Strategic Sourcing Manager in Toronto

Real Food for Real Kids (RFRK) is a growing company on a mission to make real food the standard rather than the exception. A 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.

We 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!

The Opportunity: As 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. You 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.

You 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.

If 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.

What You Will Bring to the Table:

• Portfolio Strategy and Discovery: Set 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.
• Commercial Sourcing and Value: Support 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.
• Partnerships and New Possibilities: Build trusted relationships across suppliers, growers, processors, distributors, GPOs, and co-manufacturers that open doors to standout products, ingredients, and partners.
• Data Decisions and Team Leadership: Turn 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.

Your Recipe for Success:

• Ten or more years of progressive strategic sourcing, procurement, or category-management experience in food manufacturing, foodservice, grocery, meal solutions, or a comparable environment.
• Deeply analytical and commercially sharp, you bring advanced total-cost and scenario modelling, contract and market analysis, and expert-level Excel or Google Sheets skills.
• At least three years of direct people leadership, including coaching, performance management, and developing employees for broader responsibility.
• You are a food-obsessed, high-energy relationship builder with strong industry connections and sound food quality and safety knowledge.

Physical Demands and Work Environment: Work 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).

Benefits & Savings Programs:

• Performance-based annual bonus
• Comprehensive benefits starting on Day 1, inclusive of a Health Spending Account and a Wellness Spending Account
• Competitive RRSP Matching program
• Family comes first! We offer parental leave top-up programs for new parents
• Access to virtual Healthcare Professionals through our 24/7 dedicated Employee Assistance Program
• Fuel your day with the healthy, delicious food we proudly make, served daily in our staff cafeteria
• Generous vacation time to support a healthy work-life balance
• Annual learning & development stipend to support your professional growth

Real 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.