Our mission is to make everyday eating extraordinary for our guests. We create a warm, welcoming, memorable experience with exceptional, personal service. We’re looking for a leader who strives for excellence and brings positive energy, commitment, and a “can-do” attitude to work every day. We value teamwork and celebrate our successes as a team and will value your contribution!

Added Benefits for choosing The Fresh Market Team:

Team member discount up to 40%
Health, Dental & Vision insurance available for individual, spouse, partner, and family.
And much more!
401K contribution and match for part-time and full-time team members.
Personal time off and additional time off purchase plans available

The Director of Vendor Engagement is responsible for defining and leading the enterprise vendor engagement strategy across The Fresh Market. This role shifts vendor management from a transactional function to a strategic capability focusing on joint business planning, negotiation excellence, supplier segmentation, and partnership development.

You will own the vendor lifecycle while building scalable processes, tools, and capabilities that enable best-in-class vendor partnerships and negotiations.

Develop and implement a comprehensive vendor engagement strategy aligned with merchandising and enterprise priorities
Establish vendor segmentation (strategic, core, emerging) and differentiated engagement models
Define and standardize vendor processes, tools, and playbooks across the organization
Lead enterprise-wide joint business planning processes focused on a set of strategic vendors, ensuring alignment on growth, funding, innovation, and performance goals
Partner with merchants and vendors to build mutually beneficial strategies that drive sales, margin, and differentiation
Create visibility and accountability for vendor performance vs. agreed plans and financial commitments
Facilitate strategic business reviews with top vendors to identify opportunities for growth and improvement
Elevate negotiation capabilities across merchandising through tools, training, and frameworks
Partner with merchants to structure deals that maximize value (cost, funding, innovation, supply reliability)
Integrate insights (e.g., commodities) into negotiations to strengthen outcomes
Establish KPI frameworks, scorecards, and reporting to track vendor performance
Monitor vendor performance against financial commitments and business objectives
Identify opportunities for vendor consolidation, optimization, and cost savings in partnership with Cencosud
Partner with Merchandising, Finance, Supply Chain, and Operations to ensure alignment on vendor strategies
Collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure vendor strategies support assortment, pricing, promotions, and operational execution
Build vendor engagement capabilities across the organization, including negotiation, analytics, and partnership development
Develop training, tools, and processes to enable merchants to manage vendors more effectively
Foster a culture of collaborative partnerships vs. purely transactional relationships
Vendor relationships are structured, strategic, and consistently deliver mutual value
Joint business plans are established and tracked across key vendors
Negotiation outcomes improve (margin, funding, cost transparency)
Vendor performance is transparent, measurable, and actively managed
Merchants are equipped with the tools and capabilities to engage vendors effectively

QUALIFICATIONS

At a minimum, what you’ll need:

8–12+ years of experience in merchandising, vendor management, procurement, or retail partnerships
Proven experience in vendor negotiations, joint business planning, or strategic partnerships
Strong analytical and financial acumen with ability to translate insights into action
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives in a complex retail environment
Exceptional communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills

Preferred qualifications:

Experience in grocery, food retail, or consumer packaged goods
Exposure to vendor performance management, supplier segmentation, or procurement strategy
Experience building new capabilities, processes, or operating models within merchandising organizations

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS: Consistent with applicable laws, TFM will make reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants and team members, unless doing so would result in an undue hardship to TFM. This guiding principle applies to all aspects of employment, including hiring and job assignment, compensation, discipline, termination, and access to benefits and training.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard race, color, creed, religion, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy and related medical conditions, national origin, genetic information, uniformed service, veteran status, disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal or state law.

The statements in this job description are provided to describe the general nature and level of work expected in this role. While these statements include the essential functions of the job, they are not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required. As we work as a team, there may be times team members are needed to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities based on business needs.

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