The Associate Buyer is responsible for the day to day support of the Grocery, Own Brand team. This role acts a liaison between key business partners and the Own Brand team, insuring the proper and timely procurement and delivery of private label products to our retail partners.

Core Functions

• Organization and collaborate with other departments to achieve company and divisional goals. Develop strong working relationships with internal replenishment and procurement teams.
• Establish and maintain relationships with vendors, troubleshooting detention charges, logistic challenges and supply chain management, as well as coordinate logistics reviews between Wakefern and vendors
• Act as a liaison between OB and corporate Logistics to ensure supplier slotting and PO completion to OB vendors, along with managing supplier escalations
• Run and analyze reports to support OB Product team: comfortable with data and analytics
• Manage supplier onboarding tasks to launch products such as completion of design briefs, specs, supplier collaboration and training. Collection of item specs, new and discontinued item list and dimensions
• Manage data for packaging transitions for category launches and transitions to support CMs in on-time launches with least amount of financial liability
• Item set up for new and/or transitioned SKUs: Understanding of item details and collaboration with suppliers to enter new products in the system
• Warehouse inventory updates: Monitor the timely and accurate delivery of Own Brand products to Wakefern, and maintain department service level at 98% or above through supplier interaction and alignment with Replenishment team
• Assist Category Manager as a key member of the category deep dive process, including managing competitive store visits, analysis of products within category, workshop shopping, CDT (consumer decision tree) creation and workshop set-up, etc.
• Organize and run meetings with Category Managers to ensure flow of communication on status updates regarding supplier and item set-up, packaging transitions, financial liabilities and adherence/impact to delivery deadlines
• Successfully navigate the of sales and loyalty data, creation of presentation materials and support in the vendor management process
• Lead various procurement projects that include the areas of purchasing, contracting, sourcing, and commodity management

Knowledge and Skill Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree, or presently enrolled college student with 60 or more credit hours
• 3-5 years’ experience in logistics, category management or similar function
• Required previous experience in Microsoft Office, Power Point, and use of common logistics applications and CGO, LINK, MicroStrategy, QMF, RAPID and WMS
• Strong interpersonal and analytical skills with the ability to multitask, manage time effectively and manage a small team
• Self-starter with demonstrated problem solving ability
• Strong attention to detail
• Exceptional relationship building attributes, including superior verbal and written communication skills.