Experiencing together a unique human adventure
Animal health is key to the health of the planet. Working at Virbac means taking part in a unique human adventure in which the engagement of each individual contributes to its evolution. Encouraging internal mobility between positions and countries, offering individual development plans and building a partnership based on trust between managers and employees are as many perspectives of motivation for our teams. We also offer them a work environment conducive to exploring new territories and balancing their professional and personal lives. Finally, fostering their engagement to animal health also means listening to them and helping them to acquire new skills, preparing them for the challenges of tomorrow and encouraging them to contribute to an ever more responsible approach to our business.
The Sourcing Manager - Pet Nutrition and Feed Ingredient drives the strategic sourcing and contracting of raw materials and services, guaranteeing consistent supply to production facilities and subcontractors. The Sourcing Manager ensures adherence to nutritional quality, food safety, and sustainability standards within a cost-effective and innovative framework. Collaboration with subcontractor purchasing managers is essential, as is the proactive development of new supplier relationships to support the North American.
Category Management – Pet Nutrition and Feed Ingredients:
- Develop, execute and own category sourcing for food and feed ingredients.
- Implement strategies to optimize cost, quality, and delivery of category.
- Conduct market research and analysis to identify potential suppliers and assess market trends.
- Identify and evaluate new suppliers based on quality, cost, reliability, and sustainability criteria.
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive supplier database.
- Execute risk management program for category.
- Ensure vendor compliance with company and regulatory requirements in conjunction with Quality Assurance
- Oversee supply contract reviews and price negotiations with suppliers and manufacturers
Supplier Relationship Management:
- Build and maintain strong relationships with key suppliers and manufacturers
- Negotiate supply parameters and agreements with suppliers, ensuring favorable terms and conditions.
- Monitor supplier performance and facilitate corrective actions as needed in collaboration with industrial and quality assurance counterparts
- Manage supplier risk and ensure business continuity.
- Facilitate new supplier and ingredient setup within the established Virbac systems.
- Establish appropriate supplier metrics and benchmarking parameters
Cost Optimization:
- Actively pursue ideas for cost avoidances and cost savings
- Effectively negotiate for the best overall scenario (based on quality, timing and cost requirements)
- Monitor market prices and trends to identify opportunities for cost optimization.
- Track and monitor savings generated and key performance indicators (KPI’s) for reporting
- Harvest and share supplier innovation with the business to drive process, quality, productivity, and cost improvements
- Assist with local and global reporting requirements
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- Regularly participate in internal meetings to keep abreast of the operational plans and objectives
- Serve as the point person in communicating between the business and suppliers, bringing in other internal parties as necessary
- Participate and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders in developing specifications
- Communicate effectively with suppliers and internal stakeholders.
- Prepare and present reports on sourcing and procurement activities.
Experience and Requirements:
- A bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business administration, food science, animal nutrition or a related field
- Proven experience in Sourcing and Procurement, preferably in the Pet Nutrition Industry
- Strong understanding of ingredient, packaging, and manufacturing processes related to pet food.
- Excellent negotiation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Customers Oriented
- Knowledge of Raw Material process, Industry understanding, Continuous Improvement mindset, food safety regulations and quality standards (e.g., FDA, AAFCO).
- Experience with supplier audits on the field (process, risk analysis) and evaluations.
- Experience with sustainable sourcing is a plus.
Benefits: 13 Company paid Holidays; 5 personal days (prorated); 20 vacation days (prorated); 5 floating holidays (prorated); 6% 401k match; competitive pay and bonus opportunity
Virbac provides numerous career opportunities, thanks to the diversity of its jobs and their international dimension.
Joining Virbac means joining dynamic teams ambitious for success.
Add Your Talent to Ours!