Purchasing & Inventory Analyst

Growvana | Chicago / Western Suburbs, Illinois | Full-Time About Growvana Growvana is a capital-backed commerce and distribution partner helping consumer brands scale across leading retail and digital channels. We integrate purchasing, inventory financing, fulfillment, analytics, and marketplace execution to accelerate growth, improve profitability, and turn inventory into cash more efficiently. Our business operates at the intersection of commerce, capital, and supply chain. We hold ourselves to a high standard: disciplined execution, measurable performance, and accountability to the brands we serve. The Opportunity Growvana is seeking a Purchasing & Inventory Analyst to strengthen purchasing decisions, improve inventory productivity, and ensure product availability across a growing portfolio of brands. This role translates demand, inventory, and supplier data into clear purchasing recommendations and timely execution. You will work across Commerce, Finance, Warehouse Operations, and Technology to determine what we need to buy, when we need to buy it, and how to deploy working capital effectively. The ideal candidate combines analytical rigor with operational follow-through. You are comfortable working with large datasets, challenging assumptions, using AI to improve productivity, and taking ownership from analysis through resolution. Key Responsibilities Purchasing & Replenishment Analyze purchase orders, sales trends, forecasts, inventory positions, and supplier lead times to recommend replenishment quantities and timing. Create, maintain, and track purchase orders, ensuring accuracy across quantities, costs, delivery dates, and receiving locations. Coordinate with suppliers to confirm availability, secure delivery commitments, and resolve shortages, delays, and discrepancies. Identify purchasing requirements needed to support a target order fill rate of 95% or higher. Maintain accurate purchasing parameters, including lead times, minimum order quantities, case packs, and reorder points. Inventory Planning & Performance Monitor on-hand, available, allocated, and inbound inventory by brand, SKU, and fulfillment location. Identify stockout risks, excess inventory, slow-moving products, and aging inventory; recommend specific corrective actions. Evaluate inventory coverage, safety stock, seasonality, and promotional demand to balance service levels with working capital requirements. Partner with Warehouse Operations and Finance to investigate inventory variances and reconcile system records. Support inventory allocation decisions across customers and channels based on demand, availability, and business priorities. Analytics, Reporting & Process Improvement Build and maintain dashboards covering purchasing commitments, inbound inventory, fill rates, inventory turns, days of supply, and inventory aging. Produce a weekly view of customer demand, available inventory, expected fulfillment, and additional purchases required. Use analytical and AI tools to identify exceptions, improve forecasts, automate recurring analysis, and accelerate decision-making. Validate AI-generated outputs against source data and apply sound judgment before making recommendations. Improve data quality, reporting consistency, and purchasing workflows within the ERP and connected systems. Communicate risks early, quantify their impact, and present recommendations with clear owners and next steps. Required Qualifications At least two years of relevant experience in purchasing, inventory analysis, replenishment, demand planning, supply chain, or a related analytical role. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables, lookup functions, complex formulas, and Power Query. Demonstrated proficiency with analytical and reporting tools such as Power BI, Tableau, SQL, or comparable platforms. Practical experience using AI tools—such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Claude—to support analysis, research, reporting, or workflow improvement. Experience working in an ERP or inventory management system. Strong understanding of inventory fundamentals, including lead times, safety stock, reorder points, inventory turns, and days of supply. Exceptional attention to detail and the ability to reconcile information across multiple systems. Clear communication skills and the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-moving environment. Preferred Qualifications Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Background in consumer products, distribution, retail, or eCommerce. Familiarity with Amazon Vendor Central, Seller Central, Walmart, or other omnichannel retail environments. Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Analytics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. What Success Looks Like Your impact will be measured through stronger product availability, fewer preventable stockouts, healthier inventory levels, accurate purchasing execution, and better visibility into working capital commitments. You will bring a clear point of view to the data, act with urgency, and help build processes that perform consistently as the business scales. Growvana is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome candidates with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.