Director of Procurement

At Pets People, we make tails wag and customers smile with products brought to market through strategic licensing and innovation. Our brands make everyday life fresh, fun, and user-friendly for the whole family. Our team of over 80 dedicated employees is headquartered in New York City with both national and global support. With our background, experience, and network, we are uniquely positioned to extend the reach of any brand to a new market. “We’ve been a pioneer in licensing since 2008, translating favorite brands into practical "pet" applications. In 2014, we expanded our vision into new markets within the "people" sector. Now, we are leveraging our long track record of success and applying it both to pets people.” – Steven Shweky, Top Dog

We are seeking a dynamic and forward-thinking Director of Procurement to lead and evolve our global production organization within a fast-paced Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) environment. This role is critical in driving operational excellence across both domestic and international production, while also reimagining how production can be more innovative, automated, and scalable as the business grows.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader who thrives in complexity, can manage a large SKU portfolio across multiple markets, builds strong global vendor partnerships, and inspires teams through coaching and mentorship. This person will lead on behalf of the department head when needed and serve as a strategic thought partner across the organization.

We are open to candidates from a variety of industries, provided they bring transferable production leadership experience and a passion for continuous improvement.

Global Production Leadership & Strategy

• Lead end-to-end domestic and international production operations, with ownership of the full PO lifecycle from placement through manufacturing, delivery, and payment.
• Develop and execute production strategies that support growth, scalability, and on-time delivery across multiple regions and manufacturing partners.
• Act as a senior leader within the organization, representing the production function and driving alignment across cross-functional teams.
• Proactively manage capacity, timing, and execution risk across a high-volume, high-SKU environment.

Innovation & Automation

• Identify and implement process improvements, automation, and system enhancements to improve speed, visibility, and decision-making.
• Reduce manual work and streamline production workflows across teams and departments.
• Champion data-driven production management through clear metrics, dashboards, and reporting.

Vendor & External Partner Management

• Build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with domestic and international manufacturing partners.
• Establish and manage supplier performance metrics, including on-time delivery, lead time reliability, and execution accuracy.
• Drive continuous improvement and cost optimization through disciplined execution and strong supplier performance management across the production lifecycle
• Act as the primary escalation point for vendor execution, capacity, and delivery risks.

People Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing production team , fostering a culture of accountability, growth , and engagement.
• Build clear organizational structure, roles, and communication rhythms to support scale.
• Develop future leaders through coaching, feedback, and development planning.

Operational Excellence & Scale

• Strengthen operational rigor through standardized workflows and clear cross-functional handoffs.
• Identify and proactively address risks related to capacity, cost, supply continuity, and execution across domestic and international production
• Ensure production operations are scalable to support rapid growth and evolving business needs

Qualifications:

• 10 years of progressive experience in production, manufacturing, or operations leadership; CPG experience strongly preferred, but industry background is flexible.
• Proven success managing both domestic and international production operations.
• Experience managing and developing teams of 5-10; a hands-on people leader with a passion for coaching, mentoring, and team development within a lean, high-output team structure
• Demonstrated experience leading complex production environments with large SKU counts.
• Track record of driving process improvement, innovation, and automation.
• Strong global vendor management and negotiation experience.
• Bilingual - Chinese/English preferred
• Strategic thinker with the ability to execute at a detailed, operational level.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Strong proficiency in Excel; tech-savvy and resourceful, with a demonstrated ability to quickly adopt new systems, tools, and platforms as the business scales.