Indirect Procurement Category Manager

How you will make an impact:

Leadership

• Delivers clear, compelling vision and strategy for the categories owned; communicates vision and strategy effectively and consistently.

• Drives strong supplier engagement; leads supplier and stakeholder collaboration to achieve improved outcomes.

• Applies critical thinking to the business; owns transformation of procurement activities serving as a bridge between technology / systems (setup and planning) and business execution (reality - actual application).

• Inspires team members and stakeholders to do more, delivering stronger performance than they otherwise would.

• Influences and leads stakeholder groups throughout the company (including US, Canada, Stores, and Specialty Companies); ensures engagement across internal groups and promotes cross-functional partnering.

• Engages with Sr. Leadership, communicating key updates and impacts to Sr. team members.

Vision & Planning

• Develops strategic vision to drive spend management excellence across complex indirect spend categories.

• Collaborates with the North American Indirect Procurement Manager with the development and implementation of annual plans to achieve corporate goals for indirect procurement value creation.

• Owns transformation (evolves technology, process, structure) of Source-to-Pay activities for designated category of indirect spend (e.g. Warehousing, Transportation, etc.). Leads internal teams and suppliers to deliver successful deployment plan.

• Leads catalog strategy to ensure 'ease-of-use' for stakeholders including identification of catalog-ready suppliers and products.

• Supports the planning and development of S2P system user training and ensures successful implementation for new facilities and suppliers.

Communication & Relationship Building

• Drives effective communication with stakeholders on issues pertinent to business success, including compliance and supplier performance.

• Delivers an effective feedback loop with stakeholders and Lead Category Buyers to ensure input is appropriately gathered and reflected in sourcing process.

• Builds and leverages effective, collaborative, relationships with business unit stakeholders by communicating regularly via email and phone, and by meeting with stakeholders at GFS facilities and other locations when appropriate.

• Builds relationships with key indirect suppliers through daily communication and formal business reviews and account status meetings.

Category & Supplier Management

• Direct and execute category strategies that drive significant improvements in supplier quality, service level, total cost effectiveness, improved coordination, delivery & lead-times, supplier pricing, payment, risk compliance and other areas as identified.

• Leads engagement with divisional and business unit stakeholders to establish appropriate Indirect product and service options. Leads engagement with the Center of Excellence and other shared service teams to establish and attain category compliance and optimization goals.

• Influences enhanced value with supplier leadership; ensures the engagement from supplier leaders to drive improved outcomes for GFS stakeholders.

• Owns the resolution process of agreement compliance issues and problems - serves as intermediary between supplier and business owner to drive follow through.

• Drives decision-making by leveraging internal and external category data and stakeholder insights.

• Partners with the Lead Category Buyer to develop and successfully execute the Competitive Market Review process.

• Develops and manages performance of strategic suppliers toward continuous improvement objectives - seeks to optimize the ongoing value created from the supplier relationship.

• Manages compliance of complete and accurate indirect spend data for the category.

• Maintains knowledge of current trends and developments in the field by reading appropriate books, journals and other literature and attending related conferences, seminars, etc. Maintains peer relationships in the field to share issues and ideas.

Performs other duties as assigned.

What you bring to the table:

• Minimum of ten years previous experience of procurement, operations, and/or other supply chain discipline.

• Bachelor's Degree in Supply Chain, Business Management or related. Operations, procurement, finance certifications preferred.

• Proven negotiation abilities, problem solving, and working knowledge of vendor communities required.

• Strong financial and business acumen required

• Exceptional project management skills.

• Proficient analytical skills to analyze and interpret data related to industry trends, supplier pricing, stakeholder needs, etc.

• Ability to inject creativity, fresh thinking, and new perspectives and to generate new and imaginative ideas.

• Knowledge of continuous improvement, cost reduction approaches and practices.

• Proficient leadership abilities, capable of motivating others and influencing direction without explicit authority.

• Proficient communication skills - both written and verbal - to communicate effectively with a broad-based team including diverse internal stakeholders and vendors.

• Positive attitude, problem-solver mentality willingness to experiment and be creative.

• Exceptional organization skills and attention to detail.