The Senior Buyer leads our procurement team and sourcing strategy and plays a critical role in the company's ability to deliver high quality, cost effective products to our customers through their ability to effectively source items on a timely basis while maintaining appropriate inventory levels, at the lowest total cost consistent with product margin and forecast requirements.

• Manage existing supplier relationships with excellent communication, and audit with occasional visits to build and maintain good relationships with them.
• Ensure that Farm to People’s pricing is competitive and a good value to customers
• Negotiate with suppliers for favorable prices, terms, quality, and delivery. 
• Develop strategies to constantly improve product quality.
• Create and maintain a product mix that represents the company brand: "Know your farmer, know your food”.
• Identify, test, and recommend prospective new products from current and new suppliers that fit with the company’s values and product standards.
• Work alongside members of the  management team to plan product rollout/quarterly sourcing strategy.
• Execute supplier engagement plans based on category strategy including crop planning with local and regional farmers on a seasonal basis.
• Continuously collect, update, and organize supplier information.
• When supplier shortages occur, find back up substitutions in order to avoid disappointing our customers.

• Order and maintain appropriate levels of stock inventory by analyzing inventory turns for all products.
• Exercise full ownership and control of the (daily/weekly) cycle count process to ensure that inventory is counted and rotated accurately, and maintains a high quality of freshness for customers.
• Manage the inventory system to ensure settings, product description and photo, cost, and retail price are accurate for new products, and updated as needed for current products.
• Curate Farm Boxes with varying seasonal produce and grocery products on a weekly basis, and review box contents with marketing and management teams, making changes as needed, based on management approval, cost and content.

• Work closely with the director of operations to ensure clear communication between sourcing and production.
• Coordinate product deliveries and conduct daily hands on reviews of quality/condition of incoming orders with the receiving team.
• Responsible for maintaining, updating, and reviewing the shorts & subs rate, quality, delivery, and all other supplier issues and resolutions and hitting established goals.
• Communicate appropriate packaging material and storage practices for all fresh, unpackaged food products with the marketing and warehouse teams.
• Provide timely and thorough feedback to growers regarding product quality. Document quality issues, shorts, invoice inaccuracies, and request credits/refunds in a timely manner with suppliers, the finance team to ensure they are redeemed.
• Approve and ensure all invoices are submitted to the finance team in a timely manner. 

• Set and monitor pricing to ensure that financial and departmental targets and margins are met.
• Manage food loss/waste at 1% or less of COG.
• Forecast sales based on ERP 2 week rolling WoW and weekly YoY data.
• Forecasting levels of demand to meet customer needs, both for Farm Boxes and A La Carte items. 
• Provide regular assessments of the suppliers’ market, weekly for produce, monthly for all other product groups.
• Conduct regular product sell-through analysis to determine product viability and profitability, in order to manage future purchase planning and needed discontinuations.
• Present quarterly comps and work with management to set and update customer pricing.
• Participate in developing annual budgets for categories of responsibility.  These budgets provide the baseline for the purchase price variance (PPV) throughout the year and help in determining company profitability.
• Responsible for key financial analysis that supports the completion of critical reports including the monthly financial projection.

• Manage Junior Buyer/Administrative Support Associate. Hold them accountable and help them succeed in their work.
• Communicate new product facts and stories to the Marketing & Communications Team, and assist in creating relevant mission-driven online content.
• Manage Procurement for all marketing partnerships, events and assisting the kitchen team with finding great products.
• Other related assignments as necessary.

• 3+ years of demonstrated expertise in these areas
• Ability to manage others with clear communication and detailed tasks.
• Proficiency with computers, Google Workplace or Microsoft Office
• Excellent spreadsheet skills
• Previous responsibility for product assessments, financial analysis, price negotiation, and cost modeling
• Understanding of local and sustainable farming, and in depth knowledge of seasonality in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regions
• Demonstrated management of quality control, rapid inventory turn-over, and supply issues in the fresh food industry
• Exhibits great organizational skills, meticulous attention to detail, excellent oral and written communication, and time management skills

• Passion for local farming and feeding people
• Strong innovative and entrepreneurial talents
• Flair for negotiating, persuading and networking
• High level of process improvement, inquisitiveness, and willingness to drive business forward
• Ability to work well independently, but also be part of a larger team
• Possess a clear standard of personal integrity, business ethics, and values
• Professional and respectful character with both internal and external partners 
• Exhibit strong and creative problem solving abilities
• You absolutely must have a high tolerance for a loud and lively work environment and a passion for innovation. We are a startup, and we love what we do!