Senior Category Buyer (German speaker). Rumanía

Our client is a diverse, creative team of people passionate about procurement. They invest themselves in their client’s success, creating strong collaborative relationships that deliver extraordinary value year after year. Our clients include market global leaders with far-flung international operations, Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises, and leading government and public institutions. They deliver practical, effective services and software that enable procurement leaders to maximize their impact on business operations, strategy and financial performance.

Responsibilities:

·      Supporting category managers with category strategy plans, sourcing execution, and supporting category planning and strategic sourcing tasks

·      Identifying and communicating with a diverse range of German-speaking stakeholders, such as suppliers, project sponsors, end-users and other supporting functions such as HR, Legal and Finance.

·      Leveraging the company network of Category Experts and tools, to deliver insights to any project/client.

·      Providing support concerning Supplier Management/ Procurement processes and policies.

·      Establishing negotiation strategies, identifying, and developing negotiation levers, validating them with German-speaking stakeholders and leading negotiations to ensure savings, timely supply and other benefits for purchases, business analytics, savings reporting and tracking, stakeholder interaction as part of the S2C program

·      Discussing with German vendors and evaluating their products and capabilities as suppliers;

·      Using client ERP system for procurement operations;

·      Demonstrating continuous effort to improve operations, manage SOPs, decrease turnaround times and streamline work processes;

·      Managing all supplier selection and procurement activities (e.g. RFI, RFP, RFQ, Scorecard and Bid Analysis)

·      Working cooperatively and jointly to provide quality seamless customer service in German language;

·      Leading a small/medium sized team;

·      Participating in firm-building activities, including recruitment.

Requirements:

-       Proven expertise in strategic sourcing, with a focus on one of the following categories: Packaging/Logistics/MRO/CapEx/Chemicals

-       Proficiency in English and German (both written and spoken)

-       Experience with managing and mentoring small to medium-sized teams, both from an operational and career perspective

-       Knowledge of the principles and practices of large-scale centralized purchasing

-       Strong verbal and written communication skills in order to comfortably engage with all levels of management in client organizations

-       Strong analytical, reporting and presentation skills i.e. regarding creating baselines, performing market tests/analyses, summarizing the key points succinctly by email/in presentation

-       Experience with leading and executing negotiations

-       Ability to manage multiple procurement projects at once and assess new purchase requirements based on spending risk etc.

-       Knowledge of a variety of categories would be advantageous (trends, suppliers, industry specifics and terminology, legal frameworks)

-       Advantage: Any business process improvement methodology such as TQM, Six Sigma, APEX etc

Required language: German