Associate Director, Ingredients – Cheese and Dairy

As the Associate Director of Cheese and Dairy Procurement, you will set broader strategic direction for the Cheese and Dairy procurement portfolio across the Kraft Heinz North American Zone, leading through leaders to deliver enterprise value, strengthen organizational capability, and ensure robust 1-2 year execution roadmaps and credible 3-5-year category strategy plans are in place across assigned categories. This role shapes category strategy, operating model, talent priorities, supplier relationship strategy, and leadership standards across dairy powders, cream, milk, cheese, cheese powder, and Canadian dairy. You will align resources, talent, and ways of working to business priorities; build executive alignment with Business Units, Operations, Finance, Quality, R&D, and strategic suppliers; and resolve complex, high-impact issues that affect cost, service, risk, innovation, and long-term business performance. Success requires enterprise judgment, strategic influence, business storytelling, and the ability to deliver scaled impact through others while developing a strong leadership bench for future Procurement needs. Job Description Essential Functions & Responsibilities: Set enterprise-level strategic direction for the Cheese and Dairy procurement portfolio, ensuring strong annual execution and credible three-year plans are established, owned, and delivered across the category landscape. Lead through category leaders by aligning talent, resources, priorities, and operating routines to deliver sustained enterprise value across cost, service, risk, productivity, innovation, and supply continuity. Shape the long-term category strategy, supplier relationship strategy, and operating model for dairy, cream, milk, cheese, cheese powder, cultures, trim, whey, and milk fat across the Kraft Heinz North American Zone. Build executive alignment with internal stakeholders and strategic suppliers through clear business storytelling, enterprise judgment, and decisive recommendations on complex trade-offs. Serve as the senior escalation and decision-shaping leader for high-impact supplier, market, operational, quality, financial, and risk matters that require cross-functional resolution. Develop leadership capability across the team by coaching leaders, setting standards, creating transparency on priorities, and strengthening succession readiness for critical procurement roles. Own enterprise outcomes for assigned categories, including productivity, cash, inflation mitigation, supply assurance, supplier performance, innovation enablement, and total cost of ownership. Establish scalable routines, governance, and performance management processes that improve decision quality, stakeholder confidence, and functional effectiveness across Procurement and partner functions. Lead strategic sourcing, supplier selection, and negotiation strategy for complex, business-critical categories while ensuring leaders apply robust sourcing discipline and commercial governance. Advance the category roadmap by translating market dynamics, supplier capabilities, risk signals, and business priorities into clear strategic choices and executable plans. Influence senior stakeholders across Business Units, Operations, Finance, Quality, R&D, Global Procurement, and suppliers to align on priorities, decisions, and trade-offs that support enterprise outcomes. Drive continuous improvement in internal and external ways of working, including supplier governance, cross-functional decision forums, category planning, risk management, and value reporting. Ensure performance goals, productivity pipelines, risk mitigation plans, and financial commitments are clearly owned and visible across the portfolio. Create durable functional improvement by strengthening standards, tools, routines, and leadership behaviors that enable consistent execution beyond annual results. Represent Cheese and Dairy Procurement in enterprise forums, providing strategic recommendations and clear comm…

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