Merchandise Buyer Assistant, Sr. jobs in Hackensack, NJ

About Upfield!

We are the largest plant-based company in the world, and we believe in doing what's right for our people, our customers and the planet.

At Upfield our purpose is clear: we make people healthier and happier with nutritious and delicious, natural, plant-based products that are good for you, our planet; and with packaging that's free from plastic. We've got iconic brands like Country Crock, Violife, and Imperial that people all over the world know and love. We've been a trusted category leader since 1871 and yet we feel like we're only just getting started.

Performance, Passion and Care define who we are as a company, how we work every day, and the responsibility we feel toward our Associates, our consumers, our business partners and our world. We are a highly entrepreneurial fast-paced team running a multi-billion Euro business across 60 countries with the mind-set of a start-up! We are agile, creative, fast-to-market and obsessed with customers and consumers.

About the Role!

The Upfield Procurement team is responsible to develop, implement and execute best practice procurement principles, such as develop long term supplier relationships, key performance indicators, and sourcing procedures. The team identifies and implements solutions in alignment with the cross functional teams. They constantly strive to implement efficiencies in their portfolio through end-to-end category management.

You are responsible for the North American packaging portfolio, which entails about $75M in total spend. You will serve as the point person acting as the primary liaison between suppliers and internal business partners to support collaborative strategies. Financial analysis and Savings tracking is also key in your role. In addition, you will support innovation and supply continuity support to our spreads, cheese, and creams brands.

Role Overview:

• As part of the North American Procurement Team, the primary purpose of this position is to manage Packaging: Rigid Plastics, Corrugate, Folding Cartons, Bottles, Labels, etc.
• This mandate will be accomplished through new suppliers scouting, leveraging current supplier base, implementing sourcing strategies, supplier and contract management, project management, supplier evaluation, and budget & value creation (cost savings) management.

Key Responsibility Areas:

• Sourcing Strategies & Market Analysis
  Sourcing strategies development through market studies to identify best practices, identify gaps, risks and opportunities as well as to identify new suppliers and develop a supplier base.
• Actively maintain strong understanding of category dynamics (current market, pricing, cost drivers, industry and supplier variables) through trade groups, publications, etc. and communicates changes to business stakeholders.
• Implement Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) to improve supplier performance, establish best quality, collaboration, and cost.
• Develop and launch RFQs / RFPs (request for quotation/proposal) to select suppliers in targeted categories.

• Build and maintain packaging costing models that include resin or paper inputs, along with conversion and other cost drivers.
• Provide leadership with monthly dashboards that track various published indices, such as resin, paper, labor and energy.
• Leading Supply Agreements ratification process, while closely working with internal and external Legal teams.
• Collaborate with Key Stakeholders teams by providing key insight on current services and capabilities to meet economic feasibility.
• Participate in projects implementation by adhering to budgets / schedules / standards quality of Upfield, using the appropriate financial tools.
• Continuously monitor, review and communicate the project status, ensuring deadlines are met.
• Establish the budget, track variances and manage risks for respective area through work with Finance and Key Stakeholders.

Skills and Experience Required:

• Bachelor's Degree
• Minimum 5 years of Procurement experience in a CGP, Personal Care, or Pharma organization.
• Potential travel 25% - a Passport is required for some international travel.
• Experience with recognized ERP platform - SAP and Ariba preferred.
• Must be able to work independently and within a team environment with a global organization.
• Ability to cultivate strong collaborative working relationships and contacts within a work group, across other company functions and with external organizations.
• Proven ability to influence others and drive meaningful change results.

What's Next?

If you're interested and qualified, please apply! A Talent Acquisition Manager will reach out to schedule and conduct a pre-screen call with you. If everything checks out, you will receive confirmation with next steps to start your interview process for the Ingredients Buyer, which could be up to 4 face-to-face interviews with the hiring team.

We understand your resume might not be up to date and recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Upfield is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not meet all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles.

Upfield is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.

No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Upfield. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.

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