Korn Ferry hiring Ingredients Buyer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States | LinkedIn (2024)

The Company

Our client is a leading Northeast family-owned food, agricultural products, and agricultural services organization headquartered in Pennsylvania. The Company offers animal nutrition and feeds; specialty protein production, processing, and marketing; on-farm protein production services; and grain, fertilizer, and ingredient procurement. The company recently expanded its footprint with the acquisitions of a premium protein processor and feed mill operations.

Today, our client supplies conventional and organic ingredients to animal feed manufacturers throughout the Northeast United States.

The Opportunity

Purpose of the Position

The ingredient buyer will be responsible for procuring (negotiation and procurement functions) and contracting (PO/Supplier contract reconciliation, negotiating/correcting inaccuracies on receipts/invoices) of vegetable and animal products and byproducts to satisfy feed demand. The expectation in this role will be to ensure the ingredient buying program maximizes returns while maintaining competitive pricing for our customers. This person will be responsible to ensure that company and customer risk management strategies are followed at all times.

Key Responsibilities

• Purchase ingredients with cost savings to prevailing market.
• Know seasonal and geographical market dynamics, risks.
• Forecast markets with consideration for historical trends.
• Anticipate supply-demand balance and shifts by knowing relative value spreads between alternative ingredients compared to major ingredients benchmarks.
• Predict and capture opportunities in future markets while limiting risk exposure.
• Understand truck freight costs and trends, evaluate rail opportunities.
• Purchase ingredients according to product quality specifications, manage vendor quality thru evaluations and audits; administer corrective actions as needed.
• Eliminate mill downtime, ensure products are on hand at mills thru effective communication with the Logistics Team.
• Responsible for the planning, selection and buying of ingredients.
• Identify and effectively execute on cost reduction opportunities and strategies.
• Build relationships with suppliers, maintain positive working relationships with each Mill team.
• Issue POs, manage and support any sales invoicing, and ensure timely payment from customer.
• Be aware of and accountable to all supplier, risk and Nutrify general policies.
• Perform market research, competitor analysis, product evaluations and testing.
• Participate in monthly commodity purchasing and inventory-related meetings.
• Create ad hoc reports and presentations as requested.
• Sourcing strategy development & execution.
• Savings plan development & execution.
• Notify management team immediately with any purchasing challenges or discrepancies.
• Issue and monitor purchase orders, invoice purchases and insure timely payment for farmer suppliers.
• Create reports for the management team.
• Sourcing strategy development & execution.
• Savings plan development & execution.
• Develop KPIs to track P2P metrics and focus on continuous improvement.

The Candidate

Experience and Professional Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years’ experience as an Ingredient/Grain Buyer
• Knowledge of supply-demand economics.
• Ability to relate to needs of agri-business people.
• Ability to negotiate favorable contracts.
• Ability to develop mutual trust and satisfaction with vendors and customers.
• Ability to respect market directions and handle the pressure of market positions.
• Ability to work in a team environment.
• Requires solid organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Requires strong communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Experience with CBOT and related activities preferred.
• Strong analytical abilities, initiative and problem-solving skills necessary to adapt to a rapidly changing environment
• Creativity
• Ability to recognize future trends
• Excellent commercial and market awareness
• Confidence and presentation skills
• Ability to make decisions under pressure
• Negotiation skills

Education

BS Degree in Ag Business or related degree preferred.

Compensation (optional)

A competitive package will be offered to the final candidate.

SE# 510666124