Strategic Procurement Category Manager

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Job description

Our client is a leading provider of workplace furnishings. They offer a broad collection of workplace furnishings solutions that support work environments from the home office to the large commercial campus and everything in between.

Job Type: Full-time

Strategic Procurement Category Manager

This is a highly visible role within our client's organization. It requires substantial engagement and partnership with key members of the executive leadership team as well as the various operational and business unit teams. This position will focus on developing and maintaining strong supplier relationships as well as providing broad based perspective on specific raw material categories, sharing knowledge about marketplace environments, industry trends and supplier capabilities. It will also require understanding of internal factors such as material/design specifications, quality performance and service level requirements. This position also contributes significantly to the company's ability to meet key strategic goals and financial targets. It will require an understanding of the market forces, cost drivers and technological trends, in specific direct material categories, that affect short- and long-term material forecasts and strategies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and assimilate strategic vision for commodity or category, aligning with our client's business strategies.
• M1-M3 - product category & business development engagement
• Category strategies
• Supplier strategies
• Enable the procurement of goods and services in the quantity and timing needed at the lowest cost of ownership for our client's company.
• Sourcing strategies
• Risk and contingency planning
• New supplier identification and onboarding
• Provide procurement expertise early in the product and program development life cycle.
• Identify supplier or material innovation to share with the broader organization.
• Negotiate and execute supplier agreements.
• Governance of all legal requirements
• Manage supplier relationships.
• Supplier relationship management - QBR, scorecards, etc.
• Understand and design robust, stable and effective material supply chains that meet short and long term needs of the organization.
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with internal stakeholders relative to the category.
• Develop strong collaborative relationships with the supply base to drive alignment of strategies, goals, and initiatives with our client's company.
• Develop and deliver clear and credible communication on strategies and key initiative updates to the company's senior leaders & other key internal stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to mine innovation from supply base and drive it back into the business through ongoing collaboration with the brands, product development/ engineering, and operations.
• Drive continuous improvement in the supply base through price, design, material, structure, and process to reduce costs year over year.
• Aggressively manage to annual cost savings target.
• Understand market outlooks related to the category and communicate regular updates to key stakeholders.
• Aggressively manage category price/inflation forecast to the budget.
• Maintain an improved awareness across the organization of the value proposition for strategic procurement.
• Drive improvement through category management in all elements of the supply chain from the supplier to the final customer (price is just one component of this).
• Ensure process improvement through technology implementation and adoption.
• Own and manage categories as a business.
• Develop three-year Category, Supplier and Sourcing strategies that are integrated with the needs of the business.
• Execute strategic materials flow vision.
  

Experience

• Customer-first mindset.
• Ability to influence at all levels of our client's company and with suppliers.
• Business acumen and results orientation.
• Strong decision-making skills with the ability to manage & drive change effectively.
• Financial aptitude.
• Strong negotiation and project management skills.
• Knowledge of operations.
• Ability to create and manage effective supplier agreements and contracts.
• Ability to prioritize and appropriately allocate time.
• Ability to analyze data quickly and make decisions which are directionally correct with incomplete data.
• Ability to work in a changing environment, manages priorities, identify areas of improvement, and document standard work.
• Ability to lead a cross-functional team and meet objectives on-time and budget.
• Strong ability to have impact without authority and influence peers both formally and informally.
• Navigation of changing priorities and needs.
• Ability to present to senior management on a regular basis.
• Strong relationship management skills.
• Strong verbal/written communication skills.
• Supplier/supply chain negotiations skills.
• Qualitative & quantitative analysis abilities.
  

This position offers a competitive base salary.

Related to: Shipper, Manufacturer, Distributor, Distribution, Fulfillment, Supply Chain, Supply Chain Operations, Distribution Center, Fulfillment Center, Warehouse, Logistics, high value, home delivery, consumer products, devices, fragile, variable inventory, sort and segregation, hand count, Demand, Analytics, buyer, buying, purchasing, inventory, SKU, stock levels, forecasting, brands, products, supply chain, vendors, suppliers, product variability, procure, procurement, Manager, Management, Supervisor, Team Lead, Team Management, Middle Management