Director, Sourcing & Inventory Management

Director, Sourcing, and Inventory Management

At Caribou Coffee we create day-making experiences that spark a chain reaction of GOOD! This is our purpose. Our team brings this to life by focusing on what's really important around here – TEAM, GUEST, BUSINESS! It's that simple. If you're ready to work somewhere you can be yourself while making an impact on your community, creating life-long relationships, and serving the best coffee around, join our herd!

Be part of the 'Bou Crew!

Position Overview:

As Director, Sourcing, and Inventory Management, you lead Caribou's strategic sourcing and inventory management functions to manage direct (beverage ingredients, food, packaged coffee, merchandise, retail packaging) and indirect (store supplies, store equipment) sourcing, demand planning, supply planning, and inventory management capabilities for all business channels. Your team delivers value to Caribou by developing and maintaining a reliable, diverse supplier network and inventory strategies that drive global retail sales growth, achieve cost and expense objectives, and support unit growth through efficient use of inventory assets.

To be successful in this role, you will clearly articulate the Sourcing and Inventory Management vision and roadmap and put transparent measures in place to stay on track while maximizing resources and growing company value through rigorous cost management, planning, and prioritization. You lead cross-functionally by partnering with the Product Innovation, Store Operations, Supply Chain, Quality Assurance, Legal, and Finance teams to implement sourcing, demand planning, supply planning, and inventory management strategies and tactics in support of delivering Caribou's company goals and objectives.

Core Responsibilities:

• Develop a Sourcing vision and roadmap that supports Caribou's growth objectives and sourcing-related ESG commitments and informs the company's annual operating and long-range planning processes
• Oversee the management of Caribou's supplier matrix to ensure the company maintains reliable, cost-effective access to all inventory, store supplies, and store equipment required to deliver sales, profit, and quality objectives in all business channels
• Partner with Culinary R&D, Category Management, and Supply Chain teams to develop and enable sourcing solutions that fully integrate into the company's Product Lifecycle processes
• Foster the creation and maintenance of efficient processes for supplier identification, qualification, approval, contracting, onboarding, and item specification management
• Lead the contract management process and oversee the negotiation and implementation of new/renewing purchasing contracts for relevant product, supplies, and equipment categories
• Maintain an item cost management model that provides visibility to all item cost components – as inputs to related and dependent processes – and supports ongoing cost monitoring with suppliers and Caribou's distribution partners
• Champion item data management to ensure all purchasing- and logistics-related item attributes are maintained in the system(s) of record to enable an accurate view on the company's inventory assets

Demand Planning:

• Lead the development of annual planning inputs for COGS and profit based on sourcing strategies and in coordination with product category sales and store operations plans
• Oversee processes to collect, validate and aggregate multi-channel demand forecasts to support Product Lifecycle processes, inbound supply planning, efficient inventory flow, reliable outbound replenishment, and optimized store inventory levels
• Enable the integration of store segmentation into demand and supply planning to support store-level inventory optimization
• Oversee the management and execution of new item launch and limited time offering store-level inventory allocation planning
• Partner with cross-functional teams to enable the creation of inventory forecasting and efficiency KPIs and metrics that directly support financial objectives and resource utilization targets

Inventory Management:

• Oversee inventory purchasing and movement through the supply chain to support replenishment, new item launches,…