Senior Procurement Manager in Sumner, Washington at MiLa

About MiLa

MìLà is a Chinese food company. Our teams work tirelessly to enhance delicious products that we all enjoy at home! While MìLà is a Chinese food brand, it’s really a celebration of the power of food to bring us together, share our stories, and discover new flavors and cultures.

Our mission is to build something that feels authentically and uniquely true to our roots as a Chinese-American-founded brand. Something we can own, but that’s also meant to be shared. One of the things we love about Chinese food is that it’s traditionally served family-style—shared with everyone gathered at the table. MìLà is a Chinese food brand, but it’s really a celebration of the power of food to bring us together, share our stories, and discover new flavors and cultures.

Core Values

Explore our core values here: https://eatmila.com/pages/careers

Job Summary
This role owns end-to-end procurement and supply of all raw materials, packaging, and contract manufactured existing products, ensuring the business has the right materials at the right time, cost, and quality. This is not a transactional purchasing role. This role is accountable for supplier ownership, procurement decision-making, cost management, and purchasing discipline. The role serves as the gatekeeper of purchasing.

Scope & Ownership Model

• Ownership begins immediately after the first PO is placed for all raw, packaging, and contract manufactured items
• • Own supplier relationship
  • Own cost, terms, and performance
  • Own forecasting alignment and replenishment
  • Own all future purchasing decisions
  • Owns all existing raw, packaging materials, & co-manned items.

Core Responsibilities

• End-to-End Procurement Ownership
• • Own all purchasing decisions for existing raw materials, packaging, and contract manufactured goods across the business
  • • Existing is defined as items after initial PO
  • Ensure materials are procured, at the right quantity, time, and cost
  • Maintain full visibility into demand, supply, and inventory positions
• Purchasing Gatekeeper
• • Act as the final decision-maker before any PO is placed
  • Do not execute POs based solely on inputs from Planning/S&OP or Project Management
  • Validate every purchase by asking: ▪
  • • Does the quantity align with demand and current inventory?
    • Is the timing appropriate?
    • Is there an opportunity to consolidate, delay, or optimize?
    • Is this the best supplier and price available? •
  • Supplier Ownership & Commercial Management
  • • Fully own supplier relationships post-onboarding
    • Negotiate pricing, MOQs, lead times and payment terms
    • Continuously benchmark suppliers and identify cost-saving opportunities
    • Hold suppliers accountable to service, quality, and delivery expectations
• Cost & Savings Accountability
• • Identify and execute cost savings across materials and packaging
  • Regularly review:
  • • Price changes
    • Market trends
  • Parter with Finance to understand COGS impacts
  • Proactively communicate cost increases, supply risks, and market changes cross-functionally, while driving mitigation plans through supplier negotiations, alternate sourcing, packaging optimization, MOQ adjustments, or specification changes
• Planning & SIOP Alignment (Not subordination)
• • Partner with SIOP lead to understand demand signals
  • Translate demand into optimized purchasing decisions
  • Push back when plan
  • • Creates excess inventory
    • Drives inefficient ordering
    • Increases costs unnecessarily
• Inventory & Working Capital
• • Manage inventory levels to balance:
  • • Service levels
    • Storage costs
    • Working Capital
  • Avoid
  • • Overstocking
    • Emergency buys
    • Inefficient MOQ-driven inventory
• Execution & Process Ownership
• • Ensure accurate POs creation, tracking, and delivery
  • Resolve discrepancies with vendors and accounting
  • Maintain clean audit ready procurement records
  • Improve procurement processes and systems over time
• Reporting & Analytics
• • Develop and maintain a rolling 13-week inventory cash forecast, providing visibility into upcoming purchasing-related cash outflows
  • Track and report Weeks of Supply (WOS) across all raw materials, packaging, and co-manned items.
  • • Identify and flag excess, at-risk, and understocked inventory
  • Maintain a regular report of obsolete and slow-moving inventory (raw & packaging)
  • • Proactively escalate cross functionally to determine next steps
  • Track and report purchase price trends over time, highlighting variances and cost drivers
  • Develop and maintain supplier scorecards (OTIF, quality, reliability, etc.) and actively leverage insights in supplier negotiations
  • Report on PO accuracy, reactive/emergency purchasing, and MOQ-driven XCJ Corp DBA MìLà Page 3 of 3 inefficiencies, including root cause identification
  • Provide consistent reporting cadence across Finance, Planning, and Operations, clearly communicating risks, opportunities, and required decisions

Success Metrics

• Maintain optimal WOS for existing items
• Deliver measurable cost savings and cost avoidance
• Improve supplier performance (OTIF, quality, reliability)
• Reduced reactive and expedited purchasing
• Maintain an accurate 13-week cashflow forecast

What you'll have

• 8+ years of relevant experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, materials management, or supply chain, ideally within food, beverage, or CPG manufacturing.
• Availability to take occasional evening calls with offshore vendors in different time zones
• Demonstrated ownership of supplier relationships and commercial negotiations, including pricing, MOQs, lead times, payment terms, and supplier performance.
• Proven track record of delivering measurable cost savings, cost avoidance, and COGS improvements through strategic sourcing and supplier negotiations.
• Experience managing raw materials, packaging, and contract-manufactured products, including replenishment planning, inventory optimization, and supply continuity.
• Strong analytical and financial skills, with experience managing weeks of supply, working capital, purchase price variances, and inventory or purchasing cash-flow forecasts.
• Proficiency with ERP/MRP systems, advanced Excel, and cross-functional collaboration with Finance, Planning/S&OP, Quality, and Operations.
• Bonus: Fluency in Mandarin Chinese, spoken and written, for communicating directly with our vendors

Why Should You Join Us?

• Comprehensive health coverage including medical, dental, and vision insurance. MiLa covers 75% of employee premiums & 25% of dependent premiums
• Optional Extra Protection for Life & AD&D (with guarantee issue amounts at time of hire), Hospital, and Short Term Disability
• Invest in your Future - 401(k) plan to help with your long-term financial security

See other openings at MiLa here: https://eatmila.com/pages/careers