Highlights of the Category Manager for Professional Services Position

Our client is a leader in the Advanced Materials industry, and they’re seeking a candidate with relevant experience for an opportunity as Category Manager for Professional Services. The successful candidate will have a chance to join a global organization that is going through a procurement transformation. Currently the commodity spend is sitting at all of the business units. The plan is to leverage spend at all of the business units in order to capture savings. The right candidate will have the required market insight into the cost drivers of the Professional Services commodity group, an ability to develop a long term strategy for the Professional Services Category, and the intangibles to grow into a leadership role within the group or elsewhere within the organization.

Company Information

Our client is one of the world’s premier advanced materials products companies spanning several industries including Defense, Energy, Industrial & Aerospace, Consumer Electronics and several others. This company serves leading and emerging technology manufacturers across the globe. Our client company operates from the U.S. and 10 countries around the world. The company shares a mutual culture of innovation and collaboration allowing the varied business units to offer comprehensive and beneficial solutions to their customers.

Job Location

Midwest US

Key Responsibilities of Category Manager for Professional Services Position

• This candidate will lead the strategic sourcing process that leverages scale, maximizes supplier relationships, minimizes risks and drives business value.  Engages with key business stakeholders and works cross-functionally in developing and executing sourcing strategies.  Establishes strategic relationships with supply base and develops supplier management strategies.  Leads contract negotiations, implements performance based contracts and identifies opportunities to reduce cost.
• Provide direction to accomplish strategic sourcing alternatives, vendor selection, price negotiation and supplier performance measurements to meet the needs of the Best Cost Country Sourcing category.  This category will encompass several Indirect Spend commodities including HR, Benefits, Legal, Financial Services, Marketing and other related commodities.  Assess current market conditions and identify and implement strategies to maximize opportunities.  Total spend for this category will be between $25-35 million.
• Responsible for the development and implementation of company-wide category 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.
• Track commodity trends and plan effectively to protect profitability of operations.
• 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 manufacturing initiatives.
• Build and develop category strategies and processes to manage suppliers and support activities in all regions.
• Identify and develop a robust supply base to provide materials with competitive cost and quality for all locations and support for geographic expansions.
• Self-motivated, capable of seeking quality solutions and continuously focusing on process improvements, while keeping the needs of the business in the forefront.
• Strategic Thinking and Thought Leadership: Ability to see ahead and thinks in terms of possibilities; creates a clear vision and strategy, thinks broadly and understands interdependencies.
• Influencing Skills and Lateral Leadership: Ability to build relationships and credibility across the organization; demonstrates managerial courage; strong negotiation skills resulting in win/win scenarios.
• Execution of projects excellence: Ability to get things done and multi-task; acts with a sense of urgency; willingly takes on tactical roles to achieve objectives; able to prioritize; excellent decision making/judgment skills.
• Sourcing and Procurement Proficiency: Strategic sourcing expertise and understands sourcing methodologies and tools; understands external market fundamentals, utilizes should cost models and appropriate e-sourcing tools; business and financial acumen.

Essential Qualifications and/or Requirements

• Outstanding negotiation, leadership skills and technical aptitude that would include previous experience with strategically sourcing Indirect Spend commodities.
• 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 Engineering or other technical degree is highly preferred, with a graduate degree in Business Administration and/or Certification as a Supply Chain Professional preferred.   Supply Chain Management, 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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