Purchasing & Cost Manager

The Purchasing & Cost Manager owns the Central Kitchen's end-to-end sourcing, purchasing, cost-data, and margin-governance disciplines for ingredients, packaging, and designated indirect spend, supporting Dierbergs' Grow Every Day purpose and commitment to Better Execution. The role leads supplier strategy and negotiations, ensures timely and accurate cost inputs, translates cost changes into business impact, and drives action before margin is eroded. This is a strategic and analytical management role that connects plant operations, product development, category management, finance, and suppliers while maintaining clear separation from day-to-day warehouse and receiving execution. What You'll Do Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Management Develop and execute category and sourcing strategies for Commissary ingredients, packaging, and designated indirect spend based on business requirements, total cost, supply continuity, quality, and innovation needs Lead competitive bids, supplier selection, negotiations, renewals, and commercial terms, including pricing, freight, payment terms, volume commitments, rebates, allowances, and service expectations Own contract documentation and an active contract calendar, including renewal dates, pricing windows, commitments, and required approvals Build and maintain supplier scorecards covering cost, service, quality, responsiveness, innovation, and risk; lead regular business reviews and corrective-action follow-up Develop qualified alternate sources and contingency plans for critical ingredients and packaging in partnership with Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Operations Monitor relevant commodity, freight, market, and supply conditions; recommend buy timing, forward coverage, substitutions, or other risk-mitigation actions within company policy Purchasing Governance & Cost Leadership Own the private brand cost reduction pipeline: identify, prioritize, and manage the biggest savings opportunities, and lead those initiatives from a purchasing standpoint, partnering with the Private Brand Manager and team Create purchasing controls for approved suppliers, item setup, order authorization, acknowledgements, lead times, minimums, freight, and exception escalation Ensure purchase commitments align with demand, inventory targets, production plans, storage capacity, shelf life, and working-capital expectations Partner with the Warehouse & Receiving Manager on inventory signals, inbound exceptions, supplier service issues, returns, credits, and operational follow-through without absorbing day-to-day receiving supervision Cost Data Integrity & Change Control Own buying-side item costs and related purchasing attributes in Eatec and connected systems, ensuring vendor changes are validated, entered, effective-dated, and communicated accurately and promptly Establish a documented cost-change workflow with thresholds, required approvals, accountable owners, due dates, and escalation paths Maintain an auditable record connecting supplier notices, negotiated outcomes, system updates, credits or rebates, and downstream business decisions Partner with Finance, Product Development, and Operations to define ownership and audit cadence for ingredients, packaging, yields, labor, overhead, freight, and other recipe or finished-good cost components Identify master-data or process defects that create inaccurate standard, recipe, or actual costs and coordinate permanent corrective action Cost Analytics, Margin Protection & Decision Support Deliver recurring cost, purchase-price variance, usage or yield variance, and margin reporting by item and category, with concise explanation of drivers, risk, and recommended action Create proactive alerts for material cost changes and items approaching defined margin thresholds so issues are addressed before losses accumulate Lead cross-functional evaluation of corrective actions, including renegotiation, alternate sourcing, specification change, reformulation, pack or proc…

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