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Job description

Senior Buyer (Packaging & Third Party Manufacturers)

• *Who we are looking for.

Butternut Box is looking for a Senior Buyer to head up our Packaging and Third Party Manufacturing Categories. In this role, you will be responsible for an International & rapidly growing supply base, as well as managing a small team. Your supply base is responsible for supplying all of our packaging raw materials as well as all of our additional products such as treats, chews, gifting such as toys and merchandise etc. Annual spend is currently at £13m.
This is a high-profile role which is part of the management team, playing a pivotal role in building & delivering the long-term strategy for their categories. This role is accountable for forecasting & managing the budget on non raw materials, reducing costs, driving our sustainability agenda, protecting the business against risk and bringing exciting new products to launch. This is an dynamic role, flexing across our operations and across our 5 international regions (which continues to grow each year). This person will work cross functionally with the teams in Production, Product Development, Technical, Fulfillment, Brand, Supply Chain and international teams, giving the unique opportunity to have a full view of our total supply chain.
You are dynamic, a self-starter who works proactively, and is excited about the opportunity to work in a rapidly scaling business! We are looking for someone to come in and hit the ground running with previous strong experience working with either Packaging or managing Third Party Manufacturers. This person will bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm to the current Procurement team, can support development of more junior members and can work at pace. This person will input and add value across the team, specifically with supplier contract development, process improvement and supporting the Procurement function to scale.

• *A bit about the role.

You will report into our Head of Procurement and will work alongside an energetic team. You will focus on supporting your team to deliver their goals and KPI's along with leading in Packaging or the Third Party Manufacturing category. This person is ideally CIPS qualified and works well under pressure with the flexibility to adapt to changing Business requirements and priorities. This may mean managing alternative & additional spend categories and team members as the business continues to scale. International travel & over night stay will be required on an ad hoc basis to our suppliers, trade shows and our 'box office' in London. The role is hybrid working with weekly presence at our production site in Blyth (S81 8HG)
Key responsibilities:
Goals & KPI's

• Accountable for forecasting, reporting & delivering your categories budget
• Working cross functionally & externally with suppliers to identify and deliver continuous efficiency and/or cost improvement opportunities
• Deliver on our sustainability and environmental agenda
• Challenge and manage suppliers to deliver the required standards and measure their performance against agreed objectives, putting in place corrective actions where necessary
• Scaling the supply base to keep up with demand, whilst minimising risk and building strategic supplier relationships
• Leading weekly cross functional meetings to co-ordinate with internal teams to ensure that category activities and new product launches are delivered against programme and budget

Other

• Leading your team to build and deliver long-term Packaging & Third Party Manufacturing strategies to deliver value, quality & minimise risk
• Using strategic tools to analyse market risk and opportunities. Translating data into clear insights and recommendations
• Team working. Helping to drive the growth of the Procurement function through implementing excellent procurement practices, building procurement templates, frameworks, ways of working and processes
• Being an advocate for the procurement function in general, assuring process compliance
• Manage, develop and lead team direct reports
• Leading and undertaking the full supplier sourcing & onboarding process through to contract award, including pre-qualification, evaluation of 'best value', co-ordination of both commercial and qualitative assessments, credit checks, negotiation of terms and conditions,
• Maintain an ongoing and up-to-date database of cost inputs for each active market
• Accountable for drafting, negotiating and delivery of robust and appropriate supplier contracts for your categories as well as providing support for the team
• Manage complex supplier relationships and own regular commercial meetings, to ensure engagement, alignment and clear communication.
• Responsible for tracking, assessing and driving performance improvements, acting as a contact point for escalations and issues, through to resolution

A bit about you:

• An experienced Senior level procurement expert, used to managing multiple categories
• Essential- extensive experience managing either packaging categories or managing third party manufacturers (we are open to what category of third party manufacturers these were)
• Essential- experience developing & negotiating supplier contracts
• Preferred- experience working in a manufacturing setting & managing teams
• Preferred- E-commerce (direct to consumer) experience & CIPS qualified level 4+
• Exceptional stakeholder management & alignment abilities
• Organised with a very keen eye for detail and the ability to work under pressure
• Flexible with a strong ability to adapt to changing priorities and needs of the business
• Great project management skills, results driven with a desire to add real value to the business
• Commercial awareness; you should be comfortable in leading Supplier negations and able to take a holistic view of the impact of your role in the business
• Passion for e-commerce and dogs!

A bit about us.
At Butternut, we put the food back into dog food. We believe dogs deserve to eat the healthiest, most natural and tastiest food with none of the nasties. That's why we make freshly prepared dog food. Cooked like you would at home. Delivered in perfect portions.
We want to change the pet food industry for the better helping dogs live healthier, happier and longer lives whilst leaving humans smiling after every interaction.
We have come a long way since our co-founders (Kevin & David) hand-delivered the first Butternut Box. We are on a mission to feed even more pets in the UK and our operations team and creating a robust and scalable supply chain have a vital part to play in this. That's where you come in.

• What we can offer.*

• Competitive salary
• 25 days holiday per year (pro-rated) plus bank holidays and an additional day for every year of service
• £500 annual learning & development budget
• Flexible & hybrid working arrangements
• Private Medical Insurance with Vitality Health Care
• Monthly Pizza days
• Competitive family first policy
• Employee discount on Butternut Box for your dog
• Free parking and electric car charging
• Lots of office dogs (Dexter, Cleo, Marshal, Cali, Ronnie, Harvey and many more….)

‼ A few things to note:

• We aim to respond to all applicants personally. Our recruitment team is small so do bear with us.
• Butternut Box is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity and inclusion. We welcome people of different nationalities, backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.
• We're not afraid of putting extra weight on candidates from underrepresented groups. We want strong, diverse teams built from different backgrounds, experiences, and identities. We're ready for the ongoing work that goes into building an inclusive, supportive place for you to do the best work of your career.
• There is no specific date this role will go down but we normally experience a high volume of applications so if you are interested we suggest applying as soon as possible.
• We won't be using external recruitment agencies for support on this role.