Food Category Manager

Food Category Manager
Oakland, CA (onsite)
6 to 12 months contract role
Upto 15% travel
Perm Role

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years of experience in strategic sourcing, category management, supply chain management, foodservice procurement, food distribution, hospitality procurement, or related commercial procurement experience.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing category strategies, leading complex sourcing initiatives, and negotiating enterprise-wide supplier agreements.
• Demonstrated experience building strategic partnerships and leading cross-functional stakeholder engagement across decentralized organizations. Proven ability to influence without authority, facilitate consensus among diverse stakeholders, and navigate complex organizational environments while balancing operational priorities with enterprise objectives
• Experience managing complex supplier relationships and delivering measurable value through cost optimization, service improvements, supplier innovation, sustainability, and operational excellence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum 4 years of experience in one or more of the following:
• Foodservice distribution
• Dining services procurement
• Hospitality procurement
• Higher education dining
• Healthcare foodservice
• Large institutional food procurement
• Experience leading large-scale food distribution or dining services RFPs.
• Experience working with national food distributors such as Sysco, US Foods, Performance Food Group (PFG), Gordon Food Service, UNFI, Core-Mark, or similar organizations.
• Experience utilizing Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) such as E&I, OMNIA, Vizient, Premier, Entegra, or other cooperative purchasing organizations.
• Experience working within a decentralized, multi-stakeholder organization.

Skills and Abilities

• Category Expertise
• Demonstrated high level of category expertise in Food Services, Food Distribution, Hospitality, Dining Services, Grocery, or Institutional Food Procurement.
• Ability to serve as a trusted advisor to Dining Directors, Procurement leaders, Auxiliary Services, Hospitality leaders, and executive stakeholders.
• Experience developing and implementing long-term category strategies that extend beyond traditional sourcing to include supplier relationship management, category governance, business engagement, sustainability, supplier diversity, innovation, and measurable value realization.