Senior Category Manager

Overview

Brand:
Bagel Brands. Bagel Brands is the parent company for Einstein Bros. Bagels, Bruegger's Bagels, Noah's NY Bagels, and Manhattan Bagel. We believe in the bagel and its ability to bring people together. Our team works by a standard set of values and behaviors that aim to spread joy and happiness, create a welcoming guest experience, and foster a collaborative, friendly work environment.

The Senior Category Manager is responsible for leading category strategy and strategic sourcing for assigned direct spend categories across Bagel Brands. This role ensures the right products are sourced at the right cost, quality, and service levels to support business performance across all brands and channels. Partnering cross-functionally, the Senior Category Manager drives cost optimization, manages supplier performance and risk, supports innovation and new product initiatives, and provides data-driven insights to inform decision-making.

This role protects margins, ensures supply continuity, and supports the guest experience in alignment with Bagel Brands’ Mission, Vision, and Values.

Department:
Supply Chain

• Own end-to-end category strategy for assigned direct spend categories, including supplier strategy, risk management, cost optimization, and long-term planning.
• Manage approximately $80M in annual spend across a portfolio of 120+ SKUs, with a strong focus on critical categories such as bagels and proteins.
• Develop and maintain category roadmaps aligned to business priorities, innovation pipelines, and financial targets.
• Recommend sourcing strategies that balance cost, quality, reliability, scalability, and risk.

• Lead strategic sourcing initiatives, including RFPs/RFQs, supplier evaluations, negotiations, and contract execution.
• Negotiate complex agreements, including pricing structures, intellectual property safeguards, co-development arrangements, and robust contractual risk protections for the company.
• Conduct regular supplier business reviews, monitoring performance against quality, service, cost, and risk metrics.
• Develop and maintain supplier performance scorecards and drive corrective actions as needed.
• Establish contingency plans to mitigate supply risk, including sole-source exposure.

• Manage commodity risk through ongoing market monitoring, benchmarking, and proactive mitigation strategies, including hedging where appropriate.
• Maintain and oversee the internal Cost of Goods model, ensuring accuracy and transparency.
• Partner closely with Finance to forecast inflation, model scenarios, and communicate cost impacts to leadership.
• Identify and execute year-over-year cost savings initiatives while maintaining quality and service standards.

• Partner with R&D, Marketing, Operations, and Quality to source products for LTOs, new concepts, and menu innovation.
• Support new product development and commercialization by identifying supply options, assessing risk, and recommending sourcing approaches.
• Communicate leading indicators, market trends, and external factors that may impact cost, supply, or risk to internal stakeholders.
• Ensure supplier compliance with Bagel Brands’ quality, regulatory, and certification requirements.

• Analyze spend, market data, and supplier performance to generate insights that inform strategy and leadership decisions.
• Provide concise, accurate, and actionable reporting to Supply Chain leadership and cross-functional partners.
• Identify opportunities to improve sourcing processes, tools, and ways of working to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in strategic sourcing or category management within a food, beverage, packaging, or restaurant environment.
• Strong experience with sourcing strategy development, supplier negotiations, and contract management.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects, timelines, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and financial acumen, with the ability to model cost impacts and interpret market data.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Detail-oriented with strong organizational and communication skills.
• Ability to…