Specialist, Strategic Sourcing, Technical and Ports

About the role

The Specialist, Strategic Sourcing supports strategic sourcing efforts across a diverse portfolio of Technical and Port Operations spend categories, including ship systems, safety, hotel, furnishings, navigation, environmental, repair & maintenance, terminal operations, port services, and other operational services. The role supports initiatives that deliver value, drive savings, increase efficiencies, and mitigate supply chain risks. Working closely with stakeholder groups across North American brands (Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruise Line, Holland America Line & Seabourn) as a strategic partner, the Specialist listens to understand business needs, provides expertise in planning and implementing sourcing initiatives, and maintains focus on project timelines and deliverables to meet business goals. The Specialist serves as a sourcing and category support resource throughout the sourcing lifecycle, assisting with supplier qualification, competitive sourcing, market analysis, contract implementation, supplier performance management, and continuous improvement initiatives. By leveraging data, market insights, and category knowledge, this role helps drive value creation, mitigate supply chain risk, improve supplier performance, and ensure the continuity, quality, and cost‑effectiveness of products and services across assigned categories.

Responsibilities

• Support strategic sourcing initiatives across assigned spend categories by assisting with opportunity assessments, requirement gathering, sourcing strategy development, supplier evaluations, competitive events, negotiations, and implementation activities.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure sourcing initiatives align with operational and business objectives.
• Support assigned categories through spend analysis, category research, supplier assessments, and identification of standardization, efficiency, and value‑creation opportunities.
• Assist in developing category strategies and maintaining sourcing documentation and market intelligence.
• Conduct supplier research, market intelligence, benchmarking, and market assessments to identify qualified suppliers, innovative solutions, and opportunities to improve quality, service, sustainability, and overall value.
• Analyze spend, pricing trends, supplier performance metrics, lifecycle costs, and operational data to identify sourcing opportunities, improve efficiencies, and support data‑driven recommendations.
• Support supplier performance management through scorecards, business reviews, corrective action plans, and continuous improvement initiatives while maintaining collaborative supplier relationships.
• Assist with contract implementation, supplier onboarding, transition planning, and cross‑functional communication to ensure successful execution of sourcing initiatives.
• Maintain sourcing documentation, technical files, supplier information, reporting dashboards, and project records while documenting best practices and lessons learned.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Finance, Marine/Industrial Engineering, Naval Architecture, Construction Management, or similar discipline is required. MBA preferred. CPSM or CPM preferred.

Skills

• Minimum 3‑5 years of experience supporting or executing strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, technical operations, marine operations, port operations, construction, manufacturing, or related commercial disciplines.
• Exposure to structured category management methodologies (e.g., “six‑” or “seven‑step process”) preferred.
• Experience supporting competitive sourcing events (RFI/RFQ/RFP) through eSourcing or eProcurement tools, including bid analysis, supplier evaluations, and award recommendations.
• Strong analytical skills, including ability to gather, model, and interpret data in Excel; support financial analyses such as TCO modeling, cost‑to‑serve, and price benchmarking; translate findings into actionable recommendations.
• Familiarity with market and supplier analysis, including industry research, benchmarking, and supplier assessments.
• Profic