Strategic Sourcing Manager

Food & Service Innovation

Strategic Sourcing Manager

Reports To: Director Food & Service Innovation

Direct Reports: Product Innovation Specialist, Product Innovation Coordinator

Job Status: Full Time, Permanent, Salaried

Work Hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 am–5:00 pm, with flexibility as required

Work Location: Hybrid (Onsite two to three times per week)

Compensation: $85,000-$90,000 commensurate with experience

About Real Food For Real Kids:

Real Food for Real Kids (RFRK) is a growing company on a mission to make real food the standard rather than the exception.

A multiple award-winning company recognized for excellence and innovation, we’re a leading healthy catering company for child care centres, schools and camps. RFRK proudly serves nutritious meals and snacks to thousands of children throughout the Greater Toronto & Hamilton Area every day. We’re well-positioned for growth into new markets and planning for significant expansion over the coming years.

We are looking for a food-obsessed, forward-thinking sourcing leader who hears 'we have always done it this way' and asks, 'how might we do it better?' If you are excited by the opportunity to make an immediate impact on the real-food landscape and help build what comes next for a mission-driven food company, keep reading to see if this rewarding role is right for you!

The Opportunity

As the Strategic Sourcing Manager at Real Food for Real Kids, you will shape and execute the strategy behind off-the-shelf food, raw ingredients for RFRK-made recipes and products, packaging, and white-label products made with external co-manufacturers.

You will connect culinary imagination with commercial strategy, creating sourcing plans and agreements that bring exciting new products to life, drive exceptional customer satisfaction, uphold our Real Food Promise, and align with RFRK's financial targets, KPIs, and strategic priorities.

You will challenge the status quo and look beyond the usual vendor list to hunt for standout ingredients, products, packaging ideas, and partners; support RFx processes and negotiations; evaluate the vendor landscape and develop optimized vendor-network strategies; and build decision-ready analysis for the Senior Leadership Team. The right answer may include distributors, GPOs, local suppliers, co-manufacturers, or direct sourcing - the goal is the mix that best drives cost improvement, client satisfaction, and operational efficiency. Supply Chain will lead daily purchasing, inventory, and operational continuity; you will bring the strategic category, market, and supplier lens.

If you bring an appetite for possibility, a nose for finding and adding value, and the drive to find a better way, this is your opportunity to make an immediate impact on the real-food landscape and help build what comes next.

What You Will Bring to the Table

Portfolio Strategy and Discovery

• Set bold, multi-year strategies across off-the-shelf food, raw ingredients, packaging, and white-label or co-manufactured products. Balance spend, culinary and quality needs, growth plans, market conditions, and operational fit - then challenge the status quo when a better path is possible.

• Turn recipe and product briefs, specifications, and forecasts into clear sourcing criteria and implementation plans. Think outside the box - sometimes literally - to find ingredients, products, packaging, and sourcing models that improve quality, value, or operational fit across direct, distributor, GPO, local, and co-manufacturing routes.

Commercial Sourcing and Value

• Support creative, well-structured RFx activity - including market scans, RFIs, RFQs, and RFPs - from supplier and co-manufacturer discovery through due diligence, evaluation, negotiation, recommendation, and implementation. Negotiate agreements covering pricing, indexation, minimums, lead times, service levels, quality, change control, renewal, and exit terms.

• Evaluate the current and future vendor landscape and develop optimized vendor-network strategies that balance cost, client satisfaction, quality, resilience, and operational efficiency. Build a Finance-validated savings and cost-avoidance pipeline using total-cost, should-cost, volume, mix, and scenario analysis; test the right mix of distributors, GPOs, local suppliers, co-manufacturers, direct sourcing, rebates, alternate specifications, contract structures, and supplier consolidation or diversification.

Partnerships and New Possibilities

• Build trusted relationships across suppliers, growers, processors, distributors, GPOs, and co-manufacturers that open doors to standout products, ingredients, and partners. Grow an imaginative, resilient network that creates value for our Real Food Promise and financial goals, including Ontario and smaller local suppliers.

• Bring a 'how might we' mindset to cross-functional work with Recipe Innovation, Product Innovation, Menu and Service Innovation, Quality Assurance, Production, Supply Chain, and Finance - moving ideas through culinary, food-safety, operational, and financial gates with clear handoffs.

• Bring market and relationship insight to Supply Chain-led risk and continuity planning. Surface alternate sources and strengthen resilience without compromising quality, value, client experience, or operational fit.

• Establish effective supplier lifecycle and transition practices across the sourcing portfolio, ensuring new suppliers, renewals, transitions, and exits are managed with clear accountability, appropriate risk mitigation, and cross-functional alignment.

Data Decisions and Team Leadership

• Turn complex data into clear action. Build advanced spreadsheet and business-intelligence analysis of spend, demand, price, yield, freight, rebates, total cost, commodity and inflation trends, and sourcing scenarios; create concise recommendations and investment cases that help the Senior Leadership Team see the trade-offs and choose boldly.

• Own sourcing KPIs, dashboards, governance, and decision tools so savings, cost avoidance, local spend, the sourcing pipeline, and portfolio health are measured credibly and acted on.

• Lead, coach, and develop the team with clear goals, candid feedback, accountability, and meaningful growth. Build a high-trust, high-energy team and the scalable processes needed for the function to grow.

Your Recipe for Success

• Ten or more years of progressive strategic sourcing, procurement, or category-management experience in food manufacturing, foodservice, grocery, meal solutions, or a comparable environment, with ownership across ingredients or raw materials, packaging, and finished or white-label products. Your track record could include GPO sourcing, co-manufacturer agreements, formal RFx processes, complex negotiations, and measurable savings.

• You understand food from the inside out - how raw ingredients perform in recipes, behave through preparation, cooking, chilling, freezing, and scaled production, and ultimately land on the plate. You understand how ingredient functionality, usable yield, moisture and purge loss, drained weight, wastage, scrape rates, and production efficiency affect quality, consistency, scalability, and total cost - helping RFRK source ingredients that deliver both delicious results and genuine value.

• Deeply analytical and commercially sharp, you bring advanced total-cost and scenario modelling, contract and market analysis, and expert-level Excel or Google Sheets skills. You turn complex inputs into clear models and compelling recommendations for senior leaders and are comfortable with ERP and business-intelligence tools.

• At least three years of direct people leadership, including coaching, performance management, and developing employees for broader responsibility.

• You are a food-obsessed, high-energy relationship builder with strong industry connections and sound food quality and safety knowledge. Equally comfortable with a spreadsheet, a supplier conversation, and a blank page, you ask smart questions, build trust quickly, and turn untested ideas into measurable results.

• Relevant post-secondary education or equivalent experience is required; a procurement designation and local-food sourcing experience are assets.

• Experience and confidence in ERP systems, Google Suite, Excel, project management software (eg. monday.com), AI tools and resources.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

Work takes place across office, production, warehouse, test-kitchen, and supplier environments. The role includes regular on-site work, occasional travel to supplier, farm, distributor, and manufacturing locations, time in refrigerated or frozen areas, and occasional lifting of samples or materials up to 23 kg (51 lbs). Some flexibility outside core hours may be required for production needs, supplier meetings, sourcing events, or urgent issues.

Working at RFRK comes with other perks too:

Benefits & Savings Programs

• Performance-based annual bonus

• Comprehensive benefits starting on Day 1, inclusive of a Health Spending Account and a Wellness Spending Account

• Competitive RRSP Matching program

• RESP Matching program for up to 2 children

• Family comes first! We offer parental leave top-up programs for new parents

• Access to virtual Healthcare Professionals through our 24/7 dedicated Employee Assistance Program

• Fuel your day with the healthy, delicious food we proudly make, served daily in our staff cafeteria

• Real Rewards for Great Work - Recognize your coworkers and receive peer shout-outs through our recognition platform, where points can be redeemed for gift cards

We Value Fresh Minds

• Generous vacation time to support a healthy work-life balance

• Eight Wellness Days each year, giving you the flexibility to rest, recharge, and take care of yourself
  
  

Continuous Growth

• Annual learning & development stipend to support your professional growth

• Exciting career opportunities within a mission-driven organization

• Mentorship program designed to support your career development and long-term success

This position is being advertised because the role is currently vacant and requires staffing. As required under Ontario’s employment-standards regulations, this publicly advertised posting is for an existing vacancy. Interested applicants are welcome to submit their application for consideration.

To apply, please upload your résumé and optional cover letter, including salary expectations, explaining why you’d be a great fit for this role. If you meet almost all of the requirements and are not sure if you should apply, apply anyway! We may see something special in your application that sets you apart from the rest.

Real Food for Real Kids is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and inclusion in our workplace and at all levels of our organization. We strongly encourage applications from diverse backgrounds and communities.

We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

No phone calls, emails or drop in visits, please. We’ll contact applicants who fit the bill, and invite them in for an interview.

We appreciate the interest from the Staffing industry however respectfully request no calls or unsolicited resumes from Agencies.

Please note: As part of our recruitment process, we use automated tools and artificial intelligence technologies to assist with application review. These tools are used to support, not replace, the hiring team’s evaluation of your qualifications and fit for the role.

Thanks for your interest in Real Food for Real Kids!

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