Client
The company is a subsidiary of a French parent company, has a turnover of approximately €650 million and over 2,000 employees worldwide. It specialises in (waste)water treatment, filtration and the recovery of energy and raw materials from water. These are engineer-to-order projects in which technologies from the company’s own production sites in the Netherlands, Italy and the US are utilised as much as possible. Components include, a.o. pumps, valves, filters, tanks, piping. Clients are heavy and light industry, water companies and commercial buildings in more than 140 countries. The head office is located in the Achterhoek region. In the Netherlands, the company employs approximately 600 people.
Procurement
The company comprises 34 legal entities, 17 of which have one or more procurement staff. Procurement is managed globally by the Procurement Director, who oversees seven regions: Blx+DACH, UK/Ireland, the Nordics, Poland, France, Italy and the Americas. The BLX+DACH region has a total of 14 procurement staff.
The company’s global spend is €300 million. Including the parent company (which operates in the same sector), this figure rises to €900 million. Procurement is currently still project- and location-based. However, the procurement director is keen to move towards commodity-based, cross-location (consolidated) procurement in order to create synergies. As a first step in this direction, a global category management team is currently being set up. This commodity-based approach will be gradually rolled out further
Procurement can be broken down into the following commodity categories:
- E&I – €18 million
- Chemicals & filtration – €16 million
- On-site activities – €82 million
- Components & accessories – €17 million
- Mechanical & process equipment – €76 million
- Indirect spend – €90 million
Role
You will initially focus on procurement for projects at the Heerenveen site. You may be based at either that site or at the Achterhoek headoffice. The Heerenveen site has approximately 100 employees and focuses primarily on systems for anaerobic wastewater treatment and biogas desulphurisation. Clients are in the biogas industry, the energy sector, the food industry and the pulp and paper sector. The procurement team there consists of a procurement manager (who is due to retire in May 2027), two buyers and the vacancy.
You are expected to be willing to move towards a commodity-focused role in due course and to be able to take over the current manager’s role in the procurement team in Heerenveen. It is important that you ensure that procurement gets involved in projects at an early stage. Thanks to your technical aptitude and sharp questioning, you will be able to challenge engineers and thereby demonstrate your added value. Due to the engineer-to-order nature of the projects, you will need to source, select and contract suppliers. Building strong relationships with your colleagues in Heerenveen and across the wider procurement organisation is of course a prerequiisite.
Projects will need to be started by drawing up a procurement strategy together with your colleagues on the project team, taking into account risks, costs and TCO. Creating strong relationships with your suppliers and keeping them on their toes through professional supplier management are very important in your position. Finally, you will keep abreast of market developments and translate these into opportunities for new projects.
This role involves a limited amount of travel (approx. 10 per cent).
Your profile
- Higher vocational education (HBO) level of working and thinking, with a good knowledge of procurement theory
- Analytical
- Strong communication skills, team player
- Experience in drawing up procurement strategies
- Extensive tactical procurement experience in an engineer-to-order / configure-to-order environment
- Excellent command of English; Dutch is an advantage.
Offer
- Gross monthly salary of up to €6,400 based on a 40-hour working week, plus 8% holiday pay
- Flexible working hours, with the option to work from home 1 to 2 days a week
- One-year contract with no probationary period
- 30 days’ annual leave
- Pension scheme
