Manager, Strategic Category & Sourcing

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Manager, Strategic Category & Sourcing

Richmond Wholesale Meat, a Pro Food Solutions company, is a trusted leader in protein distribution with over 60 years of experience serving food service operators, government agencies, and global partners. Based in Richmond, California, we specialize in high-quality meat products, custom processing, and dependable service. As part of the Pro Food Solutions family, we are committed to operational excellence, customer focus, and building the future of food through innovation and integrity.

Leads the buying team while personally owning selected high-impact categories, negotiations and innovation priorities. This player/coach role establishes sourcing strategy, allocates work, develops capability and ensures decisions support customer service, growth, margin, quality, inventory and working capital.

• Develop Associate Buyers through structured coaching, progressive category ownership, sourcing assignments and exposure to negotiations, supplier management and commercialization.
• Delegate category and sourcing ownership based on capability and development needs, while maintaining appropriate decision rights and escalation paths.
• Personally own selected strategic categories, critical suppliers, complex negotiations and priority commercialization initiatives.
• Set operating rhythms for category reviews, sourcing pipeline, supplier performance, launch milestones and escalation.
• Serve as the first point of escalation for Buying decisions and supplier issues; resolve issues within established guardrails and escalate material commercial, inventory, customer or financial risks appropriately.
• Build standard work and capability across buying, negotiation, category management and supplier governance.

• Lead category reviews using spend, demand, market, supplier, margin and inventory data to identify sourcing opportunities, portfolio gaps, cost reduction opportunities and commercial risks.
• Lead major competitive events, business cases, executive recommendations, contract negotiations and risk decisions.
• Collaborate with Procurement on supplier segmentation, scorecards, governance, and continuity plans.
• Establish supplier governance for strategic suppliers, including performance reviews, business reviews, corrective actions, relationship ownership and escalation protocols.
• Quantify savings, margin, working-capital implications and total cost with Finance and business leaders.

• Clarify accountability across sourcing, innovation, quality, marketing, inventory, sales and commercialization.
• Own the consolidated sourcing and category pipeline across the Buying team, balancing strategic value, customer need, capacity, timing and business risk.
• Establish category strategies, sourcing priorities and annual/quarterly objectives in partnership with Senior Buyers and leadership. Ensure Private Label and National Brand initiatives have briefs, owners, business cases, specifications, sourcing plans and launch gates.
• Remove roadblocks across suppliers, co-manufacturers and internal functions.

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business, food science, finance or related field; advanced degree or certification preferred.
• 8-10+ years of progressive procurement, strategic sourcing, category management, supplier management, food buying, innovation or commercialization experience, including 3+ years leading people or major programs.
• 3+ years of focused experience in strategic sourcing and category management within domestic food industry required, with specific focus in Center of Plate Proteins preferred.
• Demonstrated success in negotiations, supplier improvement,…