Category Management Director

Director, Category Management – Workplace, Construction, Real Estate & MRO

Location : Austin, TX or US-based Applied Materials site (flexible for the right candidate)

You'll benefit from a supportive work culture that encourages you to learn, develop, and grow your career as you take on challenges and drive innovative solutions for our customers. We empower our team to push the boundaries of what is possible—while learning every day in a supportive leading global company.

What we offer : Salary range $160,000 - $220,000. Locations : Austin, TX; Santa Clara, CA. Comprehensive benefits package and potential bonuses and stock awards.

Reports to : Senior Director, Global Indirect Procurement

Overview

We’re seeking a strategic and operationally excellent leader to run our global category management function for Workplace, Construction, Real Estate, Security, Energy, Labs, and MRO. This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for shaping and executing category strategies across ~$2B+ in global OpEx / CapEx spend. You’ll drive innovation, cost efficiency, and risk mitigation by architecting scalable organizational structures, governance models, and supplier partnerships that unlock long-term value.

You will hire, develop and lead a high-performing team, build trusted stakeholder partnerships across Engineering, Global Workplace, Legal, Environmental Health & Safety, and Finance, and engage global leaders to ensure alignment on strategic goals. You will act as a general manager of your category—accountable for performance, strategy, supplier relationships, demand management and long-range planning.

Key Responsibilities

Category Strategy & Execution

Own end-to-end category strategy across Workplace, Construction, Real Estate, and MRO—ensuring alignment to Applied’s business and sustainability goals.

Integrate long-term planning, market intelligence, and supplier capabilities to drive innovation and resiliency.

Drive holistic value across cost, performance, quality, compliance, sustainability, and innovation.

Organizational Design & Capability Building

Design and evolve the organizational structure to deliver on stakeholder needs, including segmentation of spend, talent development, and strategic governance.

Lead a global team, including matrixed and BPO resources, to deliver category results with operational rigor and agility.

Stakeholder Engagement & Strategic Business Partnering

Serve as the single point of accountability for key executives across Facilities, Construction, Real Estate, and Engineering.

Champion strategic alignment and visibility through executive business reviews, supplier governance, and proactive communication.

Supplier & Risk Management

Segment and manage a global supply base—differentiating between strategic, critical, core, and transactional partners.

Lead executive engagement for top-tier suppliers and ensure category-specific performance metrics and supplier improvement plans in place.

Drive risk mitigation strategies related to business continuity, regulatory compliance, ESG, and security.

Innovation & Value Delivery

Develop and operationalize frameworks to measure total value beyond cost : including Progression (innovation), Productivity, Protection (risk), Performance, and Partnership.

Lead initiatives that scale emerging supplier capabilities and technologies globally.

Qualifications

12+ years of progressive experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, or supply chain.

5+ years leading large global teams and managing category portfolios exceeding $500M in indirect spend.

Strong expertise in real estate, construction, facilities management, security, and MRO sourcing.

Must have experience in support lab environment to include consumables, tool installs, niche and complex CapEx equipment for mabs and mfg use.

Proven success in organizational design and operating model development.

Deep familiarity with supplier risk, contract lifecycle management, and global governance.

Strong communication, leadership presence, and ability to influence at all levels, including executives.

Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or relevant certifications (CPM, CPSM, CIPS) strongly preferred.

Tools & Technology

Experience with SAP Ariba, Fieldglass, ServiceNow, and advanced procurement analytics (e.g., Tableau, Power BI).

Proficient in Excel modeling, supplier scorecards, and contract lifecycle tools.

Additional Information

Time Type : Full time

Employee Type : Assignee / Regular

Travel : Yes, 25% of the Time

Relocation Eligible : Yes

Position requires understanding of Applied Materials global Standards of Business Conduct and compliance with these standards at all times. This includes demonstrating the highest level of ethical conduct reflecting Applied Materials' core values.

Salary offered to a selected candidate will be based on multiple factors including location, hire grade, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and with consideration of internal equity of our current team members. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, candidates may be eligible for other forms of compensation such as participation in a bonus and a stock award program, as applicable.

For all sales roles, the posted salary range is the Target Total Cash (TTC) range for the role, which is the sum of base salary and target bonus amount at 100% goal achievement.

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

In addition, Applied endeavors to make our careers site accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact us via e-mail at Accommodations_Program@amat.com, or by calling our HR Direct Help Line at 877-612-7547, option 1, and following the prompts to speak to an HR Advisor. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

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