City : Cambridge, Ontario

Category : Full time

Industry : Merchandising

Employer : Shoppers Drug Mart®

Referred applicants should not apply directly to this role.

All referred applicants must first be submitted through Workday by a current Loblaw Colleague.

Come make your difference in communities across Canada, where authenticity, trust and making connections is valued – as we shape the future of Canadian retail, together. Our unique position as one of the country's largest employers, coupled with our commitment to positively impact the lives of all Canadians, provides our colleagues a range of opportunities and experiences to help Canadians Live Life Well®.

At Loblaw Companies Limited, we succeed through collaboration and commitment and set a high bar for ourselves and those around us. Whether you are just starting your career, re-entering the workforce, or looking for a new job, this is where you belong. 

You’ll recognize Loblaw as the leader in food and pharmacy across Canada, with stores located within 10 minutes of 90% of Canadians. With a team of 190,000 colleagues, we serve Canadians with a dedicated focus on our purpose: helping Canadians to Live Life Well®.

Loblaw recognizes Canada's diversity as a source of national pride and strength. We have made it a priority to reflect our nation’s evolving diversity in the products we sell, the people we hire, and the culture we create in our organization. At Loblaw, we celebrate diversity and strive to build a culture of inclusion where differences are accepted, valued and supported. We are committed to being an equal opportunity employer and encourage people from all backgrounds and identities to apply to our jobs. Accommodation in the recruitment, assessment, and hiring process is available upon request for applicants with disabilities.

As the Director, Procurement, Tropical, Melons & Ethnic Tropical you’ll join Loblaw’s Business Enablement & Enterprise Procurement (BEEP) leadership team, a group of outstanding procurement professions accountable for purchasing products and services for more than 3,000 stores across Canada.

Reporting to the Senior Director, Produce Procurement  you’ll lead a Buyer and be responsible for every aspect of procurement including domestic and offshore sourcing, vendor relationship and performance management, RFPs, costing, supply risk management, quality management, vendor onboarding and much more. You’ll also provide rich insights to the business on cost inflation, supply forecasting, commodity management, competitive benchmarking, and global product innovation.

What You’ll Do:

• Source weekly and seasonal product requirements for baseline and promotional volume.
• Direct your team with buying strategies that align to category playbooks.
• Be accountable for financial management with full ownership of P&L deliverables and divisional budget obligations.
• Cultivate positive, strategic relationships with our vendors and external partners.
• Facilitate all major costing negotiations and manage vendor fulfilment and financial performance analysis.
• Evaluate new product and/or platform innovation and work with our Loblaw Brands team and retail divisions on program sourcing for our private labels.
• Collaborate with our supply chain replenishment and transport teams to resolve product availability challenges and fulfilment obstacles.
• Research the competitive landscape of the category and understand industry benchmarking standards on product assortment, costing, global sourcing strategies, product quality specifications and emerging innovation trends.
• Provide supportive leadership and strategic direction to your team to accelerate and improve their performance and results.
• Proudly represent the fresh procurement team within the BEEP community!

What You’ll Need:

• A curious mentality and positive, self-motivated demeanor.
• A passion for food!
• Post-secondary education in business or supply management; or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years in a procurement, supply chain or retail merchandising role.
• Analytical approach to decision making
• Strong financial knowledge and experience managing P&L
• Well-developed influencing and relationship-management skills with a winsome communication style.
• Empathetic leadership style with effective colleague development and professional mentoring skills.
• An ability to prioritize multiple urgent projects at the same time
• Skilled in using Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Flexibility to accommodate travel up to 10%.

Highly Preferred:

• An experienced procurement professional with a background in the food industry.
• Experience in commodity buying and vendor bid analysis.

Our commitment to Sustainability and Social Impact is an essential part of the way we do business, and we focus our attention on areas where we can have the greatest impact. Our approach to sustainability and social impact is based on three pillars – Environment, Sourcing and Community – and we are constantly looking for ways to demonstrate leadership in these important areas. Our CORE Values – Care, Ownership, Respect and Excellence – guide all our decision-making and come to life through our Blue Culture. We offer our colleagues progressive careers, comprehensive training, flexibility, and other competitive benefits – these are some of the many reasons why we are one of Canada’s Top Employers, Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, Canada’s Greenest Employers & Canada’s Top Employers for Young People.

If you are unsure whether your experience matches every requirement above, we encourage you to apply anyway. We are looking for varied perspectives which include diverse experiences that we can add to our team.

We have a long-standing focus on diversity, equity and inclusion because we know it will make our company a better place to work and shop. We are committed to creating accessible environments for our colleagues, candidates and customers. Requests for accommodation due to a disability (which may be visible or invisible, temporary or permanent) can be made at any stage of application and employment. We encourage candidates to make their accommodation needs known so that we can provide equitable opportunities.  
 
Please Note:
Candidates who are 18 years or older are required to complete a criminal background check. Details will be provided through the application process.