Sr. Director, Procurement

Job Title: Sr. Director, Procurement

Classification: Exempt – Full Time

Reports To: SVP of Supply Chain & Operations

Position Backup: SVP of Supply Chain & Operations

General Scope of the Position: 

The Sr. Director, Procurement leads the full procurement function for Del Real Foods across both manufacturing sites—Mira Loma (CA) and Moore (OK). This role is accountable for the strategic and operational management of proteins, ingredients, packaging, and indirect spend, as well as for building a best-in-class procurement capability encompassing category strategy, supplier relationship management, contract governance, cost discipline, and team development.

Reporting directly to the SVP of Operations & Supply Chain, this leader partners closely with Finance, Operations, R&D, and the DRF Procurement Committee to drive measurable cost improvements while protecting supply continuity and quality standards. The role requires equal command of strategic sourcing and day-to-day execution in a fast-paced, regulated food manufacturing environment.

A. DUTIES

 Some of the duties of this position are those described below. This job description does not state or imply that the duties listed are the only duties and responsibilities assigned to this position. Employees holding this position will be required to perform any other job-related duties as requested by management.

• Develop and execute category strategies for proteins, ingredients, packaging, and indirect spend, using market analysis and should-cost modeling to inform sourcing decisions and negotiation positions. 
• Build and maintain a preferred supplier program with defined criteria, scorecards, and a structured governance cadence; identify, qualify, and onboard new suppliers to protect supply continuity. 
• Own strategic supplier relationships and lead quarterly business reviews; negotiate and execute contracts that deliver competitive pricing, defined service levels, and appropriate risk allocation. 
• Monitor commodity market trends and proactively develop hedging, forward-buying, or dual-sourcing strategies to manage cost exposure and supply risk. 
• Own the procurement cost budget and deliver against annual savings targets; produce regular variance analyses and savings reports for Operations leadership and the Procurement Committee. 
• Partner with Production Planning to align procurement schedules with manufacturing needs and prevent supply shortages across both sites. 
• Coordinate with R&D on ingredient sourcing for new product launches, reformulations, and specification changes; support 100% of launches with qualified, costed sources delivered on time. 
• Ensure all suppliers meet DRF quality, food safety, SQF, and regulatory compliance requirements; maintain complete documentation and audit readiness. 
• Build and institutionalize procurement policies, SOPs, and governance frameworks; drive ERP utilization and data quality to improve spend visibility and support informed decision-making. 
• Lead, coach, and develop the procurement team; build organizational capability, succession depth, and a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and data-driven decision-making. 
• Represent the Procurement function on the DRF Procurement Committee; provide executive-level reporting, strategic insights, and recommendations to senior leadership.

Strategic Sourcing & Category Management

• Develop and execute category strategies for all major spend categories.
  Outcome: Launch documented category strategies for proteins, packaging, and key ingredients within 90 days, achieving annual cost savings of ≥3% of managed spend. 
• Build and maintain a preferred supplier program with defined selection criteria, performance scorecards, and governance processes.
  Outcome: Establish a supplier scorecard program covering the top 80% of spend within 180 days and conduct quarterly business reviews with all strategic suppliers. Strong negotiating, budgeting, inventory, and cost management skills

Cost Management & Financial Performance

• Own the procurement cost budget and deliver against annual cost savings targets.
  Outcome: Meet or exceed annual savings targets and provide monthly variance analyses to Operations leadership and the Procurement Committee within five business days of period close. 
• Monitor commodity market trends and develop proactive cost and supply risk management strategies.
  Outcome: Maintain a rolling 90-day commodity risk dashboard and limit adverse commodity cost variance to ≤5% versus plan. 

Supply Continuity & Cross-Functional Alignment

• Partner with Production Planning to align procurement activities with manufacturing schedules and inventory requirements.
  Outcome: Maintain ≥98% ingredient and packaging availability for production and reduce supply-related line stoppages by 50% within 12 months. 
• Coordinate with R&D on ingredient sourcing for new product launches, reformulations, and specification changes.
  Outcome: Support 100% of new product launches with qualified, costed ingredient sources delivered on time according to the launch schedule.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop the procurement team to build strategic sourcing capabilities and operational excellence.
  Outcome: Complete individual development plans for all direct reports within 60 days and demonstrate measurable quarterly improvements in team performance metrics.

Compliance & Governance

• Ensure all suppliers comply with DRF food safety, quality, and regulatory standards.
  Outcome: Maintain 100% supplier compliance with SQF, HACCP, USDA, and other applicable regulatory requirements, with zero major supplier-related quality or regulatory incidents. 
• Build and maintain procurement policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and governance frameworks.
  Outcome: Publish a Procurement Policy Manual and SOP library within 120 days and achieve ≥90% compliance with approved procurement processes. Teamwork Builder - promotes teamwork and is an example to others; ability to relate to all levels of the organization as well as to motivate and coach company employee base. 

Systems & Reporting

• Drive ERP utilization and improve data quality across the procure-to-pay (P2P) process.
  Outcome: Achieve ≥95% purchase order (PO) compliance within six months and establish monthly spend analytics reporting reviewed by senior leadership to support data-driven decision-making. 

C. Specific Skills and Abilities Required

The required competencies to perform this job at an acceptable or above level of performance are as follows:

• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop high-performing procurement teams while fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. 
• Strategic Thinking: Proven ability to develop and execute category strategies that deliver measurable cost savings, mitigate supply risk, and strengthen long-term supplier partnerships. 
• Negotiation & Contract Management: Extensive experience negotiating and managing complex, multi-year supplier agreements that optimize cost, service, quality, and risk within a food manufacturing environment. 
• Commodity Expertise: Strong knowledge of commodity markets, with particular expertise in proteins, packaging, food ingredients, and market risk management strategies. 
• Financial Acumen: Proficient in should-cost modeling, budget management, variance analysis, cost savings measurement, and financial reporting to support strategic decision-making. 
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Skilled at building strong partnerships across Finance, Operations, Supply Chain, R&D, Quality, and Executive Leadership to achieve business objectives. 
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to present complex procurement strategies, business cases, and performance metrics clearly and effectively to senior leadership. 
• Compliance & Governance: Working knowledge of USDA, FDA, SQF, HACCP, and other applicable food safety and regulatory requirements related to supplier qualification, ingredient sourcing, and procurement governance.

D. EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field required; MBA preferred.

• In-depth knowledge of procurement best practices, category management, and supplier development.

• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced, high-growth food manufacturing environment.

• Bilingual (English/Spanish) is a plus, given the organization's workforce and supplier base.

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive procurement experience in the food manufacturing or consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, including at least five years in a leadership role managing cross-functional teams. 

• Protein procurement experience is strongly preferred; experience with USDA-regulated products is highly desirable. 

• Demonstrated track record of building or transforming a procurement function within a high-growth organization. 

• Strong negotiation skills with proven experience managing complex, multi-year supplier contracts. 

• Proficiency with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, or equivalent) and the Microsoft Office Suite. 

• Experience working in a privately held or family-owned business is preferred.

• CPSM, CPIM, or an equivalent professional procurement or supply chain certification is a plus.

E. Physical Requirements (All requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with a disability.)

 1. Physical activities of this position. 

 ý Climbing: Ascending or descending ladders, stairs, scaffolding, ramps, poles, and the like, using feet and legs and/or hands and arms. Body agility is emphasized. This factor is important if the amount and kind of climbing required exceeds that required for ordinary locomotion.

 ý Balancing: Maintaining body equilibrium to prevent falling when walking, standing, or crouching on narrow, slippery, or erratically moving surfaces. This factor is important if the amount and kind of balancing exceeds that needed for ordinary locomotion and maintenance of body equilibrium.

 ý Stooping: Bending body downward and forward bending spine at the waist. This factor is important if it occurs to a considerable degree and requires full use of the lower extremities and back muscles.

 ý Kneeling: Bending legs at knee to come to a rest on knee or knees.

 ý Crouching: Bending the body downward and forward by bending leg and spine.

 ý Crawling: Moving about on hands and knees or hands and feet.

 ý Reaching: Extending hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction.

 ý Standing: Particularly for sustained periods of time.

 ý Walking: Moving about on foot to accomplish tasks, particularly for long distances.

 ý Pushing: Using upper extremities to press against something with steady force in order to thrust forward, downward or outward.

 ý Pulling: Using upper extremities to exert force to draw, drag, haul or tug objects in a sustained motion.

 ý Lifting: Raising objects from a lower to a higher position or moving objects horizontally from position to position. This factor is important if it occurs to a considerable degree and requires the substantial use of the upper extremities and back muscles.

 ý Finger Dexterity: Picking, pinching, typing or otherwise working, primarily with fingers rather than with the whole arm as in handling.

 ý Grasping: Applying pressure to an object with the fingers and palm.

 ý Feeling: Perceiving attributes of objects, such as size, shape, temperature, or texture by touching with skin, particularly that of fingertips.

 ý Talking: Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word. Those activities in which they must convey detailed or important spoken instructions to other workers accurately, loudly, or quickly.

 ý Hearing: Noisy environment.

 ý Vision: Close work.

 ý Repetitive motions: Substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands and/or fingers.

1.  Degree of physical exertion required for the position. 

 ý Sedentary Work: Exerting up to 10 lbs. of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary Work involves sitting most of the time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally, and all other sedentary criteria are met.

 ý Light Work: Exerting up to 20 lbs. of force occasionally and/or up to 10 lbs. of force frequently, and/or a negligible amount of force constantly to move objects. If the use of arm and/or leg controls requires exertion of forces greater than that for Sedentary Work and the worker sits most of the time, the job is rated for Light Work.

 ý Medium Work: Exerting up to 50 lbs. of force occasionally and/or up to 20 lbs. of force frequently, and/or up to 10 lbs. of force constantly to move objects

 Heavy Work: Exerting up to 100 lbs. of force occasionally and/or up to 50 lbs. of force frequently, and/or up to 20 lbs. of force constantly to move objects

 Very Heavy Work: Heavy Work: Exerting more than 100 lbs. of force occasionally and/or in excess of 50 lbs. of force frequently, and/or in excess of 20 lbs. of force constantly to move objects

1. Environmental conditions the employee will be subject to in this position.

 ý Inside environmental conditions: Protection from weather conditions, but not necessarily from temperature changes.

 ý Outside environmental conditions: No effective protection from weather.

 ý Both environmental conditions: Activities occur inside and outside.

 ý Extreme cold: Temperatures below 32 degrees for periods of more than one hour.

 ý Extreme heat: Temperatures above 100 degrees for periods of more than one hour.

 ý Noise: There is sufficient noise to cause the worker to shout in order to be heard above the ambient noise level.

 ý Vibration: Exposure to oscillating movements of the extremities or the whole body.

 ý Hazard: Includes a variety of physical conditions, such as proximity to moving mechanical parts, electrical current, working on scaffolding and high places, exposure to high heat or exposure to chemicals.

 ý Atmospheric conditions: One or more of the following conditions that affect the respiratory system or the skin: Fumes, odors, dusts, mists, gases, or poor ventilation.

 ý Oils: There is air and/or skin exposure to oils and other cutting fluids.

 ý Humidity: Exposure to humid conditions ranging from 70 to 92 percent.

 Respirator: Use is required.

 ý None: No substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions (such as in typical office or administrative work). 

4. PRIMARY CONTACTS

A. CONTACTS

1. Inside the Company: 

 A.) Company Employees

 B.) Administration 

 C.) Company Supervisors

 2. Out of the Company: 

 A.) Vendors

B. SUPERVISION

1. Directly Supervises: 
   1. Purchasing Manager
   2. Purchasing Department
2. Indirectly Supervises: No one