Highlights of the Senior Category Manager for Real Estate & Travel Position

Our Oil & Gas client is seeking a candidate with an understanding of Indirect Spend commodities including Construction services, Real Estate services and Corporate Travel. The right person will also have strong Procurement & Supply Chain fundamentals to assume the Category Manager for Real Estate & Travel position available at their Corporate HQ. The right candidate will have the required market insight into the cost drivers of these Indirect Spend commodities, and the ability to develop a long term strategy for the Real Estate & Travel Category. This role requires relevant commodity experience, and the intangibles to grow into a leadership role within the group or elsewhere within the organization.

Company Information

Our client is a global manufacturing leader and Fortune 200 company in the Oil & Gas services industry. The company is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. With more than 60,000 employees in approximately 80 countries, the company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the lifecycle of the deposit.

Job Location

Southwest US

Key Responsibilities of Senior Category Manager for Real Estate & Travel Position

• Provide direction to accomplish strategic sourcing alternatives, vendor selection, price negotiation and supplier performance measurements to meet the needs of the organization within the Real Estate & Construction services ($600 million in spend) and Corporate Travel ($250 million in spend) category.
• Internal stakeholder management to create a more fluid relationship between Category Management and Operations within the category.  This person will be tasked with building rapport and building relationships to allow Category Management to better create long term strategy for the commodity group.  A certain amount of change management will be required in order to build better relationships among the internal stakeholders.
• Responsible for the development and implementation of category global strategies and managing the supply base.  Tasked with managing the supplier relationship, supplier performance assessments and reviews, contract negotiations and drafting, stakeholder management, and operational coordination for areas identified within the category.
• Assess current market conditions and identify and implement strategies to maximize opportunities.
• Lead continuous improvement efforts for material cost and sourcing activities.
• Implement effective systems and processes to provide value throughout the supply chain and support lean initiatives.
• Build and develop category strategies and processes to manage suppliers and support manufacturing and distribution activities in all regions.
• Identify and develop a robust supply base to provide services with competitive cost and quality for all locations and support for geographic expansions.
• Work closely with manufacturing and technical management to provide best-value solutions for raw materials and outsourced products.

Essential Qualifications and/or Requirements

• Outstanding negotiation, leadership skills and understanding of the Indirect Spend commodities within this group that includes Real Estate services including property and location services, janitorial, landscaping and security; Construction services that will include service agreements with General Contractors, Design firms, Engineering firms, and Sub-Contractors; Corporate Travel services including Air, Car and Hotel.
• Bring focus, purpose and agility to motivate others to adapt quickly to changing business needs.
• Proven ability to raise the performance bar – create, promote and sustain a high performance culture that reinforces accountability.
• Takes the initiative to look for and take advantage of opportunities and willing to take independent actions and calculated risks.
• Strong team player; proactively able to step in to support other team members as needed and share knowledge to allow cross training of all functions, builds collaborative relationships.
• Works well under pressure, effectively handles conflict and demonstrates flexibility in work style to accommodate changing priorities and fixed deadlines.
• Track record of sourcing success for new products and development of new suppliers.
• Successful implementation of lean supply chain concepts.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the broader organization, and how their role and/or function fit into the strategic plan and overall direction of the company.
• Creates alignment so everyone within organization understands the strategy and how their contribution furthers organizational success.
• Decisions reinforce the business plan and strategy by building a disciplined, consistent approach with measurements of success.
• Demonstrated ability to pull together management reporting, interpret data and provide meaningful information to both a financial and non-financial audience.
• Self-motivated, capable of seeking quality solutions and continuously focusing on process improvements, while keeping the needs of the business in the forefront.

Desired Qualifications

• BS/BA Degree in Supply Chain or other technical degree is highly preferred, with a graduate degree in Business Administration and/or Certification as a Supply Chain Professional preferred.   Finance and Business degrees will also be considered with at least 8 years of experience in roles with progressive growth in a multinational organization.

About the Author:

The Teldar Group is an Executive Search and Recruiting Firm specializing in placing professionals in Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, Purchasing, Logistics and Supply Chain positions.

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