Senior Procurement Category Manager, Specialty Flavors

McCormick employees—all 14,000 of us across the world—are what makes this company a great place to work. We are looking to hire a Senior Procurement Category Manager, Specialty Flavors in a Hybrid (50/50) capacity at our Global Headquarters in Hunt Valley, MD or at the McCormick Flavor Solutions site in Geneva, IL.

About the role

The Senior Procurement Category Manager, Specialty Flavors is responsible for developing and executing procurement strategies for assigned categories. This role leads sourcing, supplier relationship management, negotiations, risk mitigation, and value delivery for categories in scope. The role partners closely with R&D, Product Development, Quality, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Commercial, Finance, and regional procurement teams to ensure supply continuity, competitive total cost of ownership, supplier performance, innovation support, and compliance with McCormick quality and business requirements. This position is an individual contributor role with significant cross-functional leadership responsibility. The role may lead project teams, supplier initiatives, and category workstreams but does not have direct people management accountability unless otherwise assigned.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of procurement strategies, including supplier selection, negotiations, contracting, supplier relationship management, and performance improvement.
• Deliver value through total cost of ownership optimization, cost savings, supply continuity, supplier rationalization, innovation support, quality and service performance, and risk mitigation.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and suppliers to ensure solutions meet business, technical, quality, regulatory, and commercial requirements.
• Partner with R&D, Product Development, Quality, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Commercial, Finance, and regional teams to support new product development, reformulation, supplier qualification, specification alignment, service recovery, and business continuity needs.
• Develop and document market, supplier, raw material, and supply chain insights. Monitor market trends, supply risks, capacity constraints, geopolitical impacts, regulatory changes, and supplier financial or operational risk. Recommend mitigation plans, including alternative sources and contingency strategies.
• Support budgeting, standard cost setting, price variance analysis, savings tracking, reporting, and category governance. Provide clear explanations of cost drivers, inflation, deflation, and supplier pricing changes to stakeholders.
• Establish and execute strategies for assigned categories globally.
• Lead supplier business reviews and support performance management strategies to assure optimal value delivery across key metrics.
• Participate and lead change management efforts while creating true alignment and integration internally and externally.
• Act as an internal subject matter expert for assigned categories.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Accounting, or applicable field of study required.
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in Procurement, Supply Chain, Strategic Sourcing, Category Management, or a related business function.
• Experience managing direct materials, food ingredients, flavors, seasonings, extracts, specialty ingredients, or other technically complex ingredient categories.
• Demonstrated success leading supplier negotiations, cost savings initiatives, sourcing events, and cross-functional projects.
• Experience developing and executing category strategies for complex supplier markets.
• Strong understanding of total cost of ownership, supplier performance management, price variance analysis, contract management, and supply risk mitigation.
• Ability to work with technical, commercial, quality, regulatory, and operational stakeholders to resolve complex business issues.

Skills

• Strong negotiation, communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to lead without direct authority across functions, regions, and supplier organizations.
• Strong analytical capability, including cost modeling, scenario analysis, savings tracking, and business case development.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
• Strong business acumen and ability to connect procurement decisions to cost, service, quality, innovation, risk, and customer impact.
• Professional project-management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or other equivalent Master's degree.
• CPM or APICS certification.

Benefits

In addition to the benefits you’d expect from a global leader (401k, health insurance, paid time off, etc.) we also offer:

• Competitive compensation.
• Career growth opportunities.
• Flexibility and support for diverse life stages and choices.
• Comprehensive health plans covering medical, vision, dental, life, and disability benefits.
• Family-friendly benefits such as paid parental leave, fertility benefits, Employee Assistance Program, and caregiver support.
• Retirement and investment programs including 401(k) and profit-sharing plans.

Pay

Base Salary: $100,870 - $176,480. Base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as geographic location, skills, education, experience for this role, and/or internal equity of our current employees as part of any final offer. This position is also eligible to participate in McCormick’s Incentive Bonus (MIB) Plan.

Schedule

Hybrid (50/50) capacity.