Associate Director for Indirect Procurement

Leprino Foods’ history dates to over 65 years ago, when the Leprino family first started making small batches of mozzarella for local markets and eateries in Denver. We’ve grown a bit since then. Today, we are the largest manufacturer of mozzarella and lactose in the world, and a leading producer of whey protein. Still owned by the Leprino family, we’ve set our sights to become the “World’s Best Dairy Food and Ingredient Company.”

For our Denver, CO corporate headquarters we are seeking an Associate Director - Indirect Procurement on our Procurement team to help us achieve the growth needed to continue moving our organization to even larger levels!

* Manage a group of Sourcing and Procurement Managers. * Set priorities for team in alignment with overarching business priorities. * Lead the processes for performance management, developing employees and engagement. * Establish goal and objectives that meet or exceed targets in areas like value delivery, supplier relationship management, etc. * Lead a team responsible for managing indirect procurement spend for the company, including, MRO, sanitation, energy, corporate materials, and services, construction and capital equipment purchases. * Lead the development of annual budget standard costs for energy and sanitation chemicals and monitors on-going variances. * Oversee the category management and capital procurement activities across the enterprise. * Provide market knowledge, thought leadership, reporting, and proposed recommendations to proactively manage market based price risk. * Identify opportunities and recommends process changes to drive efficiencies through external benchmarking, development and deployment of policies and procedures for respective spend areas. * Anticipate potential issues that can affect the team and works to resolve before they become system wide issues. * Guide budget assumptions, manage resources to meet or exceed requirements in Value Commitment to Leprino Foods (Cost Savings and Cost Avoidance). * Act upon Supplier measurement and supplier feedback to enable industry leading quality performance. * Optimize working capital positions in the areas of inventory and payables. * Oversee the negotiation of favorable terms and conditions with equipment and construction services suppliers to enable timely project execution. * Lead and manage enterprise wide cross functional project teams determined by executive leadership to drive Leprino’s strategic initiatives.

**You Have (Minimum Qualifications):** * Bachelor's Degree in Economics, Business Management, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Operations, Engineering, or equivalent degree. * 10+ years of combined procurement and sourcing experience across indirect spend categories. * 2+ years of supervisory experience. * Experience in ERP systems. **We Hope You Also Have (Preferred Qualifications):** * 5+ years in the food industry experience. * MBA preferred. * SAP experience a plus. * Price risk management experience a plus.