Senior Buyer

Salary up to : Competitive Reporting to : Head of Buying Base Location Putney (Hybrid - office based 3 days a week) About the role : Nando’s is on a journey of Changing Lives Together, creating lasting happiness for our people, our customers and the communities we work in. Originally started in Johannesburg, South Africa, we pride ourselves on creating memorable experiences for everyone involved in Nando’s : from our employees, communities, founders, and suppliers, but most importantly, our customers. The Supply Chain Team play a crucial role in helping to deliver the Nando’s strategic goals through providing a robust and stable supply chain, improving gross profit and margin, and addressing risk. This team is responsible for developing strategies to ensure we source products and services that we are proud of to support running restaurants brilliantly and enable our central support teams. Main purpose of the role : To directly lead the fresh produce buying category and lead and manage 2 buyers for other product categories, to ensure robust supply, competitive terms, innovation, supplier capacity to meet business growth and sustainable sourcing. To develop valued supplier relationships with all fresh produce suppliers and strategic suppliers within the sub-team to ensure supplier relationship management and performance management is applied robustly. To lead and manage a sub-team of 2 buyers, ensuring the right balance of support, development, challenge and performance. Key Responsibilities & Expectations : To support the Head of Buying to establish the buying strategy for fresh produce and other buying categories within the sub-team, to ensure robust and consistent supply, competitive terms with our suppliers, a supplier base plan for innovation, sustainability, animal welfare and capacity for growth. To be proactive in sharing the buying strategy with key internal stakeholders and achieving support and alignment with them, and then be responsible for the execution of that strategy. To work closely with the Demand Planning Manager and Supply Chain Manager to ensure full availability of product from our suppliers and take ownership for resolving shortfalls and service issues as they arise. This can involve being available out of normal working to resolve such issues. To work very closely with the customer, food and technical teams to identify new and existing product development opportunities and to lead the development of suppliers and sourcing of products to meet the NPD / EPD process requirements and support the launch process by ensuring our suppliers and products are ready to launch in full and on time. To ensure the buyers in the sub-team identify, develop, source and support the same for their buying categories. To provide updates and information to the Head of Buying on NPD / EPD activity and other projects to enable them to update and align senior stakeholders and report on progress at stage gate process meetings. To manage all tendering activity and contract negotiations, renewals, drafting for submission and approval for fresh produce, and oversee the same for the other buying categories in the sub-team. To develop valued supplier relationships with and ensure supplier relationship management and performance management is applied including leading scorecard reviews. To drive a strong sustainability and animal welfare agenda across all fresh produce suppliers, working closely with the Sustainability and Agriculture Managers. To utilise advanced commodity modelling techniques to forecast market trends, optimize procurement strategies, and mitigate cost volatility across key food categories. To support Nando’s Southern Africa sourcing plan. To lead and manage the buyer and buying assistant in the team, developing their technical skills and knowledge, set targets and monitor KPIs, create development and succession plans and provide continuous feedback and coaching. Key Stakeholders : This role will touch into many different parts of the business, including : Internal : Nando’s UK and Ireland Leadership Team. Supply Chain team – across all specialists and levels. Food innovation team. OperationsTeam. Customer team particularly brand and brand communications and food marketing. Legal. Nando’s Group leadership team. External : Suppliers. Distributors. Professional, NGOs & industry bodies. The candidate should possess / be : A demonstrable and thorough understanding of food buying in a multi-site organisation with fast moving products. 8+ years' experience in a buying role within a large, multi-site organisation. Proven track record of leading a small buying team to deliver excellent results and positive stakeholder relationships. Gravitas, strong influencing skills and ability to engage and build positive relationships with stakeholders. Ability to lead cross functional projects, particularly with food innovation, technical and supply chain teams. Inspiring Others, Customer Focus, Personal Integrity, Drive, Team Working, Developing Self / Others, Analysing & Decision Making, Managing Performance, Managing Change, Gaining Commitment, Commercial Acumen. Demonstrate and encourage behaviours that foster the Nando’s values of Pride, Passion, Courage, Integrity & Family. Our candidate should be looking for : A culture with strong purpose & values, intent on contributing to / driving positive cultural and societal change. An opportunity to define and lead supply chain and logistics strategy. Implement and lead a variety of projects in a business which encourages creativity and innovation rather than a set approach. An environment which is relaxed and informal, whilst highly driven and ambitious A business that seeks to support every employee to be at their best and encourage individuality. This summarises the key responsibilities of your role but there may be other reasonable requests and additional responsibilities required on an ad-hoc basis. #LI-DNI #J-18808-Ljbffr