Strategic Sourcing Manager

Drive impact and innovation - join us as our next Strategic Sourcing Manager! Valley Cooperative Association (VCA) is looking for a Strategic Sourcing Manager to lead high-impact sourcing strategies, streamline vendor relationships, and fuel operational efficiency in a fast-paced distribution network that support VCA's key financial goals. Be the force behind smarter sourcing and a stronger supply chain!

Job Summary

The Strategic Sourcing Manager is a key leadership role within the Purchasing Team. The position is responsible for product management across assigned categories, including curating the catalog of stock items and sourcing new vendors and products to meet customer needs. The role manages pricing and contracts, resolves vendor quality issues or recalls, and oversees vendor performance, reducing supply chain risk. The manager develops and applies market intelligence to effectively manage their product categories.

The Strategic Sourcing Manager blends rapid day-to-day activities of actioning sourcing requests with the strategic evaluation of product categories and product management opportunities. They communicate and collaborate effectively both internally and externally, influencing others to achieve strategic goals.

Essential Job Functions:

Request For Information (RFI) Tracker. Sources new items by calculating landed costs, conducting financial analysis, approving items for the stock catalog, and overseeing ERP setup to ensure each product is cost-effective, operationally ready, and aligned with customer and business needs to support company growth.

Product Management. Curate the product catalog and manage the new item introduction process to ensure the catalog remains appropriately sized and aligned with sales needs, while also supporting key supply chain metrics to drive efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Supplier Relationship Management

The Strategic Sourcing Manager conducts annual vendor reviews and negotiates support programs to assess vendor performance and secure favorable terms, ultimately strengthening supplier relationships and enhancing cost-effectiveness for the business.

Performs supplier segmentation by identifying strategic vendors and tailoring vendor management activities to each segment, ensuring focused engagement that maximizes value and strengthens the overall supply chain.

Develops methods and actions of tracking and reporting on vendor performance to identify opportunities for improvement and hold vendors accountable for meeting expectations.

Facilitates and maintains vendor support and participation in Valley’s customer-facing initiatives, such as the annual Valley Food Show and charity golf outing, strengthen vendor partnerships, enhance brand visibility, and support community engagement.

Vendor Bill Backs. Partner with accounting to manage vendor bill backs—including samples, non-conforming products, customer-specific deal pricing, marketing programs, and rebates—to ensure accurate financial tracking, cost recovery, and alignment with contractual agreements.

Contract & Pricing Management

Execute contract buys with vendors in support of customer needs, including soliciting vendor pricing and delivery terms, and implementing contracts with vendors as needed to support customer contracts.

The Strategic Sourcing Manager evaluates all proposed supplier price changes, negotiates effectively on behalf of Valley, approves appropriate price adjustments, and directs Buyers to update pricing in the ERP system to ensure cost control and accurate financial management.

Supply Chain Risk Mitigation

The Strategic Sourcing Manager rapidly resolves actual or potential supply chain disruptions escalated from the Buying team to minimize operational impact and maintain a reliable flow of products.

Identifies and maintains potential substitute products in market minimizing out of stock incidents.

Onboard new products and / or vendors to ensure continuous supply of goods.

Seasonal Prebooks

Manage product pricing and deals for seasonal prebooks, partnering with internal resources as applicable.

Identify potential new items or suppliers for inclusion based on ongoing professional internal and external relationships.

Provide accurate vendor and item master data to marketing to prepare and distribute prebook materials to customers minimizing disruptions caused by product gaps.

Quality issues. Maintain vendor relations to identify and resolve quality issues including those that include product recalls, or other actions necessary to maintain product standards and protect consumers.

Market Intelligence

Develop market intelligence for product categories through industry organizations, trade shows, following commodity market performance, independent research, and discussions with current and potential future vendors.

Educate the Sales team on vendor opportunities to enhance the product catalog, mitigate supply risk, and ensure competitive pricing that aligns sourcing strategy and customer needs.

Plan and execute strategic and / or opportunity buys to ensure continuous supply of goods and optimization of purchase price.

Minimum Requirements:

Education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in supply chain, purchasing/procurement preferred.

Experience: 2+ years’ experience working in strategic sourcing, 3-5 years of procurement/supply chain experience.

Travel: 10% -20% (e.g., supplier locations, industry/trade events).

Work Schedule: 5 days/week, Monday through Friday, 7:30am – 4:00pm CST, 40 hours/week. Physical Requirements:

Sedentary office work.

No lifting over 10 lbs.

No walking or standing for long periods of time required (1-2 hours per day maximum). Key Results Areas and Benchmarks:

Product Management / Catalog Management: Manage product catalog by category to meet member needs while maintaining or increasing sales per stocked SKU.

Profitability: Achieve profitability goals through negotiating vendor support programs and executing strategic commodity buys.

Inventory Management: Curate stocked item catalog in support of achieving Inventory Turns metrics and preventing obsolete inventory / unsalable goods.

Lost Sales: Manage vendor performance to reduce out of stock items and Lost Sales.

Valley Cooperative Association

Valley Cooperative Association (VCA), based in Greenville, Wis., serves retail and wholesale bakers in the Western Great Lakes. Our members and customers come from a broad range of bakery and food service companies. We offer a complete list of the finest ingredients and baking supplies through an extensive purchasing system, climate-controlled warehousing, and a responsive distribution network.

From the beginning, we've wanted Valley Cooperative Association to be different from other companies. Different in how we treat our customers, different in how we work with each other, and different in the results we achieve. These differences are best captured in the 26 "Fundamentals" that are the foundation for our unique culture. We call it The Valley Way.

Valley Benefits

Valley offers a full, competitive benefits package including health, dental, life, disability, and vision insurance, HSA, 401K with company match, profit sharing, EAP, paid holidays, paid time off, and an onsite fitness center.

Valley Cooperative Association is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any of these characteristics. We encourage individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to apply and join our team, as we believe that diversity enriches our work environment and drives innovation.