Senior Buyer

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary

The Senior Buyer is responsible for buying products that can be sourced, stocked, and sold profitably. This role owns the commercial discipline behind purchasing decisions, including supplier cost, inbound freight, landed cost, vendor terms, minimum order quantities, lead times, inventory risk, demand trends, and expected margin.

This is not a routine replenishment role. The Senior Buyer must understand what the market will support from a selling-price standpoint and work backward to determine whether the company can buy the item at a cost that creates acceptable margin. The role requires strong judgment, vendor negotiation capability, inventory discipline, and close collaboration with sales, operations, warehouse, and finance.

Success in this role means buying better, supporting profitable sales, reducing inventory risk, improving vendor economics, and ensuring the company is not tying up capital in products that lack clear demand or margin justification.

Key ResponsibilitiesBuying and Vendor Management

• Source, evaluate, and purchase specialty food products from existing and new suppliers.
• Negotiate product cost, inbound freight, payment terms, lead times, minimum order quantities, rebates, credits, and vendor programs.
• Build supplier relationships that improve cost, availability, service levels, terms, and profitability.
• Evaluate vendors based on total value, including landed cost, fill rate, quality, responsiveness, freight structure, and issue resolution.
• Develop alternate sources of supply for key items to reduce risk and improve leverage.
• Hold vendors accountable for pricing accuracy, shortages, substitutions, quality issues, credits, and service failures.

Landed Cost, Margin, and Profitability

• Analyze full landed cost, including unit cost, freight, accessorial charges, fuel, handling, import costs, and other add-on costs.
• Determine whether products can be purchased and sold profitably based on realistic market pricing.
• Partner with sales and pricing teams before committing to new items, large buys, or supplier-driven purchase commitments.
• Identify margin improvement opportunities through better cost, freight consolidation, vendor terms, pack-size changes, rebates, or item rationalization.
• Challenge purchasing or sales assumptions when an item does not make economic sense.

Demand Planning and Inventory Discipline

• Maintain inventory levels based on sales velocity, forecasted demand, lead time, vendor reliability, shelf life, and supply risk.
• Conduct regular PAR reviews and recommend changes to stocking levels, reorder points, purchase quantities, and safety stock.
• Monitor days of supply, slow-moving inventory, excess inventory, obsolete inventory, and low-margin items.
• Require a clear business reason before buying more than normal demand levels.
• Balance service levels with inventory risk and working capital discipline.

Purchasing Execution and Cross-Functional Coordination

• Place accurate and timely purchase orders based on demand, inventory position, vendor requirements, and service needs.
• Maintain accurate vendor, item, cost, lead time, freight, terms, and purchasing data in company systems.
• Review open purchase orders, backorders, expected receipts, shortages, substitutions, and supply disruptions.
• Resolve invoice discrepancies, freight issues, cost variances, quality concerns, shortages, and vendor credit claims.
• Communicate cost changes, availability issues, and supply risks proactively to sales, operations, customer service, warehouse, and management.
• Support item setup, vendor setup, cost updates, product substitutions, discontinued items, and assortment cleanup.

Key Performance Indicators

• Gross margin and landed margin performance.
• Purchase cost improvement.
• Freight efficiency and inbound cost control.
• Vendor term improvement.
• Inventory turns and days of supply.
• PAR accuracy and inventory availability.
• Reduction of excess, obsolete, slow-moving, and aging inventory.
• Supplier fill rate and service performance.
• Forecast accuracy and demand alignment.
• Purchase order accuracy and cost variance control.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of buying, purchasing, procurement, category management, or supply chain experience.
• Experience buying products for resale, not only placing routine replenishment orders.
• Strong understanding of product cost, landed cost, freight impact, gross margin, inventory turns, days of supply, and working capital.
• Demonstrated ability to negotiate supplier pricing, freight terms, payment terms, minimum order quantities, credits, rebates, and vendor programs.
• Experience managing PAR levels, reorder points, safety stock, lead times, and demand-based purchasing decisions.
• Ability to evaluate whether a product can be purchased and sold profitably based on realistic market pricing.
• Ability to analyze sales history, item velocity, supplier performance, cost changes, margin impact, and inventory exposure.
• Strong Excel skills and experience with ERP, purchasing, inventory, or reporting systems.
• Ability to work effectively with sales, operations, warehouse, finance, customer service, and supplier partners.
• Strong commercial judgment and willingness to push back when a purchasing decision does not make economic sense.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience buying specialty foods, gourmet products, imported foods, produce, dairy, meat, seafood, dry goods, frozen products, or foodservice products.
• Experience in foodservice distribution, specialty food distribution, wholesale, grocery, import, manufacturing, hospitality, restaurant supply, or broker-supported food sales.
• Experience with freight consolidation, LTL, parcel, local delivery, inbound freight planning, and supplier shipping terms.
• Experience supporting sales teams with sourcing, pricing, margin review, and customer-specific product requests.
• Experience with vendor scorecards, category reviews, promotional buying, rebate programs, and cost-change management.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, finance, food industry management, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.

Work Environment

• 100% on-site role in an office and warehouse environment.
• Occasional supplier visits, trade shows, product tastings, or customer-related meetings may be required.
• Must be comfortable working around food products, warehouse operations, and time-sensitive purchasing needs.

Role Expectations

The Senior Buyer is expected to operate as a commercially disciplined buyer. The role must protect margin, improve vendor economics, support real demand, manage inventory risk, and ensure purchasing decisions are grounded in profitability, market pricing, and working capital discipline.