Vendor Manager - Strategic Initiatives, MENA UFG

Amazon; Dubai; On-site; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon's MENA Grocery team is seeking a Vendor Manager to build and manage relationships with vendors while optimizing pricing and category profitability. The role requires strong negotiation skills and a leadership mindset in a fast-paced environment, contributing to strategic initiatives and driving profitability in fresh and frozen categories.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years in retail operations, product or program management.
• Experience with financial analysis and owning P&L.
• Ability to represent Amazon to C-level executives.

Responsibilities

• Build relationships with vendors to manage category profitability.
• Negotiate strategic partnerships and manage vendor contracts.
• Analyze key metrics to drive improvements in selection and pricing.

Skills

Negotiation skills

Analytical skills

Leadership development

Vendor management

Curiosity

Excellent business judgment

Communication skills

Job description

Interested in working on an innovative and high-impact business that is changing the way customers think about grocery? The MENA Grocery team (UFG) is offering a role to own building new business from ground zero. We are seeking a self-starter who can quickly familiarize themselves with this fast-paced environment, build relationships and trust with cross-functional teams, and assume ownership within the program. This will require understanding complex business, tech, and operations processes at Amazon and our partners, and devising an optimal engagement model. You must thrive and succeed in an entrepreneurial environment and not be hindered by ambiguity or competing priorities. High judgment, analytical talent, and good document writing skills with concise communication are essential to success in this role.

In this role, you will influence internal and external stakeholders and leadership to buy into your strategic direction, build a sourcing strategy for a new category, ensure flawless execution, and analyze key metrics to drive improvements.

The Vendor Manager (VM) will be responsible for building relationships with vendors, managing category profitability, optimizing pricing, and developing their team. The ideal candidate will have a broad skill set including leadership development, analytical skills, excellent business judgment, vendor management, negotiation skills, curiosity, and a passion for creating a world-class shopping experience for customers. The position requires working autonomously in a fast-paced, demanding, and ambiguous environment.

The successful candidate should possess strong business judgment with a track record of project delivery, negotiations, and relationship management, and experience working with multiple stakeholders such as marketing, marketplace, legal, supply chain, and operations.

Key job responsibilities

• This is an external-facing role collaborating with vendors to build seasonal and long shelf-life categories in Fresh/Frozen space.
• Support category leaders in driving strategic initiatives and business opportunities.
• Negotiate and build strategic partnerships, manage vendor relationships, and handle contracts with vendors across categories like Dry Grocery, Commodities, Fresh & Frozen (F&V, Dairy, Poultry, Ice-cream).
• Develop the seasonal portfolio to attract traffic and engagement.
• Identify automation opportunities to scale solutions and improve metrics such as selection, profitability, pricing, and availability.
• Own the P&L post-launch to meet financial targets and drive profitability projects involving vendors, operations, and advertising.
• Refine product assortment and reduce shrinkage at dark store level to enhance customer experience.
• Source deals during Tier 1/2 events to offer value to Prime customers.
• Negotiate marketing funds from vendors for category visibility during regular operations and events.
• Prepare and close annual Joint Business Plans (JBP).

A day in the life

This startup role involves dealing with high ambiguity. Requirements include:

• At least 3 years of experience with Excel.
• At least 5 years in retail operations, product or program management, or business management/consulting, with negotiation and results delivery experience.
• Experience with financial analysis and owning P&L.
• Experience in FMCG, grocery, commodities, import vendor management, and retail.
• Strong negotiation skills.
• Ability to represent Amazon to C-level executives externally.
• Experience managing large data sets to improve performance and processes.
• Ability to lead and align cross-functional teams.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results. If you need workplace accommodations during the application or onboarding process, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

Required Experience: Manager