Sn. Purchaser/Product Development

Job Summary

We are seeking a Senior Purchaser / Product Development professional for a direct hire opportunity in Norwalk, CA. This management-level role is ideal for an experienced procurement and product sourcing leader who understands high-volume food products, supplier strategy, and commercial product development.

In this role, you will help drive growth by strengthening procurement strategies, expanding product capabilities, improving supplier partnerships, and identifying new food product opportunities that align with wholesale, foodservice, institutional, and industrial customer needs. This is a strong opportunity for a proactive purchasing professional who enjoys working closely with leadership, sales, warehouse, and supplier teams to bring practical, profitable products to market.

The work environment is collaborative, fast-paced, and growth-focused, with opportunities to influence sourcing decisions, product category expansion, cost savings, and operational efficiency. The ideal candidate will bring strong business judgment, supplier negotiation skills, and a disciplined approach to evaluating new items for quality, margin potential, reliability, and operational fit.

Key Responsibilities

- Develop and execute procurement strategies that support organizational goals, product availability, cost control, and business growth.
- Source, evaluate, and launch new food items aligned with high-volume distribution, foodservice, wholesale, institutional, and industrial customer demand.
- Identify product gaps, category expansion opportunities, market trends, customer needs, competitor offerings, and supplier capabilities.
- Negotiate and manage domestic and international supplier relationships to ensure quality, consistency, cost-effectiveness, and timely delivery.
- Evaluate new products based on landed cost, volume potential, margin structure, quality, packaging, shelf stability, supplier reliability, and operational fit.
- Collaborate with sales, purchasing, warehouse, and leadership teams to forecast demand, maintain inventory levels, and build a disciplined new product review and launch process.

Compensation and Benefits

- Salary range: $120,000 to $150,000 per year.
- Job type: Direct hire.
- Location: Norwalk, CA.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disabled / Protected Veterans

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For temporary assignments lasting 13 weeks or longer, AppleOne is pleased to offer major medical, dental, vision, 401k and any statutory sick pay where required.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact your staffing representative who will reach out to our HR team.

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We also consider for employment qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements, including, if applicable, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. Pursuant to applicable state and municipal Fair Chance Laws and Ordinances, we will consider for employment-qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, including, if applicable, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. For Los Angeles, CA applicants: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

Additional Skills

Required Qualifications and Skills

- Lead procurement strategy for high-volume food products and related commodity or generic food categories.
- Manage supplier sourcing, pricing negotiations, samples, specifications, packaging, labeling, documentation, minimum order quantities, and lead times.
- Evaluate product opportunities for commercial viability, margin potential, supply reliability, quality, and operational feasibility.
- Partner with internal teams to support demand planning, inventory management, product launches, and process improvement.

- Management-level purchasing, procurement, sourcing, or product development experience.
- Strong understanding of food distribution, wholesale, foodservice, institutional, industrial, or related high-volume product environments.
- Experience working with domestic and international suppliers, including negotiation, vendor evaluation, and relationship management.
- Ability to analyze landed cost, margin structure, product quality, packaging requirements, shelf stability, and supplier performance.
- Strong communication, collaboration, organization, and problem-solving skills.
- Proactive mindset with the ability to identify product gaps, market trends, cost-saving opportunities, and process efficiencies.
- Ability to work cross-functionally with sales, purchasing, warehouse, operations, and leadership teams.

Preferred Qualifications

- Bilingual skills in Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai.
- Experience in Asian food distribution, food importing, foodservice distribution, wholesale distribution, or related food product sourcing.
- Experience launching new food products from supplier evaluation through internal review, testing, pricing, documentation, and rollout.