Manager, Strategic Category & Sourcing

Job Description

Job Description

About Richmond Wholesale Meat

Richmond Wholesale Meat, a Pro Food Solutions company, is a trusted leader in protein distribution with over 60 years of experience serving foodservice 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.

Position Summary

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.

Key ResponsibilitiesPlayer/Coach Leadership

• 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.

Commercial and Supplier Leadership

• 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.

Innovation and Cross-Functional Execution

• 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.

Minimum Qualifications

• 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, commercialization and measurable cost or margin outcomes.
• Strong food distribution, private-label, co-manufacturing, commodity and inventory knowledge preferred.

Core Competencies

• Commercial judgment and accountability
• Analytical problem solving and disciplined follow-through
• Clear communication and executive-ready recommendations
• Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder influence
• Customer focus, integrity, adaptability and continuous improvement
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office; ERP, BI and workflow-tool experience preferred

Measures of Success

• Team capability and accountability
• Sourcing savings and margin improvement
• Supplier service, quality and continuity
• Portfolio prioritization and commercialization
• Balanced service, inventory and working capital
• Speed and quality of commercial decision-making

Working Conditions and Disclaimer

Work is primarily performed in an office environment with regular interaction across warehouses, suppliers, co-manufacturers, customers and business partners. Travel and operational-site visits may be required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals to perform essential functions. This description summarizes primary duties and is not all-inclusive. Responsibilities may change with business needs. Final FLSA classification must be confirmed from actual duties, decision authority, compensation basis and applicable federal and state law.