Procurement Specialist

Job Title: Procurement Specialist

Department: Procurement

Reports To: Senior Director of Inventory Management

FLSA Status: Exempt

Location: Milwaukee, WI

Travel: Regular travel between Milwaukee facilities; up to 25% within Wisconsin

Schedule: M-F 8am-5pm, 4 days on site

About Rishi Tea & Botanicals

Rishi Tea & Botanicals is one of the fastest-growing and category-leading premium tea brands in the U.S. Our remarkable teas and botanicals are served in tens of thousands of premier cafés, restaurants, and hospitality destinations globally, as we partner with the most respected names in the culinary and hospitality world. Founded in 1997 by Josh Kaiser, Rishi charted a new course for the tea industry: sourcing teas and botanicals from the world’s best producers, building long-term relationships directly with farmers, and bringing exceptional quality to market without compromise and with culinary creativity. As a result, Rishi has become a vanguard of Direct Trade within the tea industry. This philosophy defines our brand as both consumers and operators alike increasingly seek transparency, authenticity, and excellence.

Today, Rishi is a rapidly scaling omnichannel brand expanding across eCommerce, Away From Home, and retail with a diverse product portfolio spanning loose leaf tea, sachets, matcha, iced tea, tea concentrates, and ready-to-drink sparkling tea. The pinnacle of our assortment is our limited-release Garden Direct tea program. Garden Direct represents the highest expression of Rishi’s sourcing expertise: ultra-small-lot teas selected directly from exceptional gardens, often harvested seasonally and produced in limited quantities. These teas showcase rare varietals, distinctive terroir, and craftsmanship that cannot be replicated at scale.

As Rishi continues to rapidly-scale and redefine the premium tea category, this is a moment to join a brand with momentum, purpose, and the ambition to shape the future of how the world experiences tea.

Position Summary

The Sourcing & Procurement Specialist is responsible for sourcing, purchasing, and managing packaging, promotional and other materials required to support the business. This role manages supplier relationships, pricing, purchase orders, inventory needs, production timelines, and new material development while partnering closely with Production, Marketing, Fulfillment, Quality, and Finance.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, detail-oriented, resourceful, and comfortable managing multiple projects, suppliers, and deadlines. This individual will play an important role in ensuring materials are sourced competitively, meet quality expectations, and are available when needed to support production, promotions, and business initiatives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

· Source suppliers for packaging, promotional materials, merchandise, accessories, and other business needs.

· Manage day-to-day relationships with domestic and international suppliers.

· Request, analyze, and negotiate pricing, minimum order quantities, lead times, payment terms, and other commercial requirements.

· Monitor and address supplier performance and proactively address pricing, quality, delivery, and service concerns.

· Identify alternative suppliers and sourcing opportunities to mitigate supply risk and improve cost competitiveness.

· Partner with Operations and Marketing on packaging requirements, changes, and new product launches. Including requirements, budgets, quantities and deadlines.

· Coordinate packaging samples, specifications, approvals, and production timelines.

· Coordinate samples, proofs, artwork specifications, and approvals with internal teams and suppliers

· Manage packaging transitions, including artwork changes and supplier changes

· Participate in new product launches, packaging changes, promotional campaigns, and special projects. 

· Help establish realistic timelines for sourcing, production, and delivery.

· Monitor packaging inventory and purchasing requirements based on forecasts, production needs, and minimum order quantities.

· Communicate procurement timelines, supply risks, cost changes, and project status.

· Identify opportunities to reduce packaging costs, improve efficiencies, and minimize excess or obsolete inventory.

· Create and manage purchase orders for packaging, promotional materials, and other assigned materials.

· Track open purchase orders and maintain accurate delivery dates. Notify of delays while managing to open to buy monthly and quarterly budgets

· Monitor supplier pricing and market conditions to identify cost increases and savings opportunities.

· Responsible for being aware of and following all food safety protocols as required by Rishi Tea's food safety management system, as they relate to this position

· Other duties as assigned

Goals of Position

· Source quality goods or services at an acceptable cost and timeline that meet the organization’s needs

· Maintain up to date Purchasing transactions; managed within ERP and communication internally

· Seamless transactional experience from Procurement to Accounts Payable

· Support Rishi Tea internal partners objectives

Supervisory Responsibilities

none

Sphere of Interaction

· Operations, Procurement, Inventory Management – the Procurement Specialist is a member of the Procurement team and will spend most of their time and activity working alongside this team and the broader Operations team.

· Marketing – Weekly meetings to partner on initiatives, assist with sourcing, sampling and launching of projects

· Compliance – Partnering for quality concerns as a liaison between supplier and Rishi.

· Accounting – The liaison between the supplier and Rishi cash flow for approval of invoice

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Education and/or Experience

Required:

· 2+ years of sourcing, procurement, purchasing, supply chain or a related field

· Possess high level of detail orientation and mathematical aptitude

· Strong supplier relationship management and negotiation skills

· Understand financial impact of inventory transactions

· Strong organization skills with the ability to prioritize multiple projects and adapt to changing deadlines

· Proficiency with Microsoft Office and purchasing/inventory systems

· Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams

Preferred:

• Experience working with packaging manufacturers and print suppliers
• Experience working with domestic and international suppliers
• Experience supporting product launches or Marketing campaigns
• Basic understanding of manufacturing processes

Core Values

To perform the job successfully, an individual should exhibit the following:

· Enduring Relationships – Values establishing new and existing relationships; follows through on their commitments; considers the impacts of their decisions on others around them; shows respect and courtesy to others, has a positive attitude and effectively communicates in both written and oral conversation; resolves conflicting viewpoints constructively.

· Creative Solutions – is open to and offers new ideas and ways of accomplishing goals; adapts well to changes in work, methods, personnel and surroundings; offers suggestions and anticipates needs; takes notice of areas for improvement and takes appropriate action.

· Freedom with Responsibility – Effectively uses time to plan and prioritize work, set and accomplish goals and adhere to commitments on schedule; exercises the ability to decide correctly or choose the best course of action when a decision must be made; is available and responsive in a timely manner.

· Always Seeking – is familiar with, and where applicable, the subject matter expert, for their functional area and is familiar with the methods, practices and equipment needed to be successful; seeks out opportunities to advance their knowledge, is open to the opportunity to do so when asked; has a curiosity around learning how other functional areas work and are affected by the work they do; maintains an up to date understanding of their field including understanding of industry, competitors, regulations, advancements in tech, etc.; has an ongoing desire to enhance product knowledge.

· Best in Class – puts forth the most accurate, presentable and complete work possible and has a clear level of pride in the quality of work produced; consistently meets or exceeds goals, KPIs and performance targets; shows a willingness to accept supervision and feedback in order to improve; shows a concern for food and people safety in their day to day decision making.