Procurement Specialist – Perishable DTC Food & CPG

About the Company

We are an 8-figure food-as-medicine company with our own production kitchen, courier network, and national shipping programs. We serve busy, ambitious customers who pay for food that actually improves how they feel.

A few things that make this a different environment:

• Vertically integrated — in-house kitchen, logistics, and fulfillment, plus partners for farming and packaging. You see the full chain from vendor quote to a box at a customer's door.
• Profitable and disciplined — no growth-at-all-costs mindset. Tight unit economics and operational excellence.
• High bar, low drama — the team values clear thinking, data, accountability, and direct communication more than titles or politics.

About the Role

Your mission is to keep the right materials in the right places, at the right time and cost, with no preventable emergencies. You will manage weekly ordering and inventory for cold-chain and food packaging, support relationships with our warehouse and 3PL partners, and regularly re-benchmark the market so our pricing and specs improve over time.

This is a hands-on, spreadsheet-heavy role. There is no ERP. You will operate and improve a set of Google Sheets, trackers, and playbooks that need to be accurate, clean, and plug-and-play for backups.

What You Will Do

• Maintain par levels and weeks-of-cover for packaging SKUs (liners, ice packs, corrugate, jars, lids, labels, inserts) across HQ and 3PL.
• Place weekly and monthly POs on a clear cadence, with accurate lead times and delivery dates visible to ops and warehouse partners.
• Track inbound shipments, reconcile actual receipts with POs and vendor packing lists, and resolve mismatches with vendors and the warehouse.
• Coordinate with warehouse and 3PL partners on pallet counts, storage, photo/audit requests, and accessorial fees that impact true cost.
• Keep an up-to-date packaging cost model showing cost per order and per box each week, and understand what is driving any changes.
• Benchmark top-consuming SKUs at least twice per year, run simple RFQs, and build landed-cost comparisons to keep vendors honest.
• Help manage blanket POs and pallet-based storage logic to avoid tying up cash in dead inventory.
• Keep the procurement playbook and file catalog up to date so a new hire can learn the role from documentation and recordings, not from memory.
• Send a short daily written update summarizing what was ordered, what arrived, any issues, and risks in the next 2–4 weeks.

This Role Is a Good Fit If You Are

• 2–4 years into your career in procurement, purchasing, or supply chain, ideally with exposure to packaging or perishable products.
• Strong in Google Sheets or Excel and comfortable running operations without an ERP — MRP logic, PO logs, inventory trackers, simple cost models.
• Calm, structured, and reliable under pressure. You like checklists, repeatable routines, and catching issues before others see them.
• Direct and clear in writing — comfortable sending concise updates, asking pointed questions, and pushing for clarity with vendors and teammates.
• Naturally curious about how small operational decisions roll up into COGS, shipping economics, and margin.

This Role Is Not a Fit If You Are

• Looking for a stepping stone into marketing, product, or a purely strategic role. This is operational, detailed work.
• Uncomfortable owning an outcome end-to-end, including raising uncomfortable topics early with leadership or vendors.
• Sloppy with documentation, trackers, or follow-through. The system only works if the numbers are right and updated.

How We Work Together

• Remote-friendly with at least a few hours of overlap with Pacific Time for live calls and vendor coordination.
• You will work closely with the operations lead rebuilding procurement into a plug-and-play function with clear KPIs and playbooks.
• Direct access to leadership when needed — what you see and recommend on packaging and vendors directly affects margin and capacity planning.

How to Apply

Send an email that includes:

• A brief story (5–10 sentences) about a time you either prevented a stockout or reduced material/packaging cost in a measurable way. Include the numbers.
• A short description of a spreadsheet-based system you have owned (e.g. MRP, PO log, inventory tracker) — what it did, how it was structured, and how often you updated it.
• Your CV, current location, typical working hours, and overlap with Pacific Time.

Here's the core skill set for this role:

Technical Skills

• Google Sheets / Excel — PO logs, MRP logic, inventory trackers, cost models
• Purchase Order management — placement, tracking, reconciliation
• Vendor benchmarking & RFQ execution
• Landed cost analysis
• Par level and weeks-of-cover calculations
• 3PL and warehouse coordination
• Cold-chain and food packaging knowledge

Operational Skills

• Inbound shipment tracking and discrepancy resolution
• Blanket PO and pallet storage management
• Procurement playbook documentation
• Daily reporting and written updates
• Working without an ERP system

Soft Skills

• Detail-oriented and highly organized
• Calm and structured under pressure
• Clear and direct written communicator
• Ownership mentality — end-to-end accountability
• Proactive issue escalation
• Reliable follow-through on routines and checklists

Domain Knowledge

• Perishable / DTC food brands
• Packaging materials (corrugate, liners, ice packs, jars, lids, labels)
• COGS and unit economics awareness
• Supply chain fundamentals