VP/Director of Procurement Candidate

SEEKING A ROLE AS: VP/Director of Procurement for a mid-to-large-sized food manufacturing company in Ingredients or Consumer Packaged Foods

IN LOCATION: Currently living in St. Louis, Missouri. While not open to relocation, the candidate is fully able to travel domestically and internationally as needed. Open to on-site St. Louis role, hybrid, or remote roles.

SKILLS & ACHIEVEMENTS:
Senior Procurement and Supply Chain Executive with extensive experience transforming complex manufacturing environments into efficient, growth-focused organizations that strengthen profitability, cash flow, and competitive advantage.
Recognized for establishing scalable operating models, procurement governance, and organizational discipline while delivering measurable financial and operational results. Proven success leading global sourcing, category management, procurement transformation, and supplier partnerships across multi-site food manufacturing operations with annual spend exceeding $70M.

Brings deep expertise in food ingredients, international sourcing, contract negotiations, supplier risk management, and procurement operations to secure supply continuity and protect margins during market volatility. Trusted advisor to executive leadership, aligning procurement strategies with innovation, commercialization, sustainability, and long-term business objectives while developing high-performing teams and optimizing supply networks to accelerate growth.

Key Skills & Highlights:
• Spearheaded category management, strategic sourcing, supplier negotiations, and spend optimization initiatives that delivered 7% annual cost reductions, plus more than $900K in savings through cross-company collaborations.
• Developed and empowered an integrated Purchasing team leading to comprehensive sourcing and implementation of procurement governance processes contributing to a 5% increase in on-time, in-full performance (OTIF).
• Partnered with Sales, Innovation, Regulatory, R&D, and Operations teams to source 30 to 100 new ingredients annually, accelerating commercialization of customized applications for nutritional bars, cereals, confectioneries, and snack products which enabled $1M – $2M each year in new annual sales
• Served on the Senior Leadership Team, achieving a 97% employee engagement score, and launching a new ingredient product category generating >$700K sales revenue in FY26 and expected to grow to >$2MM sales revenue by FY28.
• Established global supply chain infrastructure by partnering with Quality and Regulatory teams to implement food safety standards, and developing supplier risk mitigation programs
• Successfully navigated major supply chain disruptions including COVID-19, global tariff actions, and the West Coast port strike as well as other supplier and industry disruptions
• Led the procurement launch and system integration of Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP

EDUCATION:
MBA, University of Missouri- St. Louis
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri- Columbia

COMPENSATION: Base salary expectation is in the range of $250,000, with incentives, depending on the scope of responsibilities and location considerations.

If you are interested in speaking with this Procurement leader who:
• Is a proven leader who has delivered results in cost reduction, improved company profitability and working capital, as well as enabling growth in new products and revenue
•Coaches, develops and empowers skilled procurement teams, productive and effective supplier relationships and strong multi-functional internal relationships
• Is excited for the opportunity to drive continuous improvement and creative problem-solving to optimize the supply management function for a food manufacturing company with the goal of increased customer satisfaction and sustainable business results…then,
Contact:
Joe Sommerfeldt
joes@kinsa.com
Worksite Preference:Onsite, Remote, Hybrid Onsite/Remote Combination
Employment Preference:Permanent, Board