Global Enterprise Procurement Category Director

Global Category Director

The Global Category Director will be the enterprise leader responsible for developing and executing the global sourcing and supplier strategy for an assigned strategic spend category or spend tower across JENNMAR and its affiliated businesses.

The Director will manage the category as a business, with accountability for total cost, savings and purchase price performance, value analysis/value engineering (VAVE), supplier strategy, risk, contracts, payment terms and working capital, supplier performance, spend under management, and continuous improvement.

The role will establish the enterprise category strategy, commercial framework, preferred supplier structure, and performance expectations while partnering closely with regional and local teams on execution. The Director will work with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Finance, Sales, Supply Chain, Logistics, Legal, and business-unit leadership to establish category strategies that support growth, margin improvement, customer service, operational continuity, and product competitiveness.

The Global Category Director will have responsibility for potential annual spend between $100M and $350M across five major operating regions. Potential categories are Steel, Poly-Chem & Powders, Components, MRO, and SEPS (Safety, Equipment, Packaging, Services). The role will be expected to build a multi-year category roadmap and deliver measurable EBITDA, cash flow, risk reduction, and operational benefits.

Key responsibilities include developing and executing a global category strategy aligned with JENNMAR's business plans, establishing a fact-based spend baseline, segmenting category spend into logical commodities, owning the strategic sourcing process, creating and maintaining a global supplier strategy, driving measurable cost and EBITDA improvement, building and leading a formal VAVE pipeline, owning category purchase price performance, developing commodity and market intelligence, translating market intelligence into sourcing strategies, developing cost models and should-cost analyses, partnering with Finance to establish savings baselines, improving working capital, establishing and maintaining appropriate contract coverage, leading supplier risk management, developing dual-source, alternate-source, safety-stock, tooling, capacity-reservation, or other mitigation strategies, establishing qualified alternate-source strategies, establishing supplier scorecards and business-review processes, leading strategic supplier relationships and executive business reviews, partnering with Operations and Supply Chain, partnering with Engineering and Quality, partnering with Logistics, supporting acquisition diligence and integration, establishing a category dashboard and operating-review cadence, developing and maintaining an annual category business plan, increasing spend under management and contract coverage, ensuring sourcing decisions comply with JENNMAR policies, developing category-management talent and capabilities, and communicating category strategy, market conditions, financial performance, risks, opportunities, and required decisions clearly.

Key accountabilities and measures include annual validated savings and EBITDA contribution versus approved baseline, commercial productivity, purchase price variance, market competitiveness, VAVE pipeline value, spend under management, supplier concentration, supplier quality, payment terms, supplier consolidation, category strategy milestones, stakeholder satisfaction, and measurable operational/customer impact.

First 12-month priorities include establishing the category baseline, creating category visibility, developing the category strategy, capturing near-term value, building the VAVE pipeline, addressing critical supply risks, improving commercial discipline, increasing spend under management, building supplier partnerships, and defining the future-state roadmap.

Qualifications include ten or more years of progressive experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, supply chain, operations, engineering, or a related discipline, at least five years of leadership responsibility managing significant spend categories in a multi-site industrial, manufacturing, mining, steel, construction-products, heavy-materials, or similarly complex environment, demonstrated success developing and executing enterprise or global category strategies across multiple businesses, plants, regions, or operating models, demonstrated success negotiating major supplier agreements and delivering measurable recurring savings, cost avoidance, and working-capital improvement, strong experience with direct-material or indirect-category economics appropriate to the assigned spend tower, proven ability to lead VAVE, specification rationalization, should-cost, supplier development, localization, and other cross-functional cost-reduction initiatives, strong financial acumen, experience managing supplier risk, continuity planning, supplier concentration, alternate sourcing, and capacity strategies, experience establishing supplier scorecards, performance reviews, corrective actions, and strategic supplier-development programs, strong analytical skills, experience with ERP, e-sourcing, spend analytics, contract-management, supplier-performance, and business-intelligence tools, global sourcing experience, excellent communication, influence, and presentation skills, and ability to travel domestically and internationally.

Leadership profile includes being a commercially minded category leader, strategic and analytical, direct, practical, and metrics-driven, collaborative cross-functional leader, highly skilled in negotiation and supplier relationship management, disciplined change leader, curious about markets, technology, manufacturing processes, supplier economics, and emerging sources of competitive advantage, calm and resilient under pressure, leader of high integrity and low ego, and developing talent, building trust, and consistently acting in JENNMAR's long-term best interest.

Education includes a bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Procurement, Engineering, Operations, Business, Finance, or a related discipline required, MBA, master's degree, or other advanced business, technical, or supply-chain degree preferred, and relevant professional certifications, such as CPSM, CSCP, CPIM, CIPS, or comparable credentials, are beneficial.