Supply Chain Category Specialist - Akron, OH

About the role

This is for three open positions with the FirstEnergy Service Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. The Strategic Sourcing and Category Management organization is seeking multiple Supply Chain Category Management Specialists to support high impact sourcing initiatives across enterprise critical spend categories.

Responsibilities

• Designing and executing multi-year category roadmaps, cost-reduction initiatives, and strategic supplier strategies.
• Developing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) strategies to improve service levels and unlock value beyond price.
• Building and deploying category strategies that incorporate market trends, risk modeling, value-engineering, demand forecasting, and supplier innovation.
• Leveraging technology platforms, spend analytics, supplier performance management, and market intelligence tools to drive data-driven decisions.
• Applying analytics to supplier spend, evaluating market dynamics, and benchmarking pricing to identify value opportunities.
• Leading supplier selection events, including RFP development, proposal assessments, and scorecarding.
• Monitoring and tracking supplier performance KPIs to ensure continuous improvement and compliance.
• Building robust supplier partnerships that support innovation and reliability.
• Guiding contracting strategy, negotiating commercial terms, and supporting value-based contract optimization.
• Partnering with technical stakeholders to evaluate proposals and ensure sourcing alignment with business needs.
• Tracking category-specific market trends, economic drivers, price movements, and supply risks.
• Defining cost benchmarks, analyzing supplier landscape shifts, and contributing insights to enterprise category strategy.
• Serving as a strategic advisor to business partners, ensuring alignment of sourcing strategy with operational and financial objectives.
• Ensuring user satisfaction through transparent communication and high-quality execution.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, or related discipline and 4–7 years of relevant work experience.
• OR High school diploma and 7–10 years’ relevant work experience.
• Relevant work experience includes sourcing / supply chain experience.
• Preferred experience in utility, engineering, construction, energized equipment, IT software/hardware, professional/consulting services, and related utility level procurement.
• Demonstrated success driving category improvements, cost optimization, and supplier performance enhancements.
• Knowledge of procurement policies, sourcing governance, terms and conditions (MSA) review, and compliance requirements.
• Experience with Coupa sourcing platform a plus.