Head of Direct Category Procurement

Yum! Brands
United Kingdom
Workplace: HybridFull timeFunction: Procurement & SourcingSkills: ["Leadership","Stakeholder influence","Team coaching","Commercial judgement","Challenge established thinking"]

Lead the 5-year direct procurement strategy by translating it into category roadmaps, sourcing plans, value creation pipelines, and risk mitigation for KFC and Taco Bell in Europe. Own senior supplier relationships and negotiation guardrails, embed food safety/quality/sustainability into category decisions, and drive value engineering and portfolio optimisation. Manage and coach a team of category leads while collaborating across Marketing, FSQA, Operations, Finance, Sustainability, markets, franchisees, and Global Supply Chain.

Loading

Loading job details...

Preparing the role view and application actions.

FursaFursa
Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands
1 day ago

Head of Direct Category Procurement

âś“ Verified Job

Canonical indexed version, validated from employer's careers page.

Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI
Last checked: 8 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Lead the 5-year direct procurement strategy by translating it into category roadmaps, sourcing plans, value creation pipelines, and risk mitigation for KFC and Taco Bell in Europe. Own senior supplier relationships and negotiation guardrails, embed food safety/quality/sustainability into category decisions, and drive value engineering and portfolio optimisation. Manage and coach a team of category leads while collaborating across Marketing, FSQA, Operations, Finance, Sustainability, markets, franchisees, and Global Supply Chain.
Location: United Kingdom
Workplace: Hybrid
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Procurement & Sourcing
Seniority: Sr. Director level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Set the 5-year direct procurement strategy and translate it into category roadmaps, sourcing plans, value creation pipelines, and risk mitigation plans.
  • •Lead and coach a team of category leads, creating clarity, pace, and capability.
  • •Partner horizontally across Marketing, Food Innovation, FSQA, Operations, Finance, Sustainability, market teams, franchisees, and Global Supply Chain to ensure strategies serve restaurant needs.
  • •Develop innovation and performance with suppliers through supplier briefs, supplier events, and executive supplier forums.
  • •Own strategic supplier relationships, negotiation guardrails, commercial governance, and long-term pricing mechanisms; ensure food safety, quality, responsible sourcing, sustainability, and business continuity guardrails are embedded.

Key Requirements

  • •10+ years’ experience in procurement, supply chain, or category leadership, ideally in QSR/foodservice/FMCG/retail or a multi-market consumer environment.
  • •Proven success leading direct food, packaging, or ingredient categories at regional or enterprise scale.
  • •Strong supplier relationship management, strategic sourcing, cost modelling, commodity exposure, negotiation, and value creation skills.
  • •Understanding of food safety, quality, sustainability, and supply resilience requirements in a consumer-facing food business.
  • •Experience leading teams, building capability, and delivering measurable outcomes from strategy.
Experience:QSRFoodserviceFMCGRetailMulti-market consumer
Skills:LeadershipStakeholder influenceTeam coachingCommercial judgementChallenge established thinking

Company Brief

Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, franchises and operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill, serving tens of thousands of restaurants across more than 150 countries with digital and franchise-led growth strategies.
Industry: Restaurants & Food Service
Company Size: Enterprise (1,001+ employees)
Revenue: USD 1B+
Growth: Public Company
Valuation: Public Company (Market Cap in USD)
Funding: IPO / Publicly Listed
Headquarters: Louisville, United States
Founded: 1997
Glassdoor
Glassdoor: 3.7
WebsiteLinkedInGlassdoor