Vendor Relations Manager for NOVA and Southern Virginia territories.

Are you passionate about healthy food for Schools?

Looking to join an exciting new business that believes in working with great people?

Work remotely from home!

You will develop and maintain relationships with 12 partners in NOVA, 12 in Richmond, 7 in Charlottesville, and 4 in VA Beach with daily/ weekly contact via phone, email and video conference with a personal visit at least once a month. Work out of home or in headquarters in Charlottesville.

Core hours are 8:30 am-4:30 pm, M-F with flexibility to work additional hours as needed.

Estimated mileage per month depending on where you live is 600 miles.

This dynamic Charlottesville-based firm focused on providing healthier, tastier lunches to grade school students whose mission is simple: make healthy school lunches from local vendors easy, reliable, and cost-effective for parents. The firm curates the lunches from local vendors in each market, offering families the convenience of online ordering and delivery of fresh lunches daily to schools. Since launching a pilot in Charlottesville during the 2017/18 school year to great success, The firm has expanded to Richmond and Charlottesville as well as all over northern Virginia with more markets to come in 2019.

As the Head of Vendor Management, you will work with food producers, restaurants and caterers to develop and maintain vendor relationships across all of the firm’s markets. You will also have responsibility for overseeing daily vendor operations. Specifically, you will:

Develop and maintain Vendor Network; Develop and maintain relationships with existing vendor partners to ensure ongoing satisfaction and growth within the vendors. These include national restaurant chains, local restaurants, and caterers; Meet frequently with our vendors to ensure process and standard adherence, identify issues, and follow up on customer concerns; Garner feedback from vendors on operational improvement opportunities, expansion potential, and other feedback for the firm; Identify new vendors that meet the firm’s brand promise and initiate conversations with those vendors with the CEO or COO

You will manage the firm’s Menu / Menu Items and know the firm’s menu and menu items inside out to constantly be evaluating what we need, what could be better, etc.; Use data and analysis to evaluate the performance of specific lunches and vendors, and make informed recommendations on changes to our menus; Work with the firm’s Founder / CEO to refresh menu 1-2 times per year; Manage all menu item data in Google drive and in the backend of the website, including data uploads to the site; Develop and maintain quality control across all vendors and menu items; Develop, implement and maintain impeccable quality control around all vendors and menu items; Work with the CSR Manager to prioritize and implement quality control measures based on customer feedback – have an expert understanding of which menu items are working well, which are not; Oversee Daily Vendor Ops and understand and manage, alongside Market Managers, our daily delivery matrix – which vendor will be delivered to which school daily; Develop and implement, with Market Managers, best practices around food management for daily pick-up; Work with the COO on invoice reconciliation and payment management, including credit management with vendors

A successful candidate’s requirements should be a Bachelor’s Degree preferred; 5+ years working experience in food service, catering, restaurants and/or the hospitality industry. Experience in vendor or supply management, with preference for those with experience in restaurant or food vendor relationships; Passion for healthy food and a strong desire to improve health in our society through better food; Entrepreneurial mindset, flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity; Proven independent working style, with the ability and experience to build an organization and local business from the ground up; Proven relationship management skills across a broad network of vendor or supplier relationships; Experience working with data in spreadsheets, including basic analyses; Willingness to jump in and do what’s necessary to ensure the market is successful every day, including pickup and delivery, marketing events, material printing, etc.

$40,000-$50,000 base plus 0.35 cents a mile reimbursement and unlimited growth. Benefits, including health coverage will be offered as the company grows within the next 12 months..