: The compensation and benefits information in this posting represent a good faith…