Sr Category Mgr u2013 MRO Parts & Facilities Services

Senior Category Manager

As a Senior Category Manager for the MRO Parts and Facilities Services team, you will oversee an annual category spend of $200 - 300 million at operations across North America. You will be instrumental in optimizing procurement strategies and ensuring the seamless supply of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) parts and facilities services. Your primary objectives include managing supplier relationships, negotiating contracts, and driving cost efficiencies while maintaining high standards of quality and reliability for the companys operations. Additionally, you will have primary responsibility for streamlining the teams processes, including sourcing, as well as the overall buying process for this team, specifically related to the procurement of our facilities services. This will require an ability to identify, prioritize and document processes needing improvement. You will then work inside the group and with other teams, stakeholders, consultants and external resources to align, organize, motivate and lead ad-hoc cross-functional teams to achieve the goals of the prioritized projects, typically focused on total cost reduction and operational efficiency, primarily with the Facilities Services categories, but also in conjunction with the MRO parts categories. A typical day involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to understand the needs of stakeholders, analyzing market trends, implementing strategic sourcing initiatives, providing guidance to category managers, identifying systems and technologies to support process improvement, and collaborating with other teams to improve processes and drive operational efficiency. You will play a crucial role in aligning procurement activities with the broader organizational goals of safety, cost take out, availability, quality, performance, and sustainability. This role requires strong analytical skills, strategic thinking, negotiations, a continuous improvement mindset and the ability to foster and influence this and other teams to develop a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, operational efficiency.

How you will impact Smurfit Westrock :

• Create and manage the strategic procurement and sourcing process for assigned categories in MRO Parts and Facilities Services, including demand and market analysis, sourcing, negotiations, supplier award, implementation and performance.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to define business requirements and understand operational needs.
• Gather, cleanse, and analyze data from multiple systems to generate insights and recommendations that drive decision-making.
• Understand market trends, supplier base, and supplier economics for categories.
• Develop and execute category strategies and strategic plans leveraging market and spend data, information about suppliers, competitors, industry trends, and the companys needs.
• Clearly articulate the value of the category strategy and how it aligns to the organizations objectives.
• Perform assessments of suppliers and vendors to identify risks and implications.
• Lead the strategic sourcing process, including supplier sourcing, negotiations, selection, and implementation of processes for assigned categories.
• Negotiate final agreements that are consistent with achieved negotiated results. Ensure agreements contain provisions that meet Companys objectives and standards.
• Drive total cost savings and continuous improvement initiatives while maintaining product quality and reliability.
• Measure and track results and outcomes using data from multiple systems.
• Monitor field compliance to strategy and ensure TCO reductions are realized.
• Forecast budgetary impact and track actual savings.
• Work with stakeholders to ensure savings are incorporated into annual operating plans.
• Implement inventory management practices to optimize stock levels, reduce inventories and reduce lead times.
• Continuously improve procurement processes and drive productivity gains.
• Meet with suppliers to conduct regular business reviews and stay updated on business and upcoming changes that may affect Smurfit Westrock and suppliers in assigned categories.
• Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies to handle supply chain disruptions and ensure business continuity.
• Ensure adherence to company policies, industry regulations, and ethical standards in all procurement activities.
• Define and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of category management strategies and initiatives.
• Spearhead initiatives aimed at improving procurement processes, leveraging data analytics and supplier performance metrics to drive results, especially within the Facilities Services categories.
• Identify and review processes needing improvement, then work inside the group and with other teams and stakeholders to align with and lead those teams to achieve the goal of each project.
• Provide guidance to category managers on the team on category strategies and tactics for improving the efficiency of their assigned categories, especially within, but not limited to, the Facilities Services categories.

What you need to succeed :

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE : SW) is a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging solutions. We are materials scientists, packaging designers, mechanical engineers and manufacturing experts with a shared purpose : Innovate Boldly. Package Sustainably. Guided by our values of safety, loyalty, integrity, and respect, we use leading science and technology to move fiber-based packaging forward. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by state or federal law.