Sourcing Manager, Packaged Consumables

The Walt Disney Company (France); Kissimmee (FL); On-site; USD 100,000 - 134,000; Full time

Job summary

The Walt Disney Company in Central Florida seeks a Sourcing Manager for Disney Experiences to drive the consumables portfolio from concept to launch. You will partner with Merchandising, Product Design, Innovation, and Supply Chain to translate category strategies into scalable sourcing, development, and commercialization solutions.

You will build vendor roadmaps, negotiate terms, and ensure Disney-branded products meet financial, quality, safety, and regulatory requirements while balancing

Qualifications

• Progressive experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, supplier management, or category management.
• Significant experience sourcing and commercializing finished packaged snack foods, candy, confectionery, popcorn, or closely related food categories.
• Demonstrated ownership of supplier selection, strategic negotiations, vendor management, and commercialization activities from concept through launch.
• Demonstrated experience leading finished-product development and commercialization activities, including supplier engagement, specification development, sampling, packaging development, approvals, and production readiness.
• Proven record developing and executing category sourcing strategies, supplier roadmaps, and sourcing diversification initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Merchandising, Product Design, Innovation, Product Integrity, Planning, Supply Chain, Logistics, and Finance to support category growth and opportunities.
• Develop short-term and multi-year vendor roadmaps with capabilities, investments, capacity, and timelines.
• Negotiate cost, margin, lead times, packaging commitments, and other terms while maintaining quality and brand integrity.
• Manage products from concept through launch, ensuring successful execution and production readiness.
• Lead packaging development and supplier collaboration to meet protection, guest experience, and merchandising goals.
• Lead cross-functional supplier workstreams and present strategies to leadership.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Supplier management

Product development

Commercialization

Category management

Negotiation

Financial acumen

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Merchandising / Product Development / Business / Supply Chain

Tools

PLM systems

Stage-gate processes

Job description

Consumables at Disney Experiences is an exciting portfolio that spans both a traditional confectionary business and emerging snacks portfolios. This includes candy, popcorn, sweet and savory snacks, new serving and packaging formats, seasonal items, and giftable products.

The Sourcing Manager partners closely with Merchandising, Product Design, Innovation, Product Integrity, and Supply Chain teams to translate category strategies into scalable sourcing, product development, and commercialization solutions. This leader identifies supplier capabilities, evaluates product feasibility, drives development activities, manages packaging requirements, negotiates commercial terms, and builds strategic supplier partnerships that support category growth.

The Sourcing Manager will build multi-year vendor roadmaps, strengthen strategic supplier relationships, manage products from concept through commercialization, and ensure Disney-branded products meet financial, quality, safety, regulatory and delivery expectations.

Success in this role requires balancing product development, supplier strategy, packaging, food safety, regulatory compliance, operational execution, and commercial objectives to bring innovative, high-quality products to market while supporting long-term category growth.

The ideal candidate brings industry and manufacturing knowledge, deep packaged-food sourcing expertise, strong supplier networks, product development and commercialization experience, and the ability to influence cross-functional partners while balancing creativity, operational execution, and business performance.

This position reports to the Senior Manager, Merchandise Sourcing and Product Development for Disney Parks-Specific categories.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Category Strategy & Growth

• Partner with Merchandising, Product Design, Inventory Planning, and Innovation teams to support category growth strategies, new product opportunities, and evolving consumer preferences.
• Bring market intelligence, supplier insights, emerging capabilities, and industry trends to cross-functional partners to inform future category decisions.
• Bring relevant supplier capabilities, product ideas, and market insights to Merchandising, Product Design and Innovation partners.

Sourcing Strategy & Supplier Management

• Build short-term and multi-year vendor roadmaps that define required capabilities, investments, capacity, product pipelines, performance expectations, and partnership growth opportunities.
• Develop strategic supplier relationships that support category expansion, innovation objectives, operational excellence, and long-term business needs.
• Influence supplier capability development and investment strategies to support future business needs.
• Identify, evaluate, select, and onboard new suppliers, manufacturers, co-manufacturers, and packaging partners to support new business opportunities.
• Negotiate cost, margin, lead times, minimum order requirements, packaging commitments, tooling investments, and other commercial terms while maintaining product quality and brand integrity.
• Drive supplier performance through scorecards, business reviews, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Evaluate ingredient, packaging, manufacturing, and logistics cost drivers to support profitability and value creation objectives.

Product Development & Commercialization

• Manage products through the commercialization process from concept through launch, partnering with internal and external teams to ensure successful execution.
• Translate concepts into feasible specifications, ingredients, formulations, packaging solutions, costs, timelines, and production plans.
• Manage product development timelines, stage-gate milestones, and launch deliverables across multiple concurrent projects.
• Manage sampling, prototype development, testing, and approval processes through production readiness and launch.

Packaging Development

• Partner with suppliers, packaging teams, Product Design, and innovation to develop packaging solutions that support product protection, guest experience, merchandising objectives, and operational requirements.
• Ensure packaging specifications, materials, and performance standards are aligned throughout development, commercialization, and production.
• Identify emerging packaging technologies and capabilities that can improve product performance and guest experience.

Compliance, Regulatory & Product Integrity

• Ensure supplier compliance with applicable Disney standards, food safety expectations, and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with internal compliance and/or technical teams on labeling, allergens, claims, formulation, shelf life, packaging, quality, sustainability, responsible sourcing, and market requirements.
• Support product development and commercialization activities involving ingredient reviews, nutritional information, product claims, allergen declarations, and packaging compliance requirements.

Compliance, Regulatory & Product Integrity

• Develop contingency plans for critical products and suppliers, including alternate sources, facilities, formulations, packaging, capacity, geography, inventory exposure, and recovery timing.
• Identify and mitigate supplier, manufacturing, ingredient, packaging, regulatory, and logistics risks across the category.
• Evaluate supplier network vulnerabilities and develop mitigation strategies for critical business exposures.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead supplier and project workstreams across Merchandising, Product Design, Innovation, Product Integrity, Planning, Supply Chain, Logistics, and Finance.
• Communicate recommendations, risks, decisions, and project status effectively with stakeholders at multiple levels.
• Present supplier strategies, development recommendations, and commercialization plans to leadership and business partners.

Required Qualifications

• Progressive experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, supplier management, product development, commercialization, or category management.
• Significant experience sourcing and commercializing finished packaged snack foods, candy, confectionery, popcorn, or closely related food categories.
• Demonstrated ownership of supplier selection, strategic negotiations, vendor management, and commercialization activities from concept through launch.
• Demonstrated experience leading finished-product development and commercialization activities, including supplier engagement, specification development, sampling, packaging development, approvals, and production readiness.
• Proven record developing and executing category sourcing strategies, supplier roadmaps, and sourcing diversification initiatives.
• Strong understanding of packaged-food manufacturing, ingredients, formulation, packaging, labeling, allergens, shelf life, food safety, quality systems, and regulatory requirements.
• Experience partnering with Product Design, Innovation, Product Integrity, Quality Assurance, Food Safety, or related technical teams to bring products to market.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate supplier capabilities and manufacturing constraints and translate them into actionable product development recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple suppliers, products, commercialization timelines, and cross-functional priorities simultaneously.
• Strong financial acumen with experience evaluating costs, margins, commercial opportunities, and sourcing trade-offs.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, relationship-building, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require.
• Ability to meet current Central Florida on-site expectations.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Established relationships within snack, confectionery, popcorn, specialty food, co-manufacturing, and packaging supplier networks.
• Experience in retail, private brand, owned brand, or consumer packaged goods environments.
• Experience using PLM systems or comparable stage-gate product development processes.
• MBA or advanced degree in Business, Supply Chain, Food Science, Packaging Engineering, or a related field.

REQUIRED EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in Merchandising, Product Development/Design, Business, Supply Chain, or 7-10+ years of related experience.

This role is subject to current TWDC requirements including 4 days in-person presence on-site at a Company designated location in Central Florida. TWDC in-person requirements are subject to modification at any time.

The hiring range for this position in Florida is $100,100.00 to $134,200.00 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.