Overview

The Senior Category Manager, Food & Beverage is responsible for leading enterprise-wide category strategy across food, beverage, and related supplier partnerships. This role drives total value creation—balancing cost optimization, quality, service, risk management, sustainability, and revenue enablement—while supporting diverse operating models across venues and regions. This leader partners closely with Operations, Culinary, Finance, Legal, and Commercial teams to build scalable, compliant, and high-performing supplier ecosystems that support growth, guest experience, and long-term enterprise value. This role embodies Procurement with a Purpose: building high-performing supplier partnerships that elevate operational performance, protect the brand, and deliver measurable enterprise value. The ideal candidate will bring deep sourcing expertise, strong leadership, and a collaborative mindset to transform procurement into a strategic business partner.

This role pays an annual salary of $150,000-$170,000 and is bonus eligible.

Benefits for Full-Time roles: Health, Dental and Vision Insurance, 401(k) Savings Plan, 401(k) matching, and Paid Time Off (vacation days, sick days, and 11 holidays)

This position will remain open until June 5, 2026.

Responsibilities

Category Strategy & Enterprise Value Creation

• Own and execute multi-year Food & Beverage category strategies aligned to business growth, venue needs, and market dynamics
• Lead category segmentation (e.g., broadline distribution, protein, beverage, alcohol, non-alcoholic, disposables, specialty/local suppliers)
• Identify and deliver value across cost savings, revenue opportunities, sponsorship alignment, and service and product performance improvements
• Balance global/national leverage with local flexibility to support diverse venue requirements
• Develop and maintain sourcing and category policies, playbooks, and contract templates.
• Lead major RFPs, contract negotiations, and supplier selection in collaboration with business stakeholders and legal.

Strategic Sourcing & Commercial Leadership

• Lead complex sourcing initiatives including RFPs, negotiations, and supplier selection
• Develop negotiation strategies that address pricing, service levels, inflation protection, and risk mitigation
• Ensure sourcing strategies align with governance, compliance, regulatory requirement, and financial controls

Supplier Partnership & Performance Management

• Build and manage strategic supplier relationships, including broadline distributors, beverage partners, and specialty suppliers
• Monitor supplier performance, including cost, service, quality, and compliance, and develop supplier improvement initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement across service, fill rates, pricing accuracy, and innovation
• Support supplier risk management, contingency planning, and continuity of supply

Stakeholder Partnership & Influence

• Serve as a trusted advisor to Operations, Culinary, Venue Leadership, and Finance
• Translate operational needs into scalable sourcing strategies
• Influence without authority in a highly matrixed, fast-paced environment
• Drive adoption of preferred suppliers and contracts through collaboration and change management
• Partner with Finance, Risk, and Legal to manage contractual risk and compliance.

Supplier Inclusion, Sustainability & Purpose

• Advance supplier inclusion goals by identifying, onboarding, and scaling diverse and local suppliers
• Partner with internal teams to align Food & Beverage sourcing with sustainability, ESG, and community impact objectives
• Ensure supplier data, certifications, and reporting support transparency and compliance

Financial & Data Leadership

• Own category spend analytics, savings tracking, and financial validation
• Partner with Finance on rebate tracking, accruals, and incentive management
• Leverage procurement technology (e.g., Coupa) to enhance visibility, automate workflows, and enable data-driven decisions.
• Track and report on sourcing savings, pipeline, and category performance to executive leadership.
• Continuously evaluate and improve category management and sourcing tools, scorecards, and metrics.

Procurement Transformation Enablement

• Support enterprise procurement transformation initiatives, including process standardization and digital enablement
• Champion best practices in category management, sourcing, and supplier governance
• Contribute to a high-performance, values-driven procurement culture

Additional ad-hoc responsibilities will be needed as the program grows and matures, list above is not exhaustive.

Qualifications

Required Attributes:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, or related field.
• 4–6+ years of experience in strategic sourcing or category management, with significant Food & Beverage exposure.
• Proven experience leading category strategies and sourcing across complex, multi-site or enterprise sourcing initiatives.
• Strong commercial, financial, and negotiation acumen with deep negotiation and contract management skills, with experience managing complex, high-value agreements.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive adoption in decentralized environments.
• Experience with procurement platforms (g., Coupa), supplier diversity, ESG initiatives, and procurement-driven innovation.

Preferred Attributes:

• Passion for live entertainment, culinary innovation, and venue experience.
• Experience balancing national programs with local supplier needs.
• Strategic thinker with a bias for execution and results.
• Data-Driven Decision Making.
• Supplier Relationship Management.

Travel Requirements

• This position may travel up to 50% of the time