Egg Sourcing Manager

Licious is looking for an Egg Sourcing Manager to build and manage a reliable, scalable and quality-led sourcing network for its growing egg portfolio.

The role will have central ownership of egg sourcing across multiple varieties, including:

• Classic Eggs
• Vitamin D / Fortified Eggs
• Brown / Country Eggs
• Other differentiated egg propositions as the portfolio expands

The role will be responsible not only for procurement and pricing, but for building end-to-end visibility and control from the farm/source to Licious receiving points. A key objective will be to ensure that the right material is available at the right source, in the right specification, at the right time and at the right cost.

The manager will work closely with farmers, aggregators, packers, vendors, Quality, Operations, Demand Planning, Logistics, Category and Finance teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Central Egg Sourcing
  • Own sourcing strategy for the Licious egg portfolio across India.
  • Develop and manage sourcing for Classic, Vitamin D/Fortified, Brown, Country and other differentiated egg varieties.
  • Build a strong network of farmers, layer farms, aggregators, packers and strategic suppliers.
  • Identify new sourcing clusters and develop alternate supply sources to reduce supply concentration.
  • Negotiate commercial terms, pricing, payment terms, specifications and service levels with suppliers.
  • Establish competitive sourcing benchmarks across regions.
• Farmer & Supplier Onboarding
  • Identify and onboard suitable layer farmers and sourcing partners.
  • Develop a structured farmer onboarding pipeline with clear visibility of:
  • Farm location
  • Flock size
  • Breed / strain
  • Age of flock
  • Production capacity
  • Egg variety/specification
  • Current production
  • Expected availability
  • Packing capability
  • Certifications/compliance
  • Current customers/offtake
  • Build a database of approved, under-evaluation and pipeline farmers/suppliers.
  • Coordinate farm audits and onboarding with Quality and relevant internal teams.
  • Develop long-term sourcing relationships with strategic farmers.
• Source-Level Material Control
  • A critical responsibility of this role will be to establish visibility and control of material at source, rather than managing supply only after dispatch.
  • The manager should have visibility on:
  • Farm -> Production -> Available Inventory -> Allocation -> Packing -> Dispatch -> Licious Receiving
  • Track daily/weekly production availability at major sources.
  • Maintain visibility of committed versus actual supply.
  • Ensure material is reserved/allotted for Licious requirements.
  • Monitor source-level inventory and ageing.
  • Track planned dispatches versus actual dispatches.
  • Identify supply gaps before they impact Licious operations.
  • Build early-warning mechanisms for potential shortages, quality issues or dispatch delays.
  • Establish source-level reconciliation of production, dispatch and receipt.
• OTIF & Supply Reliability
  • Own supplier OTIF performance across all major sourcing locations.
  • Key metrics:
  • Supplier OTIF %
  • Fill Rate
  • Planned vs Actual Quantity
  • Dispatch Adherence
  • Short Supply %
  • Rejection %
  • Damage / Breakage %
  • Quality Compliance %
  • Lead Time
  • Supply Variability
  • The manager will be expected to identify the root cause of OTIF failures and drive corrective actions with suppliers, rather than only reporting the deviation.
• Regional Sourcing Management
  • The role will be based in Bangalore but will have a pan-India sourcing mandate, with regular travel to major sourcing and supplier locations, particularly:
  • Bangalore
  • Mumbai
  • NCR
  • Hyderabad
  • Kolkata
  • The manager should develop strong understanding of the local supplier ecosystem, production clusters, price movements, logistics constraints and seasonal availability in each market.
• Demand Planning & Supply Planning
  • Work closely with Demand Planning and Category teams to translate forecasts into sourcing requirements.
  • Develop weekly and monthly supply plans.
  • Ensure adequate sourcing capacity is contracted/secured ahead of demand.
  • Maintain visibility of supply coverage for the next 2-8 weeks.
  • Build contingency plans for peak demand, seasonal fluctuations and supplier disruptions.
  • Align sourcing plans with Licious' city-wise requirements.
• Cost & Commercial Management
  • Develop regional egg price benchmarks.
  • Track NECC, aggregator and market prices.
  • Analyse price movement and identify key cost drivers.
  • Negotiate competitive procurement rates.
  • Develop should-cost understanding across different egg varieties.
  • Identify opportunities for direct farmer sourcing and reduction of intermediary costs.
  • Monitor landed cost including packing, logistics and other sourcing costs.
• Quality & Specification Compliance
  • Work closely with Quality to ensure that suppliers consistently meet Licious specifications.
  • Responsibilities include:
  • Define and maintain source-level specifications for each egg variety.
  • Monitor egg size/weight, shell quality, cleanliness, freshness and other agreed parameters.
  • Ensure correct segregation of Classic, Vitamin D/Fortified, Brown/Country and other varieties.
  • Drive traceability from farm/source to Licious.
  • Investigate quality complaints and implement CAPA with suppliers.
  • Ensure supplier adherence to food safety and regulatory requirements.
• Supplier Performance Management
  • Create a structured supplier scorecard covering:
  • Supply - OTIF / Fill Rate
  • Quality - Rejection / Complaint %
  • Cost - Purchase Price / Landed Cost
  • Reliability - Forecast Adherence
  • Operations - Dispatch Accuracy
  • Compliance - Audit / Documentation
  • Responsiveness - Issue Resolution
  • Capacity - Committed vs Actual Capacity
  • Conduct regular supplier reviews and create improvement plans for underperforming suppliers.
• MIS & Sourcing Visibility
  • Build and maintain a central Egg Sourcing MIS covering:
  • Farmer/Supplier master
  • Farm capacity
  • Flock age
  • Production availability
  • Licious allocation
  • Source inventory
  • Planned dispatch
  • Actual dispatch
  • City requirement
  • Supply coverage
  • OTIF
  • Fill Rate
  • Rejections
  • Price
  • Landed cost
  • Supplier performance
  • Risk/issue tracker
  • The expectation is to create forward visibility, so supply issues are identified before they become operational shortages.

Key KPIs:

• Supplier OTIF
• Fill Rate
• Source-level supply visibility
• Supply availability / coverage
• Supplier rejection rate
• Egg quality compliance
• Procurement cost / landed cost
• Farmer onboarding and active supplier base
• Direct sourcing contribution
• Forecast vs actual supply accuracy
• Supplier concentration / alternate source development
• Reduction in emergency / spot procurement
• Availability of differentiated egg varieties
• Traceability and source-level material control

We hope that you have...:

• 4-10 years of experience in sourcing/procurement, preferably in:
• Eggs
• Poultry
• Dairy
• Fresh food
• FMCG procurement
• Agriculture / farm sourcing
• Food supply chain
• Experience working directly with farmers, producers, aggregators or primary suppliers is strongly preferred.
• Experience managing a multi-city supplier network will be an advantage.

Skills:

• Strong understanding of poultry/layer farming and egg supply chains.
• Excellent supplier negotiation skills.
• Strong commercial and analytical capability.
• Ability to understand farm-level economics and production cycles.
• Strong Excel/MIS/data-analysis skills.
• Ability to build sourcing dashboards and supply visibility mechanisms.
• Strong stakeholder management across Quality, Operations, Demand Planning, Finance and Category.
• Willingness to travel extensively.
• Strong execution orientation with the ability to work at both strategic and ground level.

Role Characteristics:

This is not a transactional buying role.

The successful candidate will be expected to operate as the central owner of the egg supply ecosystem, with visibility starting from the layer farm and extending through sourcing, allocation, packing, dispatch and Licious receipt.

The role requires a combination of farm-level understanding + commercial sourcing + supply planning + supplier management + data-driven execution.