Senior Buyer (Oils)

Job Purpose

The role of the Senior Buyer is to:

• Strategically source goods and services to improve quality and provide for innovative opportunities at the lowest total cost of ownership.
• Collaborate, create, publish and implement comprehensive category management strategies and lead cross functional teams in delivery.
• Ensure all goods and services are sourced responsibly in line with regulatory, ethical, technical, sustainability and customer requirements.
• Be a consultative partner, demonstrating knowledge across spend categories and providing insight to support and help to shape strategy.
• Be a champion for business processes and governance and support the Head of Commercial with the development of other colleagues.
• Deliver the purchasing strategy for the specific products within the Business Sector.

Dimensions

• Operating within the Oils commercial team.
• Procurement of customer own label and branded oils across multiple suppliers including ADM, EOL JV partner.
• Internal contacts – Buying; Operations; Sales; Marketing; Technical; NPD; Logistics; Legal; Finance; Treasury; Customer Services, Planning and Stock control Teams.
• External contacts - all suppliers in relevant areas of responsibility, customer Buyers to support Commercial team.
• Travel will be required in this role.

Principal Responsibilities

• Operate as a subject matter expert across all allocated spend and act as a trusted partner to the business.
• Responsible for the management and procurement of customer own label and branded oils portfolio.
• Create and develop category and sourcing plans in conjunction with business stakeholders.
• Drive partnership strategy as appropriate to ensure long term collaborative business growth planning and ensuring continuity of supply.
• Analyse and evaluate quotations submitted by suppliers to ensure that the quality, quantity, delivery, optimises total cost to the business after consideration of working capital costs, factory utilisation lead times, etc.
• Obtain the lowest possible total cost of ownership through negotiation, market intelligence and supplier knowledge.
• Conduct regular reviews with key stakeholders and provide regular reporting on initiatives and cost reduction projects.
• Communicate market conditions in a timely fashion and in a way that is clear and concise for both internal and external understanding.
• Drive analytics and provide appropriate reports for use within category plans and for sharing and analysis with appropriate teams.
• Utilise appropriate tools to maximise value delivery (e-auctions, cost modelling, TCO, value lever analysis).
• Develop a network of strong supplier relationships that create innovative opportunities to drive value.
• Maximise opportunities to mitigate risk across area of spend responsibility.
• Control currency requirements in line with group policy if required.
• Manage all aspects of spend throughout the life cycle.
• Excellent working knowledge of the key personnel at each major supplier, their processes, internal systems and moreover understand cost drivers.
• Drive working capital reduction across the category.
• Manage contracts professionally and accurately, while maintaining cost conditions and source lists.
• Develop and maintain responsible suppliers ensuring they are maintained to a standard to meet Princes / Industry standards (e.g. BRC). Ensure all suppliers comply with Princes ethical standards, are SEDEX registered (where appropriate) and may be audited.
• Professionally resolve problems both internally and externally in a fair and ethical manner while protecting the long-term interests of the team and company.
• Regular participation in internal project teams to ensure Buying team requirements and expertise are considered in all appropriate projects.
• To maintain product Food Safety, Legality, Integrity, Authenticity and Quality standards by ensuring all associated policies and procedures are adhered to.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Thorough understanding of procurement processes and frameworks.
• Previous experience in a category management role.
• Excellent working understanding of category management, strategic sourcing, supplier development and value chain mapping.
• Excellent working knowledge of allocated areas of spend.
• Understanding of contract principles and clauses and be able to construct and interpret agreements.
• Willingness to travel UK and overseas.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office.
• SAP analytics and reporting.
• Degree level qualification, ideally business related.
• Associate or student of CIPS, or working to CIPS qualification.

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits:

• Company pension.
• Free parking.
• On-site parking.

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday.

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Liverpool.

Reference ID: SB