Junior Supply Chain Manager (m/f/d)

🚀 Are you a strategic thinker ready to dive into the operational core of one of Europe's fastest-growing pet food startups? 🐱💼 At The Better Cat , our mission is to revolutionise the pet food market — and we're doing this at high pace. We've already won the Fressnapf Innovation Award 2024 ! Our focus is the cat segment — the largest and fastest-growing category in pet food. You'll join our lean Supply Chain & Operations team, working directly with Lucia (Supply Chain Manager) and with direct access to the founders. Your mission: discover suppliers, run procurement, manage inventory, and automate the manual processes that don't scale — laying the groundwork as we expand beyond Germany. Aufgaben -------- Supplier Discovery & Procurement – Support supplier discovery for new co-manufacturing partners and ingredients, and run day-to-day procurement (POs, coordination, order follow-up). Inventory Management – Manage inventory levels across our co-manufacturer and logistics network to balance availability against working capital. Working Capital – Contribute to optimising working capital usage across the supply chain — stock levels, payment terms, order cadence. Automation of Manual Tasks – Eliminate repetitive processes across the supply chain using LLMs and no-/low-code tools like Claude and n8n . Qualifikation ------------- You'll be great at this if you… Have 0–2 years of professional experience in supply chain, procurement, buying, or operations. Have a strong academic background from a commercial or technical programme (e.g. Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Engineering, or similar). Speak fluent English. Are confident in Excel/Google Sheets — comfortable building and maintaining trackers, supplier data, and simple forecasts. Have some exposure to demand forecasting, inventory management, or ERP/warehouse-management systems — nice to have, not a dealbreaker. Have hands-on experience with AI and automation tools ( Claude, n8n , or similar) — you've actually built something, not just used the tools. Are comfortable picking up the phone to negotiate with suppliers and manage external partners. Are highly detail-oriented and structured — you love turning chaos into order. Have a growth mindset and want to take on more responsibility quickly. Benefits -------- 🤩 Learn from the best: Work alongside a super lean, experienced supply chain and operations team, with direct access to the founder. 🚀 Growth mode: Join one of Europe's fastest-growing pet food startups. 🏁 Meritocratic culture: Flat hierarchies, fast pace, and real ownership from day one. 🌍 Front-row seat to scale: Be part of expanding our operations beyond Germany. 🚌 Deutschland Ticket subsidy included. 💪 EGym Wellpass subsidy included. 🐾 Ready to make the world better for cats? Send us your CV along with a few lines on why you want to join The Better Cat — we'll get back to you quickly to set up a first conversation.