Procurement Planner (Ingredients)

This is a hybrid position requiring 1-2 days a week in our Chicago HQ office (River North).

The Role 

The Procurement Planner for GTI is responsible for purchasing, vendor management & research, contract negotiation and the day-to-day purchasing operations. You will develop operating plans to ensure GTI has the resources to support current forecasted business and projected growth to respond to current and emerging markets. 

Responsibilities 

• Collaborate and communicate effectively with Procurement, Innovation, Brand, Project Team, Supply Chain, Ops Sites, and other HQ cross functional teams 

• Balance multiple tasks while improving the efficiency of our Procurement team, managing competing priorities effectively 

• Purchase Order creation in the ERP system, shipment tracking, delivery coordination, and payment confirmation, overall vendor management 

• Develop a business relationship with functional stakeholders and solicits feedback on sourcing and vendor performance, share and discuss supply base opportunities, and identify new and changed needs. 

• Support the development of cross-functional teams by identifying internal customers and stakeholders for inclusion; interfaces with internal customers to understand requirements and resolves issues; involves key stakeholders in sourcing development and execution; informs Sr. Director of Procurement of conflicts between stakeholder requirements and sourcing strategy. 

• Set the standards for conducting internal and external research on supply market and competitive activities within assigned spend categories to ensure the highest levels of insight is generated; under-takes or ensures the identification of supply market economics and trends; ensures the identification of qualified supply base, maintains market information on suppliers and drives optimization of the supply base. 

• Oversee the management of on-going vendor relationships and supplier performance across their portfolio; ensures regular supplier meetings take place and implements improvement strategies with suppliers. 

• Execute purchasing for assigned categories. 

• Monitor status of open purchase orders to ensure on-time delivery of all materials, including timely resolution, communication, and mitigation of future potential problems 

• Work with internal team members to achieve optimal inventory levels for assigned categories based on forecast, demand variation and material lead times. 

• Coordinate material flows throughout product/BOM changes, obsolescence, and the introduction of new suppliers and/or materials due to new product development 

• Be a shared resource among the procurement team when support is needed 

• Continue to work with leadership on maintaining and managing diverse vendor management database 

• Identifies strategic opportunities which result in cost savings, areas for efficiency and opportunities for Procurement team. 

• Works closely with the accounting team to ensure vendor billing is corrects and terms & conditions are adhered to. 

• Follows procurement strategies, policies and procedures as defined by the leadership team, develops a comprehensive understanding of the business and user requirements for assigned spend categories. 

• Monitor status of open purchase orders to ensure on-time delivery of all materials, including timely resolution, communication, and mitigation of future potential problems. 

• Identifies and drives process improvement workstreams to support both Procurement and cross-functional business partners. 

• Lead or provide input in special projects as required. 

Qualifications  

• 2+ years’ experience in manufacturing or CPG procurement operations 
• Highly motivated, self-directed, innovative, and able to work independently or among teams with keen judgement, common sense and resourcefulness. 
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint & Outlook) 
• Adapts and thrives in a demanding, start-up, fast-paced environment. 
• Superior communication and interpersonal skills (verbal, non-verbal, written), with the ability to build relationships at all levels, both internally and externally. 
• Possesses a high level of critical thinking. 
• Consistently operates with an elevated level of professionalism and integrity, including dealing with confidential information 
• Experience with MRP/ERP systems preferred. 
• Strong analytical skills preferred 

Additional Requirements 

• Must pass any and all required background checks  
• Must be and remain compliant with all legal or company regulations for working in the industry  
• Must be a minimum of 21 years of age