Senior Buyer – Bilingual Mandarin

Senior Buyer – Bilingual Mandarin

Location: Cerritos, CA area

Pay: $100,000 – $125,000 annually, DOE

Job Type: Full-time

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Buyer with strong international supply chain, freight forwarding, shipping, logistics, and food safety experience. This role is ideal for someone who is highly organized, vendor-focused, and comfortable working with overseas suppliers, freight partners, and internal teams to ensure product availability, competitive pricing, and smooth supply chain execution.

The position will focus approximately 80% on monitoring pricing, supplier relationships, purchasing activity, and logistics coordination, with about 20% focused on product development support, sourcing, and negotiation.

Bilingual Mandarin skills are required or strongly preferred, as this role will communicate regularly with international vendors and supply chain partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage purchasing activities for assigned products, suppliers, and categories.
• Monitor supplier pricing, market changes, cost trends, freight costs, and availability.
• Maintain strong relationships with domestic and international suppliers, including Mandarin-speaking vendors.
• Coordinate with freight forwarders, shipping partners, customs brokers, and logistics teams to ensure timely product movement.
• Track international shipments, lead times, container status, shipping documentation, and delivery schedules.
• Review and manage purchase orders, pricing updates, vendor confirmations, and inventory-related purchasing needs.
• Support product development initiatives, including sourcing new products, samples, vendor quotes, and supplier capabilities.
• Negotiate pricing, payment terms, lead times, freight terms, and supplier agreements.
• Partner with internal teams to ensure purchasing decisions align with inventory, production, sales, and operational needs.
• Monitor vendor performance, quality, pricing accuracy, and delivery reliability.
• Support food safety and compliance requirements related to suppliers, products, documentation, and imports.
• Identify opportunities for process improvement, cost savings, workflow efficiency, and better reporting.
• Maintain accurate purchasing, supplier, cost, and product data in internal systems.
• Assist with resolving supply chain issues, product delays, shipment discrepancies, and vendor-related concerns.

Qualifications

• 5 years of buying, purchasing, procurement, sourcing, or supply chain experience.
• Experience with international purchasing, overseas vendors, freight forwarding, shipping, logistics, and import processes.
• Bilingual Mandarin required or strongly preferred.
• Experience in food, beverage, CPG, distribution, manufacturing, import/export, or related industries preferred.
• Food safety knowledge or experience working with food-related products, suppliers, or compliance documentation.
• Strong understanding of supplier pricing, landed costs, freight costs, lead times, and purchase order management.
• Experience negotiating with suppliers and supporting product development or new product sourcing.
• Strong vendor relationship management skills.
• Process improvement experience is a huge plus.
• SAGE experience is a plus.
• Strong Excel, reporting, analytical, and follow-up skills.
• Excellent communication, organization, and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, suppliers, and shipments in a fast-paced environment.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a hands-on Senior Buyer who can manage day-to-day purchasing and vendor relationships while also contributing to product development, sourcing, and negotiations. This person understands international supply chains, communicates effectively with Mandarin-speaking suppliers, and can help improve purchasing processes as the company continues to grow.