Manager, Sourcing Prepared Foods & Bakery, Grocery Stores; WWGS

Description

The Manager, Sourcing Prepared Foods & Bakery serves as the product owner and internal champion for our WW Grocery Store Private Brand business. They will own categories such as Perishable foods that span prepared foods & bakery products. They will manage, develop, and improve the structural profitability of our private brand assortment across Amazon and WFM‑branded products. This role spans food categories with a supply chain serving all grocery channels, including WFM Stores, Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh Stores and online.

In this role, you will work backwards from customer needs to develop and execute a comprehensive sourcing strategy that delivers exceptional products while meeting financial guardrails and targets across all channels. The leader will manage a team of six and must be a passionate and effective people leader, trusted advisor for category teams across grocery channels, and subject‑matter expert in their categories.

The role also demands mastery of negotiation, as they own supplier/vendor partnerships and optimize those partnerships over time to meet customer needs.

This role will need to be an effective collaborator and owner, making decisive decisions across a varied multi‑functional team including product development, channel category merchandising, partner private brands teams, and our quality and commercialization functions.

• Own the end‑to‑end product lifecycle for assigned categories, working backwards from customer needs to develop a compelling product roadmap.
• Create and maintain detailed product requirement documents, PRFAQs, and six‑pagers to articulate product vision and strategy.
• Be a subject‑matter expert on their categories within the private‑labeling space, understanding the supplier landscape and optimizing our portfolio.
• Drive both new product creation and renovation of existing products to ensure the total portfolio is optimized to support business objectives.
• Identify opportunities to fill the innovation pipeline through customer insights, market research, and cross‑functional collaboration.
• Partner with Product Commercialization, R&D, Legal, and Quality Assurance to bring products to market efficiently while managing risk.
• Establish and track meaningful metrics to measure product performance and customer satisfaction.

• Own the P&L for your product portfolio, ensuring delivery of financial targets and growth objectives.
• Conduct weekly, monthly and quarterly business reviews with data‑driven insights and root cause analysis.
• Develop and maintain product dashboards with key performance indicators to track progress against goals.
• Understand the critical Ps of Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion working with partner teams to ensure products are brought to life effectively for our customers.
• Make data‑informed decisions by leveraging both qualitative and quantitative customer insights.
• Collaborate with North America Category Manager stakeholders across multiple teams on achieving financial plans and category objectives.

• Operate as a subject‑matter expert in your product category, including industry knowledge and supplier landscape.
• Develop and nurture strategic supplier partnerships to drive innovation and operational excellence.
• Implement supplier score carding and performance management systems to ensure quality, sustainability, and business outcomes.
• Champion Organics, Fair Trade, Animal Welfare, Sustainability and Quality Standards to advance the mission of Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh.
• Partner with Global Purchasing Teams, Distribution, and Regions to ensure alignment to category strategy.

• Drive packaging innovation that enhances customer experience while supporting sustainability goals.
• Influence product placement decisions through data‑driven insights and customer decision tree methodology.
• Collaborate with Pricing team to ensure products meet target price positions while maintaining margin requirements.
• Balance customer value proposition with profit targets to deliver on our Conscious Capitalism principles.