Senior Manager, National Produce at Farmlink Los Angeles, California

Senior Manager, National Produce Sourcing

The Senior Manager, National Produce Sourcing is Farmlink's primary connection to the national produce supply chain. This role is accountable for building and maintaining the supply relationships, market awareness, and national sourcing strategy that ensure Farmlink has a robust post-harvest food donation pipeline. This is an external and market-facing role built on meaningful relationships, strategic timing, and readiness, requiring an intuition for opportunities that secure food for those in need.

The Senior Manager, National Produce Sourcing operates at the speed of the produce industry. They maintain real-time visibility into surplus conditions across major growing regions, distribution hubs, and ports of entry, ensuring Farmlink is positioned to act within 24 to 48 hours when food donations become available. Building deep industry relationships and market intelligence is central to this role, along with operating with speed and judgment in time sensitive situations. This role requires being trusted inside the produce industry as well as comfort with ambiguity, capability to sustain relationships over long cycles, and staying present in a dynamic market without forcing outcomes.

On the strategy side, the Senior Manager, National Produce Sourcing is a key driver of Farmlink's national post-harvest sourcing approach, identifying gaps in current supply coverage, and building new channels across the full produce supply chain, from growers and packers to importers, cold storage operators, and logistics providers. They engage at every level of the industry, building trust and establishing Farmlink as a reliable partner for redirecting surplus food.

The Senior Manager, National Produce Sourcing works in close collaboration with the Senior Advisor for Food Recovery Strategy, the Senior Manager of Program Optimization & Sourcing, and the Food Program Operations team, ensuring that national sourcing efforts are aligned with organizational priorities, distribution capacity, and operations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Market Intelligence & National Strategy (~30%)
• Real Time Supply Visibility & Readiness
• Market Awareness & Timing
• National Post-Harvest Strategy
• Industry Relationships & Opportunity Activation (~45%)
• Food Program Operations (~25%)

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in the fresh produce industry required
• Strong understanding of the commercial produce supply chain
• Proven ability to build relationships and operate independently in fast moving environments
• Demonstrated ability to maintain relationships through long or irregular cycles without losing momentum
• Ability to read market conditions and anticipate where supply will emerge
• Experience with or exposure to import markets, including key ports of entry and cross border produce flow, strongly preferred
• Comfortable making decisions quickly with incomplete information
• Strong communication skills across a wide range of stakeholders
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred, particularly valuable when working with growers, packers, and shippers operating across the U.S. Mexico border and Latin America
• Willingness to travel as needed to maintain and build relationships

What This Role Is Not:

• Not a purchasing or procurement role
• Not focused on inventory management, forecasting, or ERP systems
• Not managing a fixed portfolio of donor accounts
• Not responsible for recipient agency placement or distribution coordination

Opportunities in this role are unpredictable and time sensitive. Candidates who prefer structured workflows, long planning cycles, or clearly defined pipelines are unlikely to find this role a fit.

What Success Looks Like:

• Real-time market intelligence actively informs sourcing strategy and organizational positioning
• Consistent generation of real time supply leads across multiple regions with the ability to confirm and hand off opportunities within 24 to 48 hour windows
• Growth in national supply relationships and sourcing coverage resulting in increased volume of fresh produce entering the distribution pipeline
• Industry partners return with opportunities because Farmlink has established itself as a trusted and reliable partner in the commercial produce supply chain