Senior Manager - Category Strategy

About the role

The Senior Category Strategy Manager will lead a team of category strategy professionals and will have a deep understanding of categories of spend or program/product development globally. This role will make strategic decisions on category strategies and understand how to influence business outcomes; maximize the value the company receives from supply through category planning, strategic sourcing and supplier engagement.

Responsibilities

• Mentor and coach multiple category managers across the segment.
• Sense opportunity to engage in business leading strategic initiatives that benefit the enterprise, segment, or globe.
• Manage multiple spend categories and category managers at the global, segment level and/or enterprise level.
• Deep understanding of multiple categories of spend.
• Develop critical thinking skills of category lead; ability to connect supply chain impact to the business to drive peak performance.
• Subject matter expert on spend category/commodity, market trends and predicting future trends and impacts.
• Frequent use of data analytics tools to conduct spend and category data analytics; responsible for category spend and performance dashboards and spend synergy visibility.
• Advanced, independent critical thinking skills to formulate business cost/value opportunities.
• Frequent use of data analytics tools to conduct spend and category data analytics; responsible for category spend and performance dashboards and spend synergy visibility.
• Build meaningful relationships with the supply base in order to regularly impact the value proposition.
• Proficient with engineering/technical drawings and an understanding of the technical grammar and language of the business and category.
• Oversight for the effective use of supplier preferencing strategy, supplier engagement model and part taxonomy.
• Deep connection between category management, business goals, and value proposition.
• Identify, communicate, and manage supply chain risk and business continuity plans.
• Lead the validation and governance of category/commodity prices including total cost of ownership models.
• Lead strategic sourcing initiatives that capture value for the business, may lead or support a council.
• Lead product development team cross functionally across supply chain to drive a long-term category strategy and supplier performance through new machines, from concept through launch.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with eight (8) or more years of experience within in Supply Chain, Strategic Sourcing, or a related field.
• Ability to travel 25-30%.

Standout Qualifications

• Relevant industry related certifications.
• Category strategy experience within the manufacturing industry.
• Experience mentoring and leading team members through direct reporting relationships or project work.
• Ability to effectively communicate.
• Strong organizational skills with exceptional follow through and attention to detail.
• Strong time-management and prioritization skills, able to multi-task and prioritize competing requirements and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment where requirements are constantly changing.
• Experience and proficiency with various web-based software applications including Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, etc.