Kettle Cuisine
Category Buyer
- Location: Green Bay, WI
- Position Type: Full-Time
Delicious Food and Meaningful Careers
At the heart of our company is a deep passion for creating fresh, healthy, and artisan-quality food that brings people together. We honor the craft of artisan cooking—using scratch-made stocks, hand-chopped herbs, and only the highest-quality ingredients—complemented by cutting-edge technology. This allows us to deliver consistently safe, exceptional products on a large scale.
But it’s not just about the food. Our culture is built on principles that shape how we grow, both as individuals and as a team. One of our core values, Honoring Development, guides us to actively seek out, celebrate, and nurture one another’s talents, strengths, and interests. By fostering each other’s growth, we strengthen our relationships and capabilities, driving both personal and professional success.
We also believe in Honoring Each Other. We surround ourselves with passionate people who share our love for great food. Through mutual respect and collaboration, we create an environment where employees are empowered to thrive, building trusting, and rewarding relationships with our clients, partners, and one another.
If you're looking for a place where your skills, passion, and ideas can flourish, we invite you to explore the opportunities available within our dynamic and supportive team, offering career paths in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, California, Washington, and Maryland.
Responsible for the procurement of raw materials, communication with vendors, and ensuring quality standards of raw materials. This position has the authority to act as a purchasing agent for the Company.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Plan and execute raw material requirements for internal customers through ERP System.
- Reorder raw materials within lead time specifications as needed, enter purchase order with detail to quantity and cost, communicate purchase order to vendor, and confirm/update pricing as needed.
- Adherence to inventory levels based on usage, forecast, minimum and maximum inventory ranges.
- Monitor daily raw material orders/logistics to ensure on-time deliveries and efficient production.
- Contact vendors when orders do not meet our standards (Ex: out of spec, not on time, incorrect quantity).
- Maintain product reorder data including lead time, minimum order quantity, minimum and maximum inventory levels, primary and secondary vendor.
- Maintain Vendor Database with contact and ordering info for customer service and sales representatives.
- Negotiate with vendors for competitive pricing and review new products.
- Qualify new suppliers as business needs change for the organization.
- Develop and implement cost reduction programs.
- New Vendor and Product setup (price quotation and negation, raw material specs, data setup).
- Invoice approval and reconciliation by researching supplier information, invoice approval software, and ERP data.
- Maintain pricing information for the purpose of tracking and placing contracts.
- Attend weekly KPI meetings and action initiatives to improve quality, reduce cost and reduce inventory.
- Use internal Supplier Evaluation Program to monitor supplier performance.
- Assist Operations Team (Receiving/Warehouse/Production/Planning/Transport) with raw material issues, delivery and pickup times, and ensure customer and supplier are aligned.
- Work with QA to action expiring inventory, manage raw material rejections and returns, and other issues as needed.
- Due to 24-hour delivery schedules, after-hours and weekend communication may be required when issues arise.
- Project Management Develops Plans; Coordinates projects; Communicates changes and progress; Completes projects on time and budget.
- May perform other duties as required.
Required Skills
- Bachelors degree
- Requires one - three years of experience
- On-the-job training of 0-3 months
- Must be proficient with MS Office programs, specifically Excel and Outlook
Desired Skills
- Demonstrated excellence in driving consistently strong profitable sales growth
- Experience working with Procurement/Supply Chain Planning
- Strong written, verbal communication and presentation skills
- Financial and business acumen
- Knowledge in chilled/refrigerated manufacturing industry
- Ability to communicate effectively with suppliers and internal customers
- Strong negotiation skills, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving ability
- Working knowledge of Purchase to Pay business process
- Strong understanding of ERP Systems
- Build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders
- Ability to read and interpret raw material specifications and supplier documents
- Work independently in a face-paced environment
- Self-starter able to conceptualize and drive initiatives forward
- Positive attitude and motivated by contributing to the overall success of the team
- Obsessive attention to detail, well organized and able to juggle many projects at once
- Passionate about food
- Willing to address difficult situations head on with patience and respect
Responsibility
- Works with little supervision and work is not reviewed. Exercises discretion within areas of responsibility.
- Advises others within the organization on matters within area of expertise.
- Receives customer questions and responds within prescribed areas of knowledge.
- Position is directly responsible for generating revenue within product line or territory.
- Ineffective actions could result in significant loss of time, resources and/or could have moderate impact on the organization’s public image. Decisions or actions have a significant impact on the organization. Errors are difficult to detect and may be difficult and/or costly to correct. Decisions may have a significant impact on resources and organizational effectiveness; funding, productivity, service, quality, security of assets or external relationships may be adversely affected.
Americans with Disabilities Act
Kettle Cuisine complies with all aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state disability laws. This means we will not discriminate against qualified individuals with a disability in any phase of the employment relationship including application for employment, hiring, promotions and/or advancement opportunities, termination, compensation, training and any other conditions or privileges of employment.
Core Values
Kettle Cuisine takes the utmost pride in its people, products and reputation. Each employee is expected to understand and live our Core Values every day.
Honor Food – We create and produce the best tasting, safest, all natural recipes that strive for perfection in every batch, from bench to kettle
Honor Each Other – We seek to develop trusting, respectful and mutually rewarding relationships with all our team members and business partners
Honor Development – We recognize and nurture each other’s talents, strengths and interests in order to further strengthen and grow our team
Honor Innovation – We continually strive for creative and sustainable ways to achieve excellence