Strategic Procurement Manager - Indirect Categories

BUSINESS PARTNERING

You will act as a trusted sparring partner for business leaders on strategic procurement topics, providing insights and recommendations for fact-based decision-making. In this role, you will engage early with budget owners, using commercial methods, scenario comparisons and structured negotiation approaches to optimize value from budgets. Furthermore, you will proactively connect with stakeholders to understand demand, shape procurement approaches at an early stage, and foster effective cross‑functional collaboration. In addition, you will maintain close collaboration with supporting functions (e.g., Finance, Legal) to align procurement plans, priorities and ways of working. Ultimately, you will clearly and consistently communicate procurement’s monetary and non‑monetary value contribution, positioning procurement as a value orchestrator.

CATEGORY MANAGEMENT (PLAN-TO-STRATEGY)

You will conduct market research for indirect products and services, analyzing trends in pricing, availability, lead times, capacity and supplier dynamics to support sound commercial decisions. You will analyze spend by category to identify opportunities and define fact‑based priorities and initiatives. Based on these insights, you will develop, document and continuously improve category strategies that balance cost, value, resilience, innovation and ESG, aligned with business needs. Together with stakeholders, you will drive an annual category strategy refresh and ad‑hoc updates if needed, ensuring aligned roadmaps and transparent initiative pipelines. For large or strategically important initiatives and tenders, you will design and align clear, structured plans to secure the best outcomes for the organization.

STRATEGIC SOURCING & NEGOTIATIONS (SOURCE-TO-CONTRACT)

In this role, you will closely liaise with stakeholders to identify improvement opportunities and align with them on strategic sourcing initiatives and key supplier negotiations. Based on business needs, you will define clear goals, sourcing approaches and negotiation tactics to achieve the best overall value, considering commercial terms, service and quality, risk and sustainability. You will lead or actively participate in tender processes (RFX), cost benchmarks and supplier negotiations, ensuring that all decisions are transparent, auditable and fact‑based. To support this, you will ensure a structured Source‑to‑Contract execution using procurement standards, templates and systems, and you will maintain complete documentation from intake through to award and handover to contract management.

SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT, RISK & PERFORMANCE (SUPPLIER 360°)

You will enable the identification, qualification and onboarding of suitable suppliers in line with internal policies and external requirements, including ESG standards. You will share supplier management practices and guidelines with departments to support effective supplier relationship management across the organization. You will participate in supplier meetings to strengthen relationships and to drive innovation and continuous improvement beyond pure cost savings. Together with key stakeholders, you will establish and run regular supplier performance and risk reviews, contributing to a comprehensive 360° view of relevant suppliers in terms of performance, risk and compliance.

COMPLIANCE, ESG & TRANSPARENCY

You will ensure that environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements are fully embedded into all procurement activities – from strategic sourcing through to supplier and contract management. You will make sure procurement execution consistently aligns with HQ procurement standards and will actively support governance compliance across all buying activities. Furthermore, you will strengthen spend, supplier and contract transparency for your managed categories: data inputs will be structured and consistent, documentation will be standardized, and reporting/dashboards will be developed and continuously improved in close collaboration with key stakeholders.