Director of Supply Chain

Role overview

Rook Coffee was founded in 2010 by childhood friends Holly and Shawn, who left corporate careers with the goal of creating a more personal, meaningful coffee experience. Starting from a 300-square-foot shack, the company built its brand around specialty coffee and authentic human connection. Today, Rook is looking for a driven, energetic supply chain leader to help support that mission as the business continues to expand.

The Director of Supply Chain will be the senior owner of Rook Coffee’s end-to-end supply chain operation, including sourcing, procurement, inventory, logistics, and related systems. This is a high-impact role for someone who can combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution, bring structure to a growing function, and build scalable processes from the ground up. The position reports to the President and COO and works closely with Finance, Marketing and Growth, and store leadership.

This role is especially important as Rook grows toward 25+ locations and continues expanding production. The person in this seat will centralize work that has historically been spread across multiple teams and turn it into one coordinated, reliable, and data-driven function.

Core focus areas

• Green coffee sourcing and purchasing
• Supplier and vendor management
• Inventory planning and forecasting
• Purchase order oversight
• Flavor and product sourcing
• Inbound freight and logistics
• Supply chain risk and continuity planning
• Cost control and negotiation
• Supply chain systems and technology
• Cross-functional collaboration across departments

Responsibilities

• Lead the sourcing strategy for green coffee, including origin relationships, price locking, futures contracts, and reservation planning.
• Coordinate closely with Finance to keep coffee purchasing aligned with budget targets, forecasts, and cost-of-goods goals.
• Track global commodity trends and make purchasing decisions that balance quality, availability, and cost.
• Develop strong direct and broker partnerships with green coffee suppliers that reflect Rook’s quality expectations and sourcing values.
• Build and manage relationships with vendors and suppliers across stores, production, and the broader supply chain.
• Create vendor scorecards, service standards, and SLA frameworks, and use them to monitor performance.
• Negotiate pricing, contracts, and commercial terms to secure strong value without lowering quality.
• Continuously review the supplier market to identify better options, new partners, and risk reduction opportunities.
• Design and own an inventory system that keeps products available across all store locations.
• Create forecasting models that factor in seasonality, promotions, new launches, and production capacity.
• Balance inventory between locations to prevent stock shortages and minimize waste.
• Ensure inventory information is current, accurate, and usable for operational teams.
• Work with operations and production to build a backend inventory setup that can scale with the business.
• Own the purchase order process from start to finish, including creation, approval, and receipt tracking.
• Partner with Finance on PO approval controls and workflow design.
• Keep procurement records accurate and reconcile purchase orders with actual inventory received.
• Manage relationships with flavor houses and ingredient suppliers for new product development and limited-time launches.
• Work with Marketing and Growth plus operations leadership to align sourcing for new flavors with launch schedules and brand direction.
• Assess new ingredients and suppliers for quality, cost, and supply feasibility before they are introduced.
• Maintain an organized, up-to-date catalog of products and ingredients to support planning and forecasting.
• Oversee inbound freight, carrier coordination, and delivery scheduling so goods move efficiently into production and stores.
• Identify and fix logistics issues that affect production timing or product availability.
• Partner with operations on distribution planning so the right items arrive at the right locations at the right time.
• Monitor supply chain risks such as supplier concentration, geopolitical disruptions, commodity volatility, weather events, and logistics interruptions.
• Create backup plans and secondary sourcing strategies to protect business continuity across key supply categories.
• Keep a risk register and proactively update leadership on emerging supply threats.
• Build redundancy in the supplier base to reduce single-source dependency.
• Lead cost management efforts across the supply chain and look for savings without sacrificing quality or reliability.
• Conduct market research and competitive benchmarking to ensure purchasing decisions are cost-effective.
• Work with Finance on supply chain budgeting, reporting, and variance analysis.
• Evaluate, implement, and own systems and tools that improve efficiency, visibility, and accuracy across supply chain operations.
• Use AI and other data-driven tools to improve forecasting, procurement, and inventory management.
• Ensure supply chain data connects cleanly with the company’s financial and operational systems.
• Act as the main supply chain owner across the organization and reduce fragmentation between Finance, Marketing, Operations, and leadership.
• Partner with the President and COO on production planning, facility requirements, and operational supply needs.
• Support the VP of Finance on coffee financials, approvals, inventory reconciliation, and cost-of-goods reporting.
• Coordinate with the VP of Marketing and Growth on product launches, limited offerings, and flavor-sourcing timing.

Qualifications

• 5 to 10 years of progressive experience in supply chain, with proven strength in procurement, inventory, vendor management, and logistics.
• A bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business, operations, or a related discipline is required.
• An MBA, CSCP, CPIM, or similar advanced credential is strongly preferred.
• Experience in specialty food and beverage, consumer goods, or multi-location retail is important; coffee or commodity sourcing experience is a major advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to build systems, processes, and supplier relationships in a business that is growing quickly.
• Strong analytical and financial skills, including cost modeling, demand forecasting, and translating supply data into business insights.
• Experience using supply chain management systems, ERP platforms, and inventory tools; familiarity with AI-enabled forecasting and procurement tools is a plus.
• Excellent negotiation ability with a history of driving meaningful savings while protecting quality and relationships.
• Highly organized, detail-focused, and able to manage many vendors, priorities, and deadlines at once.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work smoothly across Finance, Operations, and Marketing leadership.
• A proactive, solutions-oriented mindset with comfort handling ambiguity and making decisions quickly.
• Strong alignment with the craft, quality, and culture associated with the Rook brand.

Equal opportunity and workplace conduct

Rook Coffee Roasters provides equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants. Hiring, advancement, compensation, training, leave, transfer, promotion, layoff, termination, recall, and all other terms and conditions of employment are handled without discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or veteran status, in accordance with federal, state, and local law.

The company does not tolerate workplace harassment or improper interference with employees’ ability to perform their jobs. Violations may lead to discipline up to and including termination.