Senior Buyer

Job Summary: 

The Senior Buyer is responsible for evaluating, curating, pricing, promoting, and growing the brands/products in their assigned category and cultivating strong vendor partnerships that result in mutually beneficial opportunities. In addition, the Senior Buyer position sources new suppliers and manages assortment relevant to category, trend, and team objectives. As a leader, the Senior Buyer may collaborate with hiring, managing, developing, and mentoring Assistant Buyers. This role is the third step in the progression of the Merchandising team's buying structure, and is responsible for making merchandising decisions for large volume accounts.  

Job Expectations:

The Senior Buyer will work closely with the Category Manager and team to ensure all are aligned on business strategies, short and long-term growth objectives.

• Directly responsible for key category metrics (KPI’s) for new and existing brands, new products, pricing, gross margin, promotions, and product life cycle while seeking opportunities for improvement 
• Negotiate with vendors to secure exceptional everyday pricing, marketing & promotional budgets, special opportunity buys, growth incentives including rebates and accruals, delivery, and payment terms for large volume accounts
• Foster relationships with large volume existing/new vendors to drive sales, product innovation, margin growth, promotional support and maintain regular and consistent communication to ensure a clear understanding of short/long-term goals and capabilities
• Negotiation of contracts, product evaluation, quality issues, customer service questions and create and maintain supplier, product database
• Drive the new product/brand onboarding and maintenance process to ensure timely addition to market
• Calculate, maintain and evaluate cost, pricing, and product adjustments in system to ensure desired mark-ups, margin 
• Partner/Coordinate with Inventory Management and Planning Team in managing inventory turns, vendor forecasts, new item projections,  service level, order cycles, rebate and marketing programs, special opportunity buys, and general supply chain practices
• Develop promotional co-op activities that are profitable and highly effective in conjunction with Marketing 
• Create, review and utilize reports to enable in-depth analysis of category successes/challenges 
• Comply with company policies and procedures, including safety, business ethics, and standards of conduct
• May cultivate, direct and support Assistant Buyers; enabling them to further develop and grow with tools for success

The duties and responsibilities described above may provide only a partial description of this position. This is not an exhaustive list of all aspects of the job.  Other duties and responsibilities not outlined in this document may be added as necessary or desirable, with or without notice.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Required:         

• Strong, successful and proven negotiating skills
• Strong analytical, data management and decision-making abilities
• Strong mathematical skills with an understanding of retail pricing concepts
• Ability to communicate written and verbally in a professional manner with people at all levels of the organization and external contacts
• Great attention to detail, highly organized with strong project management skills
• Ability to handle multiple tasks, problem solve and prioritize with an awareness of importance and deadlines

Equipment Knowledge:

Experience with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)Experience with Google Business Suite (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Forms) preferredWMS, EDI, SAP, Asana, Tableau experience a plus

Experience Requirements:

Generally requires a minimum of five (5) years of progressive experience in buying or directly related role with equivalent responsibilities, preferably in an e-commerce environment with natural products experience a plus. 

Education Requirements: 

Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Merchandising or related field preferred, or a combination of education and equivalent work experience.

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