Buyer - Non-food

Picnic; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fresh Lunch, coffee, and snacks

Health insurance discount & bike plan

Learning & development opportunities

25 holidays and pension plan

Job summary

A leading grocery startup in Amsterdam is seeking a Buyer - Non-food to drive the performance of a new category. You will shape the assortment and execute negotiation strategies with suppliers while enhancing customer value. Ideal candidates have 2-7 years in a relevant field, strong analytical skills, and a proactive mindset. This role offers numerous perks, such as health insurance discounts, learning opportunities, and a supportive work environment with fresh meals provided.

Qualifications

• 2-7 years of experience as a Buyer or Category Manager.
• Experience in setting up a new category with clear processes.
• Strong commercial instinct and ability to negotiate deals.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end performance of a newly built category.
• Develop category knowledge through data and insights.
• Lead supplier negotiations end-to-end.

Skills

Analytical skills

Negotiation strategies

Entrepreneurial mindset

Stakeholder management

Fluency in English

Education

MSc. degree in Business Administration, Economics, or similar

Job description

In a nutshell

As Buyer - Non-food, you own the end-to-end performance of a newly built category. You shape the assortment, define the strategy, and drive both customer value and profitability. Working closely with your team and suppliers, you turn data and insights into smart commercial decisions. This is a role for someone who enjoys building things from the ground up. In a fast-growing, data-driven environment, you’ll set up ways of working, identify opportunities, and continuously improve the category - from supplier partnerships and pricing strategies to range quality and supply chain performance. You combine entrepreneurial thinking with hands-on execution to create real, measurable impact.

Tricks of the trade

• Category planning & analytics: Build and own a comprehensive category plan from the ground up, translating data, customer insights, and market trends into clear objectives, KPIs, and actionable initiatives. Use strong analytical skills to evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and steer commercial decision-making.
• Category expertise: Develop deep category knowledge by combining internal data, customer insights, market trends, and supplier input.
• Negotiation strategies: Define and execute clear negotiation strategies to secure competitive commercial conditions with suppliers.
• Supplier negotiations: Lead negotiations end-to-end with a diverse supplier base, from preparation through to signed agreements.
• Commercial opportunities: Continuously identify and prioritize commercial opportunities using a data-first approach, building solid business cases to support decisions and drive innovation and growth.
• Category improvements: Design and implement improvement plans to enhance range quality, performance, and customer relevance.
• Supply chain understanding: Build a strong understanding of the end-to-end supply chain and identify opportunities to improve availability, efficiency, product quality, and margins.
• Team collaboration: Work closely with your category team and cross-functional stakeholders to define priorities, set up processes, and bring the category to the next level.

Your superpowers

• MSc. degree in Business Administration, (Business) Economics, or a comparable field
• 2-7 years of experience as a Buyer and/or Category Manager within a relevant non-food or consumer goods environment
• Strong entrepreneurial mindset; you’re comfortable building things from scratch and making progress in an evolving setup
• Experience (or strong ambition) in setting up a new category, including defining ways of working, processes, and success metrics
• Strong analytical skills; you are comfortable working with data to generate insights, build business cases, and translate findings into clear commercial actions.
• High energy, persistence, and the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously in a fast-changing environment
• Strong commercial instinct; you know how to secure the best deals and assess what’s really on the negotiation table
• Hands-on, proactive, and ownership-driven; you don’t wait for everything to be perfect before taking action
• Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills
• Fluency in English

Note: This is not a one-time hire. We’re hiring for this role throughout the year as part of our ongoing growth and expansion.

Picnic perks

🥗Fresh Lunch, coffee, and snacks

Our offices are equipped with fully-fledged coffee bars and a kitchen and chefs. They prepare delicious fresh and warm lunches every day so you can keep your energy up.

🚴🏼♂️Health insurance discount & bike plan

We have a partnership with CZ (a health insurance provider). Picnic employees get a discount on CZ insurance packages between 5% and 15%. Furthermore, through our partnership with Lease a Bike, you can rent-to-own a new (e)bike at a discounted rate

✍🏼 Learning & development

You’ll get ample opportunity to work on yourself at Picnic. We offer personal development through Lepaya courses, Academy trainings, and more. Interested in improving your mental wellbeing? Through OpenUp you get free access to trained psychologists and many courses.

All the rest

At Picnic you get 25 holidays, we cover your travel expenses and offer a pension plan. And your phone and laptop are on us, as well.