Purchasing Director (Food Industry)

Onsite Purchasing Director (Food Industry | Advanced Excel Required)

Role Summary

We are seeking an experienced Purchasing Director with food industry experience and advanced Excel skills to lead procurement strategy and execution for a national organization. This onsite leadership role will oversee sourcing, vendor performance, cost control, and supply continuity across multiple locations, while building data-driven reporting to support forecasting, spend visibility, and margin improvement.

The ideal candidate is highly analytical, thrives in a fast-paced environment, and can leverage Excel to drive smarter purchasing decisions, improve inventory management, and optimize vendor programs.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead purchasing strategy and procurement operations for food, beverage, ingredients, packaging, and supplies
• Develop national sourcing programs to ensure cost efficiency, quality consistency, and uninterrupted supply
• Negotiate pricing, contracts, rebates, and service agreements with vendors, brokers, and distributors
• Build and maintain vendor scorecards and KPI reporting (fill rate, OTIF, pricing accuracy, quality issues, credits/claims)
• Monitor commodity trends and pricing fluctuations to support budgeting and forecasting
• Partner with Operations, Culinary/R&D, Finance, and QA to ensure product specs and standards are met
• Oversee inventory strategy to reduce spoilage, shrink, and stockouts while improving inventory turns
• Standardize SKUs and purchasing practices across multiple sites to improve consistency and control spend
• Lead purchasing team performance, training, and process improvements
• Support new site/store openings and expansion initiatives with vendor readiness and supply planning
• Maintain accurate purchasing data in ERP/procurement systems and ensure pricing integrity

Advanced Excel Responsibilities (Required)

• Create and maintain purchasing dashboards for spend, savings, usage trends, and vendor performance
• Perform detailed spend analysis and margin impact reporting
• Build forecasting models for demand planning, ordering, and cost projections
• Use advanced Excel tools to automate and streamline reporting (reduce manual work)
• Reconcile pricing discrepancies and identify cost anomalies through data analysis

Advanced Excel Skills Needed

• Pivot Tables / Pivot Charts
• VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH
• SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, IF statements
• Power Query (preferred)
• Data validation, conditional formatting, dashboards
• Ability to work with large datasets and multiple data sources

Qualifications

• 8+ years of purchasing/procurement experience within food-related industries (restaurant groups, commissary, food manufacturing, food distribution, hospitality, CPG, etc.)
• 3+ years of leadership experience managing a purchasing/procurement function
• Strong understanding of perishables, cold-chain supply, and vendor management
• Proven success driving cost savings through strategic sourcing and negotiations
• Advanced Excel required (data analysis, reporting, forecasting)
• Experience with ERP/procurement systems (NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, Dynamics, etc.)
• Strong communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally