Commodity Buyer

Commodity Buyer

Category Procurement | Naperville | Full Time | Permanent

Wilton is a US heritage brand with a 95-year history in baking and decorating. Now fully integrated into the Dr. Oetker family, Wilton aspires to be the most influential and successful cake decorating brand. Learn more about Wilton at www.wilton.com.

  

Job Summary 

Reporting to the Global Category & Commodity Manager, the Commodity Buyer will manage a group of suppliers, including sourcing, negotiations on pricing and other commercial terms, and leading supplier business reviews. Participate in prospecting potential suppliers while building your knowledge of new suppliers, materials, processes, cost, lead time, quality, and compliance. The role is also responsible for managing supply chain readiness for new product development across the products in a category.  The main objectives are to ensure the operational supply of finished goods and/or raw materials, packaging, merchandise and services to the production sites and to take over all operational purchasing activities in coordination with the respective commodity managers. 

Essential Responsibilities 

• Responsible for the execution of the operational purchasing process for Wilton’s Sprinkles commodity group. 
• Manages, coordinates, and directs supply chain management activities through day-to-day tactical and long-term strategic activities for assigned categories and suppliers, including the establishment of strategic goals, plans, outlooks, objectives, and metrics. 
• Coordinates and prompts resolution of operational disruptions with internal (e.g. logistics, work preparation, plant) and external interfaces (supplier) 
• Work with Inventory Group to ensure that supply is scheduled to effectively meet demand and assist in inventory management. 
• Manage assigned supplier(s) to meet TQRACC (Technology, Quality, Responsiveness, Availability, Cost and Compliance) objectives for the business within the scope of the role. 
• Development of harmonized SOPs in a team, which are valid for all Dr. Oetker and Wilton companies, independent of the commodity group. 
• Maintain vendor information including current vendor pricing, lead times and supply agreement in ERP system. 
• Establish working relationships with operations to ensure accurate information is provided and continuous improvement opportunities are identified. Interface function between research & development, supply chain, plants and local purchasing departments to optimize processes. 
• Review and resolve invoice discrepancies while interacting with Accounts Payable personnel and / or suppliers to proactively take actions that will prevent recurrence. 
• Work with Brand & Product Manager and Product Development teams to develop new products.  

Education and Experience 

• Bachelor’s Degree in a business, supply chain or other related field. 
• Minimum of 4-5 years’ work experience working with consumer products preferably in a food manufacturing environment; packaging and co-packing/co manufacturing experience is a plus 
• At least 5 years of professional experience in purchasing or in a purchasing-related department (e.g. logistics, supply chain) 
• Effective written and verbal communication 
• Must be computer savvy with extensive MS Office experience. SAP knowledge is preferred 
• A team player with a positive attitude and entrepreneurial spirit 
• Willing to take on challenges, hardworking, self-motivated, and dependable 
• Strong prioritization skills to handle multiple tasks 
• Ability to travel 5% (domestically)  

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 

• Strong analytical skills with advanced excel understanding (ex: Pivot Tables, Conditional Formatting, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, Macros, and Data Visualization).  
• Financial Analysis and Cost Modeling – Understanding of “total cost of ownership,” can read and analyze financial statements to assess the strength of a business and uses these skills in everyday sourcing decisions. 
• Working experience in consumer products. Equipped with product knowledge in raw materials, manufacturing processes, finished products, packaging, warehousing and transportation. 
• Problem Solving – The ability to identify problems and develop and implement solutions to the issues. 
• Communication Skills – The ability to effectively communicate ideas, recommended direction, solutions, and work through conflict resolution at all levels of organizations both internally and externally. 
• Negotiation – The ability to plan for, implement and communicate the “elements of negotiations” that create value for Wilton Brands, while maintaining supplier relationships. 
• Ethics – Consistently uses good judgment when analyzing right and wrong and performs at a level of conduct that is within corporate ethics guidelines. 

Physical Demands 

• Professional office environment, sedentary in nature.  
• Routinely use standard office equipment such as (laptop computers, monitors/keyboards, printers, and telephones).  
• Processes information and communicate effectively with others.