Category Manager II

• Establishing strong relationships with internal departmental and executive business stakeholders; building a strong understanding of strategic business direction, requirements and priorities across assigned suppliers and/or spend categories.
• Provide leadership and guidance to team Buyers and Procurement Specialist on category strategy implementation and issue resolution
• Develop and maintain strategic category database; provide training to team Buyers and Procurement Specialists on category expertise
• Developing global sourcing strategies to deliver against business objectives for internal clients.
• Evaluating supplier core competencies and competitive positioning using industry cost models and bench-marking analysis.
• Managing the fundamentals of sourcing and supplier engagement activities including RFx, spend pattern analysis, contract analysis, bid evaluation, negotiations, and supplier consolidation.
• Identifying sourcing opportunities by leveraging spend analysis tools and engage with stakeholders to consolidate requirements over categories, suppliers and geographies.
• Work with business and finance leaders to identify and drive savings and controllership improvements, focusing on total cost of ownership.
• Providing guidance to internal stakeholders on procurement strategies
• Prepare and hold business reviews with stakeholders to review vendor performance, future opportunities, and/or challenges
• May be required to travel up to 50% of the time.

• Knowledge of computer programs, including Microsoft Office, Visio, BW, LiveLink

• Advanced knowledge of ERP systems; SAP
• Expert knowledge of manufacturing and supply chain processes, matrix or strategic pricing, and supplier markets.
• Strong negotiator with proven experience in setting negotiation strategies and conducting negotiations.
• Extensive knowledge of the basic types of commercial agreement structures and the function and purpose of key legal terms.
• Strong experience assessing risk and concisely explaining complex issues to principal business owners.
• Extremely customer-focused and takes the time to understand the needs of the business.
• Experience working in a large, global, highly matrixed organization.
• Strong analytical skills including the ability to quickly synthesize, distill and draw conclusions on large amounts of disparate data.
• Ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects requiring frequent communication, organization, time management, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Extensive experience presenting at the executive level and developing business cases
• Passionate self-starter with the highest integrity and ethics.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain, Business, Economics, or related field
• AND
• Masters in a business or supply chain related field and / or MBA preferred
• 10+ years of related source to pay experience in Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing
• Category specific procurement experience required
• In-depth experience in best-in-class procurement practices (category management, bench-marking, should-cost models, RFX, reverse auction, contracting, etc.)