Senior Vendor Manager (All Genders)

zooplus; München; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

20 days abroad

20% product discount

Wellbeing offers

Bike leasing

Job summary

zooplus is seeking a Senior Vendor Manager to scale Local Champion Brands across Europe. You will own vendor relationships, drive topline performance, and automate interactions—from contract signing to catalog items and promotions—delivering impact on profitability and customer experience.

Hybrid work and international collaboration await. Role requires 5+ years in vendor management, strong analytical thinking, and fluency in English and German.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Category Management, Vendor Management or Purchasing, ideally in retail or pet industry.
• Experience with analytics and strategic thinking to structure complex data.
• Ability to propose proactive solutions and guide business partners.
• Understanding customer needs to enhance experience.
• Strong influencing and vendor management experience.
• Teamwork and guidance of business partners with authority.
• Excellent verbal and written communication in English and German.
• Proficient MS-Office tools (Excel, PowerPoint).

Responsibilities

• Influence strategic vendors to improve customer experience, reduce costs, and drive efficiency.
• Provide feedback on programs and create new vendor initiatives.
• Review promotions, negotiate terms, and maximize margins and customer experience.
• Direct cross-functional teams to scalable vendor solutions.
• Audit metrics and ensure quality across multiple vendors.
• Lead projects with stakeholders and maintain process documentation.

Skills

Vendor management

English fluency

German fluency

Communication skills

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

MS Office

Job description

Company Description

With over 25 years’ experience, plus the same enormous passion and ambition we had on day-one, we’re trailblazers in the pet e-commerce industry. Our solutions make over 12 million customers genuinely happier – and that’s something we really care about. We work together to continually adapt; embracing change and the challenges it brings so that we can keep doing better. Join us and discover a place where your potential meets your passion for pets. That’s the power of plus.

Company Description

With over 25 years’ experience, plus the same enormous passion and ambition we had on day-one, we’re trailblazers in the pet e-commerce industry. Our solutions make over 12 million customers genuinely happier – and that’s something we really care about. We work together to continually adapt; embracing change and the challenges it brings so that we can keep doing better. Join us and discover a place where your potential meets your passion for pets. That’s the power of plus.

Job Description

We are looking for an exceptional Senior Vendor Manager who will grow the Local Champion Brands of zooplus across Europe. You will have full flexibility in managing customer experience, topline performance, and profitability of your vendors, taking the relationship with them to the next level. By scaling and automating all interactions with the vendor base, including identifying and signing up new vendors, creating items in the catalog, negotiating contracts and terms, managing promotional activities, and resolving operational issues, you will have a direct impact on the business, thus, setting zooplus apart from its competitors.

Are you ready to take on this challenge?

As a Senior Vendor Manager, You Will

• Influence strategic or complex vendors to prioritize customer experience by lowering costs, improving the supply chain, reducing defects, and driving efficiencies.
• Provide feedback on existing programs or initiates the creation of new programs to drive vendor participation.
• Review results of promotions and changes course of action and negotiates new promotions if needed; create strategic and prioritized vendor marketing plan that maximizes margin euros and customer experience.
• Identify areas that need vendor attention and directs team to address issue; acts as escalation point, helping team and vendor(s) resolve conflicts.
• Audit metrics regularly; evaluate products and services to continually drive quality of customer experience across multiple vendors and categories.
• Work cross functionally to implement scalable solutions to address customer pain points.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to develop and propose an annual plan for multiple vendors or categories; build a network in the pet industry.
• Lead cross functional projects and involve the appropriate stakeholders.
• Hold team accountable for maintain robust process documentation.
• Actively seek feedback from others; identify areas for personal growth and set goals for development.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of relevant work experience in Category Management, Vendor Management or Purchasing, ideally in retailing or the pet industry; experience working in an e-Commerce are an advantage.
• Experience in project work based on analytical and strategic thinking and ability to structure complex facts.
• Ability to unlock complex issues and to work proactively on proposals, solution thinking.
• Ability to understand customer needs and market requirements to enhance the customer experience.
• Strong influencing abilities and vendor management experience
• Experience in teamwork and guidance of business partners with proved authority.
• High level of communication skills.
• Fluent in English and German (B2 or above)
• Proficient MS-Office (especially Excel and Power Point).

Additional Information

Headquartered in Munich, with offices across Madrid, Krakow, Wroclaw, London and Vienna, we collaborate because we genuinely love working together - so you’ll be at the heart of an incredible, multinational team. We trust each other to get the job done, which means you’ll benefit from hybrid working, spending 60% of your time in the office and 40% at home. There’s an option to work for 20 days abroad in approved countries too.

Add to that development opportunities that help you to shape your own career path, excellent training and support, wellbeing offers, subsidised transport or bike leasing, plus 20% discount across all our products, and you’ll begin to get a sense of what sets us apart.

Find out more about the specific benefits at your local office in our blog posts.

A note on compensation:

We believe in being transparent about salary ranges. The range shown reflects the full scope that the role can grow into over time, depending on experience, skills, and impact. Most offers are positioned around the midpoint of the range, ensuring a fair and consistent approach across our teams.

At zooplus, we believe in equal opportunity and support everyone to fulfil their potential. We recognise the power of listening and learning from each other and embrace diversity and inclusion of all.