Senior Ingredients Buyer

Consumer Hub; Swansea; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A major UK food manufacturer is seeking a Senior Ingredients Buyer to join their procurement team in South Wales. This role involves sourcing and negotiating a diverse range of food ingredients, managing supplier relationships, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. The ideal candidate will have solid experience in food procurement within complex manufacturing environments, strong negotiation skills, and a solutions-focused mindset. This position offers a chance to influence ingredient strategy in a growing, investment-driven business.

Qualifications

• Solid experience in food ingredients procurement, ideally in complex food manufacturing.
• Understanding of regulatory and quality expectations.
• Confidence in negotiating and managing supplier relationships.

Responsibilities

• Source and negotiate a wide portfolio of ingredients ensuring quality and compliance.
• Build and maintain long-term partnerships with suppliers.
• Manage contracts, performance, and track market movements.
• Collaborate with technical, quality and production teams to balance cost and performance.
• Build long-term supplier partnerships and monitor market movements.

Skills

Food ingredients procurement

Negotiation skills

Supplier management

Inventory planning

Strong organizational skills

Food manufacturing domain

Job description

If you’re an ingredients buyer who likes being close to the product, not just managing numbers, this is a role where your decisions genuinely shape what ends up on the shelf.

A major UK food manufacturer is looking for a Senior Ingredients Buyer to join their procurement team at a large, well-invested South Wales site. This is a business operating at serious scale within premium chilled food production, supplying high-spec retail customers and continuing to invest heavily in growth, capability and product development.

The role goes far beyond placing orders. You’ll be responsible for sourcing and negotiating a wide portfolio of ingredients, including spices, marinades, preservatives and functional additives, ensuring they meet strict quality, safety and commercial targets. You’ll work closely with technical, quality and production teams to balance cost, compliance, availability and performance, helping maintain product integrity while supporting innovation and continuous improvement.

Supplier management is a big part of the position. You’ll build and develop long-term partnerships, manage contracts and performance, track market movements, and proactively identify opportunities to optimise spend without compromising standards. Inventory planning and demand forecasting will also form part of your remit, ensuring supply continuity in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

This is an opportunity to step into a highly visible procurement role inside a business that values collaboration, operational excellence and commercial thinking. You’ll be part of a well-established team with exposure to senior stakeholders, giving you real influence over ingredient strategy and supplier direction.

They’re looking for someone with solid experience in food ingredients procurement, ideally within complex added-value, food manufacturing, who understands regulatory and quality expectations, is confident negotiating, and enjoys working cross-functionally. Strong organisational skills, commercial awareness and a practical, solutions-focused mindset are key.

📈 Growing, investment-driven business

If you enjoy buying ingredients that directly impact finished products, and want to do it at scale in a business with momentum, this is a role worth exploring.

Reach out if you’d like to discuss the details.