About Us:
Symrise is a global supplier of fragrances and flavors, cosmetic active ingredients as well as functional ingredients. Its customers include perfume, cosmetics, food and beverage manufacturers, the pharmaceutical industry and producers of dietary supplements and pet food.
With sales of around €5.0 billion in the 2025 financial year, the company is one of the world's leading providers. The Group, headquartered in Holzminden, Germany, has more than 100 locations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia, the USA and Latin America.
Together with its customers, Symrise develops new ideas and market-ready concepts for products that form an indispensable part of everyday life. Economic success and corporate responsibility are inextricably linked.
Symrise - always inspiring more...
About the Role:
Position Summary
The Procurement Director F&B NA will lead the regional procurement team and manage Direct Spend activities across North America. This role is responsible for translating global category strategies into regional execution, partnering closely with business stakeholders, driving savings and value creation, supporting innovation, and improving procurement process effectiveness across the region.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
1) Regional Procurement Leadership
- Lead and develop the NAM regional procurement team, building the right capabilities, ways of working, and accountability.
- Act as the key procurement business partner for NAM stakeholders across Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, R&D, Finance, and Commercial teams.
- Ensure regional procurement activities are aligned with business priorities, global category strategies, and enterprise objectives.
- Develop and execute NAM regional category strategy.
2) Global Category Strategy Implementation
- Support the implementation of global category strategies within NAM, ensuring regional execution, supplier alignment, and business adoption.
- Provide regional market insights, supplier intelligence, demand visibility, and operational input to global category teams.
- Collaborate with global category leaders to ensure NAM requirements are reflected in sourcing strategies, supplier decisions, and risk management plans.
3) Savings and Value Creation
- Identify, lead, and deliver regional savings projects across direct spend categories.
- Build and manage a strong pipeline of cost productivity, working capital, supply assurance, and value creation initiatives.
- Partner with Finance to validate savings, track delivery, and ensure benefits are reflected in business results.
4) Supplier Management and Innovation Support
- Manage key regional supplier relationships in alignment with global category direction.
- Support supplier-enabled innovation by connecting supplier capabilities with business and R&D needs.
- Drive supplier performance improvement, including quality, service, cost, resilience, and compliance.
5) P2P Process and Operational Excellence
- Manage and improve the procurement-to-pay process for direct spend in NAM, partnering with COE, Finance, Supply Chain, and Shared Services.
- Identify opportunities to improve process efficiency, reduce manual work, strengthen compliance, and enhance stakeholder experience.
- Support implementation of procurement tools, data visibility, contract compliance, and standardized ways of working.
6) Risk Management and Business Continuity
- Monitor supply risks, market dynamics, supplier performance, and business continuity risks across NAM direct spend.
- Support mitigation plans for supply disruption, inflation, capacity constraints, and regulatory or compliance risks.
- Ensure procurement decisions protect the business while supporting growth and profitability.
7) Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with Operations, Planning, Quality, R&D, Finance, and Commercial teams to ensure procurement is embedded in key business decisions.
- Support new product launches, reformulation, supplier qualification, and innovation projects from a procurement perspective.
- Drive strong stakeholder engagement and ensure procurement is recognized as a trusted business partner.
About You:
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Chemistry, Business Administration, or a related field.
- 10+ years of experience in procurement / purchasing, 5 years of which should be within the food & beverage and/or flavors ingredient industry.
- 5+ years of experience directly supervising staff.
- Strong negotiation skills.
- Solid knowledge of how procurement works.
- Strong networking, communication, and relationship management skills.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, etc.).
- Proficiency with SAP is required. SAP project or rollout knowledge is an advantage.
- Excellent analytical and organizational skills.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities.
- Experience with global sourcing and supplier management.
- Demonstrated commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing.
- Experience purchasing raw materials for the flavor, fragrance, and/or chemical industry is advantageous.
- Knowledge of regulatory requirements in the flavor and fragrance sector is desired.
- Experience with using AI (i.e. Copilot, Claude, etc.) and data analysis tools (i.e. MicroStrategy, Power BI, etc.) a plus.
- Must be willing and able to travel domestically and internationally both by land and by air approximately 20%-30% of the time. International travel is expected approximately 2 times per year.
What We Offer:
Become part of our open and transparent culture. It will give you the opportunity to flourish and to develop inspiring experiences that contribute to the health and well-being of consumers in 160 countries around the world. Putting our employees in focus fuels our strong company growth above market rates and makes us an excellent place to develop your career.
Come join us and embark on a fascinating journey with Symrise.
If you feel that you fit the above criteria, then please apply by using our online application system. Your application will be treated confidentially.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.
Pay Transparency Disclosure: The expected gross hourly rate for this position is USD $145000.00 - USD $175000.00. Actual pay will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by law. A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and company performance.