{"id":2696047,"url":"https://alion.io/job/rfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager","title":"Strategic Sourcing Manager","company":{"id":3221943,"name":"Real Food For Real Kids","domain":"rfrk.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/rfrk-com","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Dayforce","truth_index":null},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Toronto, Canada"],"countries":["CA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":85000,"max":90000,"currency":"CAD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":63421},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Google Sheets","optional":false},{"name":"Monday.com","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-13T04:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-16","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T16:59:38Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":6,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":6},"description":"Strategic Sourcing Manager\n\nReports To: Director Food & Service Innovation \nDirect Reports: Product Innovation Specialist, Product Innovation Coordinator\nJob Status: Full Time, Permanent, Salaried\nWork Hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 am–5:00 pm, with flexibility as required\nWork Location: Hybrid (Onsite two to three times per week)\nCompensation: $85,000-$90,000 commensurate with experience\n\nAbout Real Food For Real Kids:\nReal Food for Real Kids (RFRK) is a growing company on a mission to make real food the standard rather than the exception.\n\nA 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.\n\nWe 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!\nThe Opportunity\nAs 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. \nYou 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. \nYou 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.\nIf 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.\n\nWhat You Will Bring to the Table\nPortfolio Strategy and Discovery\nSet 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.\nTurn 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.\nCommercial Sourcing and Value\nSupport 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.\nEvaluate 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.\n\nPartnerships and New Possibilities\nBuild 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.\nBring 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.\nBring 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.\nEstablish 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.\nData Decisions and Team Leadership\nTurn 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.\nOwn 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.\nLead, 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.\n\nYour Recipe for Success\nTen 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.\nYou 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.\nDeeply 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.\nAt least three years of direct people leadership, including coaching, performance management, and developing employees for broader responsibility. \nYou 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. \nRelevant post-secondary education or equivalent experience is required; a procurement designation and local-food sourcing experience are assets.\nExperience and confidence in ERP systems, Google Suite, Excel, project management software (eg. monday.com), AI tools and resources.\nPhysical Demands and Work Environment\nWork 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.\n\nWorking at RFRK comes with other perks too:\n\nBenefits & Savings Programs\nPerformance-based annual bonus \nComprehensive benefits starting on Day 1, inclusive of a Health Spending Account and a Wellness Spending Account \nCompetitive RRSP Matching program\nRESP Matching program for up to 2 children\nFamily comes first! We offer parental leave top-up programs for new parents \nAccess to virtual Healthcare Professionals through our 24/7 dedicated Employee Assistance Program \nFuel your day with the healthy, delicious food we proudly make, served daily in our staff cafeteria\nReal Rewards for Great Work - Recognize your coworkers and receive peer shout-outs through our recognition platform, where points can be redeemed for gift cards\n\nWe Value Fresh Minds\nGenerous vacation time to support a healthy work-life balance\nEight Wellness Days each year, giving you the flexibility to rest, recharge, and take care of yourself\nContinuous Growth\nAnnual learning & development stipend to support your professional growth \nExciting career opportunities within a mission-driven organization\nMentorship program designed to support your career development and long-term success \nThis 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.\n\nTo 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.\n\nReal 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.\n\nWe welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.\n\nNo phone calls, emails or drop in visits, please. We’ll contact applicants who fit the bill, and invite them in for an interview.\nWe appreciate the interest from the Staffing industry however respectfully request no calls or unsolicited resumes from Agencies.\n\nPlease 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.\n\nThanks for your interest in Real Food for Real Kids!\n\nCopyright © 2026 Real Food for Real Kids, All rights reserved.","description_format":"text","description_chars":11628,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":3,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Cafeteria","Generous vacation","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Canada","iso":"CA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Supply Chain","Food & Beverages","Catering & Food Services","Food Safety"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-16T10:08:34Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":85,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.849,"p_room":1,"age_days":6,"expected_fill_days":22,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":63421,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/rfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/rfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-19T20:48:07Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":14,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3221943},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3221943"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Frfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Frfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Frfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/rfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Frfrk-strategic-sourcing-manager"}]}