Director of Vendor Engagement

The Fresh Market & You:
Our mission is to make everyday eating extraordinary for our guests. We create a warm, welcoming, memorable experience with exceptional, personal service. We’re looking for a leader who strives for excellence and brings positive energy, commitment, and a “can-do” attitude to work every day. We value teamwork and celebrate our successes as a team and will value your contrib
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ution!
Added Benefits for choosing The Fresh Market Team:
• Team member discount up to 40%
• Health, Dental & Vision insurance available for individual, spouse, partner, and family.
• And much more!
• 401K contribution and match for part-time and full-time team members.
• Personal time off and additional time off purchase plans available
About the Position:
The Director of Vendor Engagement is responsible for defining and leading the enterprise vendor engagement strategy across The Fresh Market. This role shifts vendor management from a transactional function to a strategic capability focusing on joint business planning, negotiation excellence, supplier segmentation, and partnership development.
You will own the vendor lifecycle while building scalable processes, tools, and capabilities that enable best-in-class vendor partnerships and negotiations.
What You'll Do:
• Develop and implement a comprehensive vendor engagement strategy aligned with merchandising and enterprise priorities
• Establish vendor segmentation (strategic, core, emerging) and differentiated engagement models
• Define and standardize vendor processes, tools, and playbooks across the organization
• Lead enterprise-wide joint business planning processes focused on a set of strategic vendors, ensuring alignment on growth, funding, innovation, and performance goals
• Partner with merchants and vendors to build mutually beneficial strategies that drive sales, margin, and differentiation
• Create visibility and accountability for vendor performance vs. agreed plans and financial commitments
• Facilitate strategic business reviews with top vendors to identify opportunities for growth and improvement
• Elevate negotiation capabilities across merchandising through tools, training, and frameworks
• Partner with merchants to structure deals that maximize value (cost, funding, innovation, supply reliability)
• Integrate insights (e.g., commodities) into negotiations to strengthen outcomes
• Establish KPI frameworks, scorecards, and reporting to track vendor performance
• Monitor vendor performance against financial commitments and business objectives
• Identify opportunities for vendor consolidation, optimization, and cost savings in partnership with Cencosud
• Partner with Merchandising, Finance, Supply Chain, and Operations to ensure alignment on vendor strategies
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure vendor strategies support assortment, pricing, promotions, and operational execution
• Build vendor engagement capabilities across the organization, including negotiation, analytics, and partnership development
• Develop training, tools, and processes to enable merchants to manage vendors more effectively
• Foster a culture of collaborative partnerships vs. purely transactional relationships
• Vendor relationships are structured, strategic, and consistently deliver mutual value
• Joint business plans are established and tracked across key vendors
• Negotiation outcomes improve (margin, funding, cost transparency)
• Vendor performance is transparent, measurable, and actively managed
• Merchants are equipped with the tools and capabilities to engage vendors effectively
Qualifications:
QUALIFICATIONS
At a minimum, what you’ll need:
• 8–12+ years of experience in merchandising, vendor management, procurement, or retail partnerships
• Proven experience in vendor negotiations, joint business planning, or strategic partnerships
• Strong analytical and financial acumen with ability to translate insights into action
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiat

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