Head of Direct Category Procurement
KFC · Woking, Surrey
Our estimate of how close this role sits to decisions about what gets sourced, specified, bought and served. How we score
Why this role matters
Where the work sits relative to real sourcing and menu decisions.
KFC's entire menu runs on chicken, and this seat sits directly over the multi-year category strategy, supplier relationships and commercial governance that determine how that chicken supply chain is built and evaluated. Whoever holds the pen on "responsible sourcing and sustainability guardrails... embedded in all category strategies and supplier decisions" decides how seriously welfare and supply-chain resilience standards are weighted against cost and speed to market, across a supplier base feeding two of the world's largest restaurant brands. This is a genuinely senior seat with real say over negotiation guardrails and long-term pricing mechanisms for the categories that supply KFC's core product, and it opens doors into the most influential procurement seats in quick-service restaurant supply chains, where poultry volumes and welfare standards are set at a scale few campaigns could ever reach directly.
About the role
This is a senior leadership role at Yum! UK & I Europe's Supply Chain Centre of Excellence, leading the Direct category procurement agenda for KFC and Taco Bell across Europe. The postholder will set the 5-year Direct procurement strategy and translate it into category roadmaps, sourcing plans, value creation pipelines and risk mitigation plans, covering food, packaging and critical menu inputs. They will lead and coach a team of category leads, and work horizontally across Marketing, Food Innovation, FSQA, Operations, Finance, Sustainability, market teams, franchisees and Global Supply Chain to ensure category strategies serve restaurant needs. The role uses supplier briefs, supplier events and executive supplier forums to unlock innovation, capacity, cost competitiveness and speed to market, and owns senior strategic supplier relationships, negotiation guardrails, commercial governance and long-term pricing mechanisms across critical categories. Food safety, quality, responsible sourcing, sustainability and business continuity guardrails must be embedded in all category strategies and supplier decisions, and the role is expected to drive value engineering and portfolio optimisation while protecting brand standards and customer experience. Success is measured through improved restaurant economics via validated savings, cost avoidance, payback improvement and total cost optimisation; reliable execution across KFC and Taco Bell markets with stronger supplier performance and fewer disruptions; category strategies well understood and translated into delivery plans across brands, functions, franchisees and suppliers; and a supplier ecosystem delivering innovation, resilience, quality, food safety, sustainability and competitive advantage. Candidates should bring 10+ years' experience in procurement, supply chain or category leadership, ideally in QSR, foodservice, FMCG, retail or a multi-market consumer environment, with proven success leading direct food, packaging or ingredient categories at regional or enterprise scale. Strong knowledge of supplier relationship management, strategic sourcing, cost modelling, commodity exposure, negotiation and value creation is required, along with credibility to influence senior stakeholders across brands, markets, functions, franchisees and suppliers without relying on hierarchy. Understanding of food safety, quality, sustainability and supply resilience requirements in a consumer-facing food business is expected, as is experience leading teams and turning strategy into measurable outcomes. The role is described as strategic and hands-on, requiring comfort with ambiguity, pace and matrix working. The role is hybrid, based from Woking, Surrey, with European market, restaurant and supplier travel as required.
This is an extract. Read the full advert on the employer's site.
How to position yourself
The language that lands with hiring managers in this kind of role.
Position your pitch around supply resilience, total cost optimisation and food safety credentials, since this role explicitly wants "food safety, quality, sustainability and supply resilience requirements" experience alongside commercial negotiation skill. Emphasise any exposure to supplier relationship management, commodity risk and strategic sourcing at scale, and be ready to speak CIPS-level procurement vocabulary and cost-modelling fluency, since the advert asks for "strong knowledge of supplier relationship management, strategic sourcing, cost modelling, commodity exposure, negotiation and value creation."
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