Sr. Product Manager - Technical | Grocery Supply Chain Technology Nov 22 - Present
Since November 2022, as a Senior PMT, Ryan has led the Supply Chain roadmap and product delivery for In-Stock, Ordering, Inventory Management, Procure-to-Pay (P2P), and Receiving software. These systems support over 530 global stores and 30,000 users, enabling $22B in revenue and contribute to $11B in purchasing budget. His focus has been on maximizing business value by improving in-stock availability to drive revenue, streamlining operations through process automation to enhance labor efficiency, and reducing shrink via by improving algorithms and their inputs that determine what, when and how much to buy. Ryan indirectly leads the development and agile delivery across multiple programs for 30+ SDEs within 5 engineering domains with his primary customers being In Stock, Retail Operations, DC operations, the retail store team member, and ultimately the Whole Foods Market Customer.
His scope includes user-facing web dashboards that allows In-Stock team to configure Target Inventory Position, manage Supplier Schedules, override forecasting outputs, and handle exceptions used in store ordering algorithms. In addition to web tools, he manages multiple mobile Android applications that enabled store teams to cycle count inventory, receive products, record and financially evaluate shrink, and determine the right Reorder Quantities (ROQ) in a Just in Time (JIT) fashion. These applications support purchasing for both first-party (1P) and third-party (3P) suppliers via EDI integration, ensuring that the right products are delivered to the right stores, in the right quantity, at the right time.
Ryan also owns systems responsible for financial reconciliation, including three-way matching between receipts, purchase orders, and invoices to ensure accurate supplier payments. He oversees Infor’s Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) that handles inventory management, allocation, and fulfillment for distribution centers and stores. Many of the systems in which he supports are developed by Amazon for Amazon using AWS-based microservices, allowing services to be developed, deployed, and scaled independently while minimizing failures across interconnected platforms. These systems are written in javascript, integrated using REST APIs across separate AWS accounts and resources utilizing cloud services such as Dynamo DB, S3, SNS, SQS, SES, and Lambda.
Micro Fulfillment Center Automation: Ryan led the development of automated ordering to support third-party robotics equipment for online order fulfillment in Whole Foods retail locations, directly delivering an S-Team goal and achieving a 40% reduction in variable fulfillment costs—from $0.87 to $0.52 per unit—by leveraging Automated Storage and Retrieval technology to replace manual order picking. He defined and consolidated over 80 inbound supply chain business and technical requirements into a comprehensive Product Requirement Document, reviewed by over 20 senior leaders across Retail Operations, In-Stock, E-Commerce, Accounting, and Principal Engineering teams, forming the foundation for seven design documents. To streamline replenishment for the automated storage and retrieval system, Ryan delivered a suite of automation features, including system-generated order quantity recommendations, automated purchase order creation and transmission, and seamless receipt processing. Additionally, he implemented capacity guardrails to optimize equipment utilization and prevent orders from exceeding available storage constraints.
Variable Weight Inventory & Ordering: Ryan led the development and rollout of Variable Weight features, improving in-stock performance, enhancing labor efficiency, and reducing shrink, resulting in an $21.6M in annual entitlement. His innovations introduced a mobile application powered by backend algorithms, eliminating manual ordering processes and streamlining perishable inventory management across 517 stores and 728K items. He authored key discovery whitepaper documents, identifying 40 critical implementation requirements and leveraging data analysis to prioritize product development while minimizing technical debt. To improve accuracy, he implemented features that track variable weight inventory perpetually across sales, receipts, and shrinkage, ensuring precise downstream ordering calculations. Ryan also enhanced the Store Ordering Tool by refining its user experience, integrating cost awareness, and enabling out-of-stock and substitution workflows. Additionally, he optimized supplier scheduling to improve re-order quantity recommendations and developed UI features that empower team members to manage item visibility, driving usability and operational efficiency.
Receiving & Inventory: Ryan played a key role in launching a new receiving mobile application that streamlined the acknowledgment workflow for store team members, enabling bulk, pallet, and PO line-level receiving. This innovation reduced product receiving time from two hours to one hour, saving 30 minutes per full truckload. Additionally, he supported the launch of features allowing team members to issue credit POs for missing, short, or damaged products, cutting execution time from 20 to 10 minutes per transaction. Ryan also helped introduce guided cycle count functionality, which automatically triggered cycle tasks based on key events—such as continued transactions despite a system on-hand balance of zero—while empowering store team leaders to dispatch tasks directly to team members’ devices, improving inventory accuracy, operational efficiency, and reducing the probability of over ordering due to a bad input.
Senior Product Manager - Technical | Transportation Management Systems Aug 21 - Nov 22
Fom August 2021 to November 2022, Ryan successfully led the launch of a $6M integrated 3P supplier-facing user interface for inbound transportation of Small Parcel (SP) and Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) shipments as part of the Supplier Freight Initiative (SFI). This initiative streamlined Amazon’s transportation utilizing the Blue Yonder/JDA Transportation Management System (TMS) for non-inventory assets, including furniture, signage, lockers, and Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) indirect spend categories. By shifting freight costs from suppliers leveraging Amazon retail logistics contracts, the system improved shipment visibility, automated financial freight payment and accounting processes, and enhanced overall efficiency for both the Supplier and Amazon. Within the first two months of launch, Ryan's leadership over the execution this VP level goal, resulted in $150K in savings, supporting deliveries to 200 destination sites across 29 different Amazon building types in 39 U.S. states, while achieving an impressive 99% delivery success rate.
To ensure the seamless execution of this initiative, Ryan coordinated six supplier shippers, five domestic 3P carriers (UPS, T-Force, Yellow Freight, Roadrunner, and YRC), multiple internal cross-functional teams, and Blue Yonder's engineering architects. He oversaw the entire shipment lifecycle, from creation to internal accounting automation, ensuring operational efficiency and compliance. Ryan played a pivotal role in the Coupa to TMS integration, designing systematic controls to regulate data flows, implementing purchase order (PO) trigger logic, and ensuring that only relevant transactions were processed. By optimizing transactional processes, he successfully reduced shipment creation time for suppliers by 44% for Small Parcel (SP) and 28% for Less-Than-Truckload (LTL), driving a 77% increase in throughput.
Ryan also spearheaded the design and deployment of Amazon’s non-inventory Bill of Lading, ensuring accurate tracking and invoicing. He led the UPS API integration to generate compliant shipping labels, defined API request and response structures, and ensured seamless charge breakdowns. Additionally, he owned the implementation of EDI 204 and 214, mapping carrier communications with Blue Yonder’s TMS for improved shipment tracking and reconciliation of the freight invoice. His contributions extended to financial automation, where he collaborated with TPMs and tech teams to automate audit and accounting processes, ensuring accurate invoice validation and seamless cost allocations.
To enhance user experience, Ryan introduced over 100 UI enhancements, including custom page configurations, advanced search filters, real-time alerts, bulk upload APIs, and reporting features. He also led the TMS to Coupa integration, enabling automated Advanced Shipment Notifications (ASN) to improve shipment tracking for the PO requestor. His strategic leadership and technical expertise ensured the successful deployment of the SFI system, driving cost savings, efficiency, and scalability across Amazon’s inbound transportation network.
Senior Global Procurement Manager | Global Mile | 3P Transportation Services Mar 21 - Aug 21
From March 2021 to August 2021, Ryan served as a Sr. Global Procurement Category Manager for Amazon Global Mile, leading the procurement strategy for 3P logistics services required to transport and manage over 400,000 FEUs coming from China in to the US and UK. He conducted RFPs and RFQs for annual renegotiations across ocean freight (carriers like Maersk & CMA GCM), drayage (carriers like JB hunt & IMC), transload (providers like GSC), and origin services (providers like Century Distribution System), ensuring cost efficiency and operational resilience. Ryan played a key role in recruiting carriers for the Amazon Relay for Global Mile program, driving adoption for drayage services in the United States. Additionally, he managed complex foreign accounts overseeing international cross-docks and origin services for both Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Retail, strengthening Amazon’s global supply chain operations.
Off -Dock Contain Yard Network Optimization: Ryan spearheaded a high-impact initiative to optimize Amazon’s container yard operations across major U.S. ports, enhancing procurement efficiency, yard spot allocation, real-time data visibility, and financial controllership. His leadership streamlined logistics execution, reduced operational costs, and improved Amazon’s ability to manage peak volume surges while mitigating congestion and capacity risks, particularly during the bullwhip effects of supply chain constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He led RFP processes for seven major U.S. ports (LAX, OAK, SEA, CHI, EWR, SAV, ORF), securing contracts with IMC as the primary provider and negotiating bundled pricing that reduced costs by 9% against the R&O budget while achieving rates 10% below the average bid, avoiding over $4 million in potential expenses. Ryan designed and implemented a data-driven yard space distribution model based on forecasted container volumes, dwell times, and carrier performance, improving peak season readiness and minimizing congestion risks. Managing a $24.5 million yard budget, he introduced rigorous invoice validation, cost allocation between Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Core Distribution (CD), and enhanced cost accuracy with the creation of the "YSTC" charge code. To improve operational efficiency, he enhanced container tracking using EDI timestamps and integrated automated data capture to close 50-75% of data gaps, improving carrier compliance through real-time tracking and standardized reporting. Ryan also developed contingency strategies to mitigate yard over-utilization, including emergency capacity mechanisms, subcontracted carrier management, and daily operational review calls. His development of a Tableau dashboard provided real-time insights into yard utilization, carrier mix, dwell times, and compliance metrics, reducing manual reconciliation efforts and improving operational visibility. Additionally, he recommended long-term cost-saving strategies, such as earlier procurement cycles, direct yard ownership, and bundled agreements to minimize reliance on third-party providers. Ryan’s strategic execution minimized detention and demurrage charges—avoiding over $50 million in potential annual costs—secured 20,000 FEUs across 6.4 million square feet of leased real estate, and laid the foundation for scalable, cost-efficient yard operations, strengthening Amazon’s logistics capabilities during high-demand periods.
Amazon Relay: Ryan led the initiative to identify, onboard, and pilot drayage carriers for Amazon Relay, a load board and mobile application facilitating containerized freight delivery from ports to inbound cross-docks. Relay for Global Mile served as a unified planning and execution platform, integrating middle mile and global mile systems. Through this platform, Global Mile could post demand on the load board, enabling carriers to book port terminal appointments, execute deliveries, and provide real-time appointment visibility within Relay. This system streamlined container freight movement from ports to cross-docks, allowing Amazon to flex capacity beyond the constraints of dedicated third-party drayage carriers and Amazon’s 1P assets. Insights from the pilot informed a backlog of feature requests to advance the product to an MLP state, including automating port appointments, managing port payment fees, and enabling empty container returns as a third-leg transportation flow.
Senior Category Manager - Maintenance, Repair Operations Mar 21 - Aug 21
From March 2020 to March of 2021, as a Senior Category Manager, Ryan Cain spearheaded high-impact procurement, supply chain optimization, and cost reduction initiatives across multiple business categories, including furniture, janitorial and sanitation supplies, medical and safety supplies, signage, and associate lockers.
Managing over $70M in annual procurement and overseeing more than $120M in indirect spend for COVID-19 response efforts, Ryan drove over $10 million in cost savings while ensuring operational efficiency across hundreds of existing sites. He also played a key role in the successful launch of over 300 sites in 2020 and 2021, supporting Amazon fulfillment warehouses, AMZL last-mile delivery, and specialty fulfillment sites such as Sub Same Day, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods.
Savings Portfolio: Ryan Cain drove over $10 million in cost savings across Amazon’s indirect spend categories by optimizing procurement strategies, renegotiating supplier contracts, and implementing operational efficiencies. He achieved $1.7 million in savings through supplier rationalization for the signage category by consolidating volume with a lower-cost, higher-quality provider. Additionally, he secured $961K in savings by renegotiating furniture pricing with blanket POs and reduced costs by $858K by eliminating distributors and sourcing lockers directly from manufacturers. Further, Ryan generated $566K in savings by onboarding a new “door desk” manufacturer and cut costs by $451K by transitioning from white to brown paper towels. He optimized janitorial consumables pricing, driving $387K in hand soap cost reductions, $428K in savings by renegotiating distributor cost markups, and $144K through jan/san distributor pricing alignment. Lastly, he reduced coat rack procurement costs by $155K while ensuring pricing consistency across Amazon fulfillment centers.
COVID 19 Hand Sanitizer Supply Chain: During the pandemic, Ryan owned Amazon’s COVID-19 Hand Sanitizer Supply Chain Response, managing $120M in contracts with major suppliers including Zep, Gojo, and Evora. He established emergency logistics infrastructure, securing 20,000+ pallet spaces through 3PL partnerships (NFI, UNIS), ensuring business continuity across fulfillment centers. With a strong focus on financial optimization, Ryan strategically managed inventory levels, reducing excess supply, exiting underperforming supplier contracts, and repurposing or donating over $3 million in surplus inventory to Feeding America. He also established a robust supplier performance evaluation framework, driving cost savings—including a $1.3 million reduction in procurement costs with Evora—while improving delivery timelines and transitioning away from unreliable vendors. Looking beyond immediate crisis response, Ryan developed Amazon’s long-term hand sanitizer supply chain strategy, balancing supplier diversification, risk mitigation, and distribution model optimization to ensure sustainable inventory levels. His leadership in this critical initiative not only safeguarded Amazon’s operations during a global crisis but also established a resilient, scalable framework for future supply chain management.
Senior Strategic Sourcing Manager | Direct and Indirect Procurement Dec 16 - Mar 20
From December 2016 to March 2021, Ryan held multiple roles at Danaher, demonstrating expertise in procurement, supply chain optimization, and strategic sourcing. He began in the Business Operations Leadership Development (BOLD) program, rotating through key supply chain functions, including New Product Introduction Planning, Inventory Management, and Technical Sourcing. Upon completing the program in 2018, he was promoted to Senior Strategic Sourcing Manager, leading global procurement operations across four locations with a $115M budget and managing a team of five procurement professionals.
Ryan optimized the supply base, reduced risk exposure, and improved operational efficiency, achieving 95% on-time delivery. He spearheaded a portfolio of cost-saving initiatives, delivering 4.5% annual cost reductions (~$5M savings per year) while establishing a long-term savings pipeline. His leadership drove quality enhancements through automation and technology, strengthening product performance and supplier reliability. His category management expertise spanned direct materials (metals, plastics, packaging, private-label goods) and indirect procurement (temporary staffing, MRO supplies, travel & fleet, facilities, and R&D initiatives).
Recognized as a servant leader, Ryan fostered a high-performance culture by empowering his team with resources, career development opportunities, and an inclusive, collaborative work environment.