Endless Aisle Merchandising Manager

Gordon Food Service; New York (MI, NY); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Merchandising Manager, where your leadership and strategic insights will drive impactful sourcing strategies. In this role, you'll lead a talented team, manage vendor relationships, and ensure optimal product assortments. Your expertise in data analysis and process improvements will contribute to enhancing operational efficiencies and achieving revenue growth. This innovative firm values its workforce and fosters a culture of respect and collaboration, making it an exciting place for professionals who are eager to make a difference in the food service industry.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in brand or category management with 3+ years in management.
• Strong vendor relationship skills and data analysis capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of specialists in vendor management.
• Optimize sourcing strategies and enhance supply chain efficiencies.

Skills

Vendor Relationship Management

Team Leadership

Data Analysis

Process Improvement

Communication Skills

Problem Solving

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

Welcome to Gordon Food Service! We are excited that you are thinking about opportunities with us, and we have an amazing story to share. See below for a quick glance of who we are and the impact you could have on the food service industry. There's a seat at our table for you...

The Merchandising Manager is a key player in maintaining strong relationships with our vendors, ensuring effective communication, and optimizing our sourcing strategies. They lead a team of specialists, resolve escalated vendor issues, analyze vendor performance, and play an active role in setting item sourcing and merchandising strategies along with managing vendor performance.

What you'll do:

Leadership and Development:

• Provides leadership, guidance, and performance feedback to a team of specialists.

• Interviews, hires, trains, and retains staff. Mentors, motivates, and develops staff and acts as a role model and resource.

• Ensures accuracy, timeliness, and procedural compliance in activities related to Item creation and maintenance, vendor, and broker data management. May also include promotional event pricing.

• Works closely with the Operations Manager to ensure a seamless ordering experience for the rep and customer from sourcing all the way to order fulfillment.

• Drives value by identifying opportunities to optimize supply chain efficiencies and produce assortment for Gordon Food Service using endless aisle fulfillment

• Other duties as assigned.

Item Sourcing and Category Ownership:

• Develops and owns overall merchandising strategy for the Endless Aisle.

• Oversees setup and maintenance of vendors and items.

• Owns the broader team's relationship with the merchandising and sales teams to ensure alignment and growth.

• Develops and executes strategy for sourcing items to drive revenue

• Knowledge of market trends, opportunities and their impact on the foodservice distribution industry

• Ability to mine and analyze data from various sources to determine key opportunities for product sourcing

• Collaborates closely with the master data team to manage new item workflow and processes.

• Implements automation solutions to reduce manual tasks and improve productivity.

• Ensures an optimal product assortment with strategic pricing

• Manages pricing levers and recommendations for assigned product sets

• Supports on category lead and item sourcing activities as needed.

• Other duties as assigned.

• Vendor Onboarding, Relationship and Performance Management:

• Maintains and grows key vendor relationships, acting as the primary point of contact for day to day and escalated issues.

• Provides business reviews and develops mutual growth strategies with key vendors.

• Develops and tracks vendor performance metrics, analyzing data to identify trends and areas for improvement.

• Co-owns the playbook for the Endless Aisle program, ensuring vendor adherence to operational processes.

• Supports specialists in vendor management activities as needed.

What you'll bring to the table:

• Bachelor's Degree required

• Seven or more years previous experience in brand, product or category management with three + years of management experience

• Positive attitude, accountable; willing to teach; proactive in supporting the development of other team members

• Actively searches out and identifies opportunities for process improvements, efficiencies and automation.

• High attention to detail; solid understanding of business, rules and processes.

• Adapts easily to changing situations and demonstrates flexibility in juggling priorities.

• Demonstrated success in building and maintaining positive vendor relationships.

• Experience in resolving vendor disputes and performance issues.

• Exceptional oral and written communication skills required, as well as experience presenting to large teams / groups.

• Maintain up-to-date industry knowledge of trends, technologies and best practices on an ongoing basis. Lead sharing of new trends across the team.

• Creative problem solver

• Natural curiosity

BE PART OF AN AMAZING CULTURE WHERE WHAT MATTERS TO YOU, MATTERS TO US!

Gordon Food Service values our customers and understands that their success is largely dependent upon their workforce. To demonstrate our commitment to our partnership, we will require any candidate who works for a Gordon Food Service customer to provide a letter of support from their management if they are selected for the interview process.

Equal Employment Opportunity is a matter of policy at Gordon Food Service, Inc. and we are committed to a work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, status as a protected veteran, or status as a qualified individual with disability. If you require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process due to a disability, please submit your request to [e-mail] and use the words "Accommodation Request" in your subject line.

All Gordon Food Service locations are tobacco-free.

Gordon Food Service is a drug-free workplace and conducts pre-employment drug tests.