Senior Manager, Raw Material Sourcing

at  Sofina Foods Inc

POSITION SUMMARY:

Reporting to Senior Vice President, Sourcing and Procurement, the Senior Manager, Raw Material Sourcing is accountable is responsible for establishing and managing strong relationships with global third-party suppliers, ensuring compliance with Sofina’s food safety and all regulatory requirements. This role focuses on sourcing fish, beef, pork, and chicken. Additionally, the position manages the strategy for chicken and turkey quota usage and sales, aiming to optimize quota performance.
A key responsibility of this role is to monitor and support Sofina’s plants to ensure that meat formulation substitutes are minimized and that freezer inventory levels remain low unless strategic inventory is necessary due to economic or demand fluctuations. The Senior Manager will also manage co-cutting subcontractors and proactively address any quality or delivery claims against suppliers. Finally, this role will participate in optimizing the poultry value chain across the organization.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

1. Establish and maintain relationships with global suppliers for fish, beef, pork, and chicken substitutes, ensuring compliance with food safety and regulatory standards.
2. Develop and implement a strategy for managing and selling chicken and turkey quota to maximize value.
3. Monitor and support plant operations to minimize the need for meat formulation substitutes and ensure that freezer inventory remains at optimal levels, with exceptions made for strategic inventory decisions.
4. Manage co-cutting subcontractors to ensure timely delivery and product quality.
5. Proactively address and manage any quality or delivery issues with suppliers and drive continuous improvement in supplier performance.
6. Collaborate with internal teams to optimize the poultry value chain, enhancing efficiency and cost-effectiveness across the full value chain.
7. Develop and oversee strategic inventory management to mitigate risks and accommodate demand surges while maintaining low inventory costs.
8. Use world-class ordering processes and methodologies to ensure that orders are placed economically, minimally, and in a manner that mitigates potential risks
9. Develop a process of exception handling that minimizes occurrences of future exceptions and provides advance warnings, so exceptions do not negatively impact operations.
10. Develop processes and tools that provide the demand signal to our suppliers in a low-touch and accurate manner.
11. Work with the suppliers to resolve all tactical quality, delivery, and pricing failure modes and track supplier performance and corrective action responses.
12. Proactive and ongoing communication with the operations to ensure a high level of on-time-delivery.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. A bachelor’s or master’s degree in management, business, procurement, or a related field, or prior experience.
2. Minimum of 5 years of experience in customer or relationship management in the meat industry.
3. Proven ability to manage global supplier relationships and negotiate complex supply agreements.
4. Experience in quota management for poultry or other regulated commodities.
5. Strong analytical and decision-making skills with a track record of optimizing inventory and sourcing strategies.
6. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders.
7. Travel is required 25% of the time across Canada to suppliers and plants.
   Sofina Foods Inc. is committed to providing accessible employment practices that are in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (‘AODA’). Applicants are asked to make their needs/requirements, for the purpose of accommodation under AODA, known to Human Resources when they are contacted for an interview

Please refer the Job description for details