Senior Category Manager

About the role

This job has enterprise-wide responsibility for creating and driving strategic sourcing for an assigned category of spend while building strong client business-oriented relationships by contributing to client strategy and objective setting. The incumbent acts as a strategic business partner, interfacing at the VP and Director levels of the company, providing leadership in the designated spend category for category strategy/plans, strategic sourcing and other strategic procurement processes such as supplier relationship management, spend performance management, demand and compliance management, internal spend and external market analysis, and category governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead creation and implementation of sourcing and demand management strategies for assigned categories of spend, manage the development of RFx materials, detailed analysis of proposals and vendor capabilities, negotiations and supplier selection.
• Plan, schedule and monitor category sourcing initiatives, ensuring proper resource allocation and on-time delivery of projects; exercise tight project management.
• Leverage key metrics to identify problem areas and adopt current and emerging business models with an entrepreneurial mindset and creative approach to drive best practice.
• Strategically partner with business unit leaders and contribute to client strategy by providing procurement expertise and strategic partnering for purchasing opportunities.
• Counsel internal business unit leaders regarding purchasing processes, technology capabilities and policies to assist in the procurement life-cycle.
• Build and manage relationships with priority business executives, serves as a key member of the business unit leadership team to support implementation of business strategies through advanced procurement initiatives and team alignment, facilitate the entire sourcing process and closely collaborate with clients to select and award business to suppliers.
• Demonstrate a strategic business mindset, organizational savvy, present an executive-level presence, and balance multiple stakeholder interests simultaneously.
• Create profound category expertise and leverage knowledge to proactively identify potential procurement opportunities through data analysis, category and industry knowledge, current and emerging business models and discussions with business units.

Requirements

Required: 5 years of experience in a procurement role, 3 years of strategic sourcing experience, experience providing consulting to business leads, strategic sourcing, and supplier relationship management and performance, experience in Indirect Category Sourcing and/or Health Care Sourcing with demonstrated expertise in influencing the business strategy and shaping Procurement strategic direction. Preferred: Advanced experience in procurement contract negotiation, competitive price analysis, procurement technology and related processes, contract management, and spend analysis, project planning and management experience, prior experience managing diverse stakeholder interests and expectations, prior experience with process redesign and improvement.

Skills

• Experience in strategic management and problem solving.
• Ability to translate big picture into implementation and achieve results.
• Working knowledge and experience in and key Procurement functional areas of Category Management, Strategy Development, Contract Negotiation, Supplier and Risk Management and Supplier Diversity.
• Exceptional interpersonal, consultative, influencing, presentation and communication skills, work well in a team environment, able to work in diverse environments and adhere to highest ethical standards.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise sound judgment in a complex, matrixed environment.
• Demonstrated success working with VP-level executives and matrix organizations.
• Strong and effective verbal and written communication skills, effectively presenting complex topics in a concise manner to audiences at various levels and in various sizes.
• Advanced negotiation skills and relevant experience.
• Demonstrated ability to manage cost performance, supply/demand forecasting.

Qualifications

Required: Bachelors in Business Supply Chain Management, Administration/Management, Finance, Accounting, Economics, Mathematics, Marketing, or Industrial Engineering or four years of relevant experience and/or education as determined by the company in lieu of bachelor's degree. Preferred: None.