Strategic Purchasing Manager

About the role

Sealed Air designs and delivers packaging solutions that protect essential goods transported worldwide, preserve food, enable e-commerce and digital connectivity, and help create a global supply chain that is touchless, safer, less wasteful, and more resilient. We strive to foster a caring, high-performance growth culture that will deliver consistent, sustainable profitable growth and accelerate our performance – a culture where accountability is clear and aligned, and where we reward business outcomes and impact. That culture guides everything we do, including how we partner with our customers and suppliers, how we attract and retain top talent, and how we create and deliver value to our stakeholders. In 2025, Sealed Air generated $5.4 billion in sales and has approximately 16,100 employees who serve customers in 119 countries/territories. To learn more, visit www.sealedair.com.

Position Summary: Sealed Air is seeking a Strategic Purchasing Manager to work for our Equipment Group. The Strategic Purchasing Manager leads sourcing strategy, supplier management, and commercial execution for the company's packaging equipment portfolio. This includes components, subassemblies, finished machines, and turnkey OEM/ODM equipment supporting bubble wrap inflators, dispensing equipment, bagmaking machines, and related automation. This role partners closely with Engineering, Product Management, Operations, and Quality to deliver reliable, cost-effective, and scalable equipment solutions throughout the product lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies for machinery, components, fabricated assemblies, and OEM/ODM equipment.
• Lead RFQs, supplier selection, negotiations, contracting, and supplier performance management.
• Build and manage strategic relationships with OEM, ODM, contract manufacturing, fabrication, controls, electrical, and mechanical suppliers.
• Partner with Engineering and Product Management on supplier selection, make-versus-buy decisions, new product development, and value engineering.
• Drive total cost of ownership improvements across purchase price, freight, inventory, lead time, tooling, warranty, service parts, and lifecycle support.
• Negotiate commercial agreements covering pricing, capacity, payment terms, quality, warranties, engineering changes, intellectual property, and continuity of supply.
• Identify and mitigate supplier risks related to capacity, quality, sole-source dependencies, and obsolescence.
• Cross‑Functional Responsibilities:
  • Purchasing: Owns sourcing strategy, supplier relationships, commercial negotiations, cost improvement, and supplier performance.
  • Engineering: Partners on design for manufacturability, supplier selection, and technical requirements.
  • Product Management: Aligns sourcing strategy with product roadmap and customer requirements.
  • Operations, Quality & Service: Drives supplier accountability for delivery, quality, corrective actions, and service support.
• Success Measures:
  • Improve cost, quality, lead time, supplier performance, and supply continuity.
  • Deliver annual savings, cost avoidance, and working capital improvements.
  • Support successful product launches and customer equipment deployments.
  • Reduce sourcing risk through supplier diversification and continuity planning.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, Business, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, purchasing, supplier management, engineering, or operations.
• Experience sourcing industrial machinery, automation, OEM/ODM equipment, contract manufacturing, or engineered products preferred.
• Demonstrated success negotiating complex mechanical, electrical, fabricated, and assembled equipment.
• Experience supporting new product development, supplier qualification, make-versus-buy analysis, and supplier performance management.
• CPSM, CPM, CSCP, CPIM, PMP, or Lean Six Sigma certification preferred.

Benefits

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Disability insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Employee discounts
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid elder care
• Paid time off