SENIOR BUYER
Dessert Holdings is the leading premium dessert company in the world. We craft artisanal, scratch-made desserts at scale, combining culinary innovation with the finest real ingredients. With a rich heritage spanning seven distinctive brands, we bring unmatched expertise and tailored solutions to our Retail and Foodservice partners.
The Senior Buyer is responsible for end-to-end purchasing execution and supply continuity for the Aurora and Pembroke bakeries. This role translates production plans and demand signals into timely, accurate purchasing decisions across raw materials, ingredients, packaging, and other production-critical items. The Senior Buyer owns supplier follow-up, inventory and working-capital discipline, purchase order accuracy, and proactive risk management while partnering closely with plant operations, production planning, warehousing, quality, R&D, commercialization, finance, and procurement leadership. The role is expected to independently resolve complex supply issues, improve buying processes, and deliver measurable service, cost, inventory, and supplier-performance results across both bakery locations. The Senior Buyer also leads cross-functional teams and projects, conducts proactive supply-risk assessments, and communicates constraints, business impacts, recommended actions, and required decisions clearly and effectively to operational and leadership stakeholders.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Manage purchasing and material availability for assigned categories supporting the Aurora and Pembroke bakeries.
- Create, maintain, and monitor purchase orders in Microsoft Dynamics 365, ensuring accurate pricing, quantities, delivery schedules, and supplier documentation.
- Analyze production demand, inventory levels, supplier lead times, order constraints, and warehouse capacity to make effective replenishment decisions.
- Proactively identify, communicate, and resolve supply risks, including shortages, late deliveries, quality issues, transportation challenges, and supplier constraints.
- Partner with Production, Operations, Warehouse, Quality, and Procurement teams to ensure uninterrupted material flow and support production schedules.
- Develop and execute recovery plans for supply disruptions, clearly communicating risks, impacts, timelines, and recommended actions to stakeholders.
- Monitor supplier performance and drive improvements in on-time delivery, responsiveness, order accuracy, and corrective actions.
- Support sourcing initiatives, supplier transitions, new product commercialization, specification changes, and contingency planning efforts.
- Lead procurement-related projects from initiation through completion, including material substitutions, inventory reduction initiatives, process improvements, and shortage recovery efforts.
- Balance customer service requirements with inventory optimization goals, including working capital, inventory turns, shelf-life management, and warehouse utilization.
- Analyze demand, inventory, and supplier performance data to improve material planning, purchasing efficiency, and operational performance.
- Identify and implement cost savings, waste reduction, freight optimization, and process improvement opportunities.
- Resolve purchasing, receiving, invoicing, and pricing discrepancies in collaboration with suppliers, plant teams, and Accounts Payable.
- Maintain accurate purchasing, supplier, inventory, and material master data while developing reports and performance metrics to support decision-making.
- Serve as a key procurement contact for supported bakery locations, driving consistent processes, strong stakeholder partnerships, and continuous improvement.
- Provide guidance and share best practices with cross-functional partners while leading initiatives that require collaboration across multiple teams.
- Travel to bakery and supplier locations as needed to support business objectives.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS
- Bachelor's degree in supply chain management, business administration, operations, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant experience considered.
- 5+ years of progressive experience in purchasing, materials planning, inventory management, supply chain, or procurement operations; experience supporting multiple manufacturing sites preferred.
- Food manufacturing, CPG, bakery, ingredients, packaging, or another regulated manufacturing environment strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to independently manage purchase orders, supplier performance, lead-time risk, inventory coverage, and production-support priorities.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to turn demand, inventory, open-PO, and supplier data into timely purchasing actions.
- Working knowledge of working capital, inventory turns, aging and obsolescence, minimum order quantities, shelf life, freight, and warehouse-capacity trade-offs.
- Proven ability to lead through supply disruptions, communicate recovery plans, and influence suppliers and cross-functional partners without direct authority.
- Demonstrated experience performing supply-chain risk assessments, identifying vulnerabilities early, evaluating business impact, developing mitigation strategies, and escalating critical risks appropriately.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex supply-chain issues into clear, concise, decision-oriented updates for operational and executive audiences.
- Strong project-management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities, owners, deadlines, dependencies, and changing business requirements across two manufacturing locations.
- Experience with ERP systems required; Microsoft Dynamics 365 experience strongly preferred.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel; experience with Power BI or similar reporting and visualization tools is a plus.
- Ability to travel to bakery and supplier locations as needed.
About Dessert Holdings
Dessert Holdings is a collection of premium dessert companies and brands: The Original Cakerie, Lawler’s Desserts, Atlanta Cheesecake Company, Steven Charles, Dianne’s Fine Desserts, Kenny’s Great Pies, and Willamette Valley Pie Company. Dessert Holdings is owned by Bain Capital, is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, employs more than 3,500 people across ten manufacturing facilities, and is continuing its journey of rapid growth.
EEO Statement
Dessert Holdings and its related entities provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or any other characteristics protected by law.