Senior Manager, National Produce Sourcing

The Farmlink Project is a non-profit organization that connects farms with surplus to food banks to feed people in need. The Senior Manager, National Produce Sourcing is responsible for building and maintaining supply relationships and developing a national sourcing strategy to ensure a robust post-harvest food donation pipeline.

Responsibilities:

• Develop visibility into time sensitive food supply and ensure the organization is positioned to act quickly when product becomes available
• Position the organization ahead of potential availability by maintaining ongoing visibility into supply conditions, even when no immediate opportunity exists
• Ensure readiness to move donated product within 24 to 48 hours by aligning with Food Program Operations team ahead of confirmed opportunities
• Maintain strong awareness of commercial sales cycles, harvest patterns, and regional production shifts
• Monitor market dynamics that influence surplus, including pricing pressure, grade outs, and shifting demand
• Maintain familiarity with import market dynamics, including ports of entry, import seasonality, and the conditions under which imported product becomes available for donation
• Align outreach and positioning with dynamic market conditions
• Shape and advance organizational post-harvest sourcing strategy
• Collaborate closely with the Senior Advisor for Food Recovery Strategy, Senior Manager, Programs Optimization & Sourcing, and the Food Program Operations team to ensure national sourcing efforts align with organizational priorities and distribution capacity
• Identify gaps in current sourcing coverage and develop new supply channels
• Strengthen presence in high volume production and distribution markets
• Maintain familiarity with major U.S. growing regions and their seasonal production patterns to inform ongoing strategy
• Build, expand, and maintain supply relationships across major produce regions and the produce supply chain, including:
• Growers
• Packers and shippers
• Sales desks
• Importers and exporters
• Cold storage operators
• Logistics providers
• Engage effectively at all levels, from executives to warehouse and dock staff, to develop awareness of supply conditions and uncover opportunities
• Build trust with industry partners to support making Farmlink the first call when a donation window opens and product needs to move fast
• Generate consistent, high quality supply leads across key growing regions, distribution hubs, and ports of entry
• Develop leads into actionable opportunities, maintaining momentum through confirmation and a clean transition to the Food Program Operations team
• Collaborate, as relevant, with the Manager of Agricultural Relations to coordinate grower relationship management
• Maintain post-harvest food donor pipeline in organizational systems to support ongoing relationship cultivation, stewardship, and tracking
• Ensure smooth food donation handoffs to the Food Program Operations team, and execution, clearly documenting and communicating product details, timing, and logistics windows
• Collaborate with Food Program Operations team to transition ongoing food donor account management and engage as relevant to provide seamless customer service, communications, and relationship stewardship

Requirements:

• 8+ years of experience in the fresh produce industry required (e.g., grower, shipper, wholesaler, terminal market, sales desk, sourcing)
• Strong understanding of the commercial produce supply chain
• Proven ability to build relationships and operate independently in fast moving environments
• Demonstrated ability to maintain relationships through long or irregular cycles without losing momentum
• Ability to read market conditions and anticipate where supply will emerge
• Comfortable making decisions quickly with incomplete information
• Strong communication skills across a wide range of stakeholders
• Willingness to travel as needed to maintain and build relationships
• Experience with or exposure to import markets, including key ports of entry and cross border produce flow, strongly preferred
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred, particularly valuable when working with growers, packers, and shippers operating across the U.S. Mexico border and Latin America