Global category manager ‘IT & Indirects’

The Company

A recent merger of 2 companies active in the rubber technology business, has resulted in a new entity with over 5.000 employees, more than 25 manufacturing facilities, over 100 commercial and sales centers around the world, appr. € 800M turnover and appr. € 350M spend. The merger has been initiated by a private equity company that holds a majority of the shares in the new company.

The Procurement organization

As a first stage in the integration of the two former companies, five central and crossfunctional category-oriented projectteams have been been created with representatives of both entities plus representatives of a well known consultant.

Around the summer of 2019 a permanent central procurement team will be established, which is expected to be in place after the summer period.

The private equity company and major shareholder has asked the project-procurement team to initiate savings projects and deliver savings as soon as possible.

The Procurement function has a strong mandate from the Company’s Board:

• To maximize value from suppliers
• To initiate cost reduction, value enhancement and demand management activities.

 

The Role

The Global category manager IT & Indirects reports into the Group Procurement Director one of the 2 mothercompanies, yet he/she is active for the combined entity. It is important that the selected candidate can assume the same role in the new procurement organization (as this role does not exist in the other mothercompany’s organization).

The category has a spend of appr. € 25M and includes :

• IT – hardware & software services (IT category involvement is expected to cover >50% of the time)
• other indirect spend has a secondary priority: Professional services – consultants, insurance, etc; HR – temp labor, fleet, etc.; Marketing.

At this moment the IT landscape is quite fragmented. The IT department has the important task to create a common IT architecture for the whole company and implement this. This major effort needs support from procurement.

Running projects are a.o.:

• Implementation of Navision
• Creation of a WAN
• selecting and implementing an ERP system for the production locations (Navision is not suitable)
• e-invoicing
• e-Procurement
• Transport Management application.

Key responsibilities

• Constantly evaluate your category (what is bought, where, at what prices, supplier performance, supply risks, etc.), to identify areas of opportunity and build funnel of future opportunities. Estimate potential savings, outlining ease of capture and make a yearly sourcing plan

• Develop and implement category strategies to fit current and future business requirements. Understand and challenge stakeholders requirements (stakeholders are mainly senior corporate management in IT, Finance, HR, Marketing).
• Lead the implementation of the category projects in close cooperation with cross-functional project teams
• Benchmark, track savings and restart assessment cycle
• Conduct supplier performance reviews using KPI’s and enhance performance as needed
• Ensure adherence to category strategies, guidelines, policies and pricing
• Engage with stakeholders through development of sound business cases, coaching, presentations and meetings to support cost reduction initiatives (e.g., process improvements, policy setting, demand mgmt. initiatives etc.).

 

Appr. 10% travel will be involved across Europe, US, Asia.

Position is based in the Alkmaar/Zaanstad area.

 

Your profile

• Academic degree, analytically strong
• 3-5 years sourcing experience in complex IT projects (e.g. re. stakeholders, requirements, timeframes)
• Experience with other indirect procurement categories is a pré
• Proven success in managing supplier performance (e.g. performance improvement programs)
• Experienced (project)leader and teamplayer
• Experience working in a multi-cultural environment
• Be able to operate without losing sight of ‘the big picture’
• Strong political and communication skills, experienced in stakeholder management in averse enironments
• Proficiency in English – any other language is beneficial (Dutch/ Danish/Italian)

 

Offer

• Starting salary up to € 85K annually, depending on experience and background
• Bonus scheme depending on individual performance, up to 10% of gross annual salary.

 

Interested?

Please send your CV and motivation letter latest 15th of July to cv@xentys.nl.

Additional information can be obtained from Maarten Smits van Oyen, tel. +31.6.22422161 (mobile) or +31.70.240 0414 (landline).