Key Skills
Job Description
In a nutshell
Products are the heart of our business. As Senior Buyer, you take full responsibility for driving the success of your category, ensuring we offer the best range, quality, and value to our customers. With your team, you manage your category end to end, with the goal of making customers happy and improving profitability. Picnic is fast-paced, data-driven, and complex, from pricing strategies and forecasting to warehouse automation and the continued growth of our company, we are constantly faced with new challenges and opportunities…that’s where you come in! We are looking for an ambitious senior buyer with strong category management and negotiation skills who knows how to build lasting supplier relationships. You spot practical commercial opportunities, turn insights into action, and help shape the future of your category. Have a forward-thinking idea? Bring it to your team, sharpen it together, test it, and make a real impact across the business!
Tricks of the trade
- Negotiation strategies: Define and execute clear negotiation strategies to secure strong commercial terms and sustainable value with our suppliers.
- Supplier management: Lead supplier relationships, negotiate contracts, and resolve operational challenges efficiently.
- Category expertise: Build and deepen your category knowledge through a combination of Picnic data, customer insights, market understanding, and supplier input.
- Commercial opportunities: Spot commercial opportunities and use a data-first approach to identify innovations and growth potential within your category.
- Category improvements: Create and deliver pragmatic plans that improve assortment, product quality, and overall category performance.
- Supply chain: Understand the end-to-end supply chain and identify opportunities to improve availability, efficiency, and profitability.
- Cross-functional impact: Work closely with your category team and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver the best outcomes for our customers.
Your superpowers
- MSc. degree in Business Administration, (Business) Economics or equivalent
- 4+ years of experience as a Buyer and/or Category Manager with a proven track record specifically within retail, wholesale, or FMCG manufacturing environments
- Lots of energy, persistence and drive, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and deliver strong results
- You know how to get the best best deals and are able to understand and assess what’s on “the nego table”
- Go getting mentality, hands-on and nothing is impossible mindset
- Excellent interpersonal skills; you understand who you’re talking to, what matters to them, and how to build strong relationships
- Fluency in English (Dutch, French or German is a plus!)
Picnic perks
🥗Fresh Lunch, coffee, and snacks
Our offices are equipped with fully-fledged coffee bars and a kitchen and chefs. They prepare delicious fresh and warm lunches every day so you can keep your energy up.
🚴🏼♂️Health insurance discount & bike plan
We have a partnership with CZ (a health insurance provider). Picnic employees get a discount on CZ insurance packages between 5% and 15%. Furthermore, through our partnership with Lease a Bike, you can rent-to-own a new (e)bike at a discounted rate
✍🏼 Learning & development
You’ll get ample opportunity to work on yourself at Picnic. We offer personal development through Lepaya courses, Academy trainings, and more. Interested in improving your mental wellbeing? Through OpenUp you get free access to trained psychologists and many courses.
All the rest
At Picnic you get 25 holidays, we cover your travel expenses and offer a pension plan. And your phone and laptop are on us, as well.
Core Responsibilities
The Senior Buyer is responsible for driving category success by managing the end-to-end process to improve profitability and customer satisfaction. This includes executing negotiation strategies, managing supplier relationships, and optimizing the supply chain for better availability and efficiency.
Requirements
Candidates must hold an MSc in Business Administration, Economics, or a related field with over 4 years of experience in retail, wholesale, or FMCG. Strong negotiation skills, a data-driven mindset, and fluency in English are required.
Benefits
- Fresh Lunch
- Coffee and Snacks
- Health Insurance Discount
- Bike Plan
- Learning and Development
- Lepaya Courses
- Academy Trainings
- Mental Wellbeing Support
- Psychologist Access
- 25 Holidays
- Travel Expenses Coverage
- Pension Plan
- Company Phone
- Company Laptop
About Picnic
Industry: Retail
Company size: 5,001-10,000 employees
At Picnic, we’re revolutionizing the way people buy groceries. Our affordable and sustainable service is made possible by our passionate people, cutting-edge technology, efficient planning, and, of course, our fleet of iconic electric vehicles! It’s why our customer base is growing rapidly across the Netherlands, Germany, and France. One of the things that makes Picnic different is that we handle almost everything in-house: forecasting, developing our first automated warehouse and new electric Picnic vehicles, internal and customer-facing applications—the list goes on. It gives us more freedom when it comes to trying out new and innovative ideas, which is something we do a lot! We love to challenge ourselves and learn new things. Our teams have access to various meetups, language classes, ‘Lunch & Learn’ sessions, our very own Tech Academy, and tailored soft-skills training. Professional development is as important to us as the service we provide to our customers. As a diverse team made up of over 80 nationalities, there are always plenty of activities to get involved with, whether you’re into sports, board games, charitable causes, dancing (at our legendary Picnic festival), or licorice tasting—yes, even that! Our scale-up culture means you get to own your role and bring fresh ideas to the table. So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to make a real difference, get in touch—we’d love to hear from you.