Sr Buyer and Category Leader

Category Leader – Indirect MRO / CAPEX / Site Services – Global Procurement

Ashland has an exciting opportunity for a Category Leader – Indirect MRO / CAPEX / Site Services – Global Procurement to join our Global Procurement team. Location is flexible and eligible for work from home, but must reside within 200 mile radius of Calvert City, KY or Texas City, TX. This is a very visible, significant role within the Company and the procurement function. This position will report to Associate Director MRO/Site Services, – Global Procurement.

The responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Develop Category Strategy plans following 7 step strategic sourcing methodology and use appropriate support tools to drive results and deliver savings.
• Ensuring all procurement services are met for the assigned Ashland plants, labs, and / or facilities.
• Negotiate, implement, and manage strategic contracts to ensure optimum cost and reliable supply.
• Identify opportunities for cost savings, better efficiency, and other areas of improvement; recommend and/or implement policy or process changes, as appropriate.
• Develop and deploy supply risk assessment and mitigation programs to ensure business continuity.
• Manage operational issues related to supply challenges.
• Facilitating RFP / RFQ / RFI and preparing Coupa sourcing / bidding events according to engineering specifications and / or business requirements.
• Conducting bid analysis with a cross functional team and awarding based on internal team consensus.
• Lead cross-functional team as well direct reports. However, person would be responsible for managing assigned high value/complex spend categories directly.
• Be an active member of MRO / Site Services Leadership Team and actively collaborate with other leadership team members to deliver on procurement/corporate objective.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key suppliers driving optimized value through strategic relationship management program.
• Extracting and analyzing spend data by various criteria from various ERP/S2P reporting tools (Coupa, SAP, QlikView).
• Representing as Corporate Agent: Ensuring Regulatory Compliance and Corporate Policies are enforced.
• Ensuring strict compliance to Ashland's Zero Incident Culture and Responsible Care Guidelines.
• Travel – Limited. Up to 25% to visit Ashland sites, supplier visits, internal meetings, and industry conferences.

To be qualified for this role, you must possess the following:

• Minimum of 10 years of strategic MRO / CAPEX / Site Services procurement and/or related experience required.
• Minimum Education: bachelor's degree preferably in engineering discipline; MBA and / or CPSM Certification a plus
• Leading a team and directly managing complex multi category spend greater than $60MM.
• Experience in Chemical or Pharmaceutical industry and/or in Fortune 500 companies a plus
• Demonstrated knowledge of category management and use of 7SSS (Step Strategic Sourcing) methodology
• Demonstrated knowledge of applying TCO (total cost of ownership) and other methodologies in evaluating suppliers' proposals
• Strong knowledge of deploying and leveraging Supplier Relationship Management program in a global supply base
• Demonstrated expertise in deploying supply Risk Assessment and Mitigation program in diverse categories of materials.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Contracting practices and processes in a global environment
• Strong communication, follow-up, presentation, and teamwork skills to be performed with a sense of urgency as required.
• Good knowledge of Coupa and other tools such as SAP, Ariba

The following skill sets are preferred:

• Five plus years' experience – dealing with senior management, leading team, and managing complex small value spend as well as multi-millions $ high value spend/contracts.
• Demonstrated experience working in diverse global cross-functional teams in highly matrixed environment.

In more than 100 countries, the people of Ashland LLC. (NYSE: ASH) provide the specialty chemicals, technologies and insights to help customers create new and improved products for today and sustainable solutions for tomorrow. Our chemistry is at work every day in a wide variety of markets and applications, including architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, personal care and pharmaceutical. Visit to see the innovations we offer. At Ashland our vision is to be a leading, global specialty chemicals company whose inspired and engaged employees add value to all we touch. In fact our people, employees, customers and vendors define who we are. They are the driving force behind everything we do. Not only do we value our customers but we value our employees, and we work to offer them a dynamic and challenging environment. We hold ourselves to high standards at Ashland, and we value integrity and honesty. Ashland has a history of attracting the best people and keeping them. The reasons are simple: industry competitive salary and benefits, pay-for-performance incentive plans and a diverse work environment where employees feel challenged and valued. People come to Ashland and stay. As a growing Fortune 500 specialty chemicals company, we offer opportunities for development and advancement throughout our global organization. Our values define who we are and what we care about as a company. If you are looking for a relationship with a company instead of simply a job, this may be a great fit. Ashland is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled/Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. NOTE: We do not accept resumes from external staffing agencies or independent recruiters for any of our openings unless we have a signed recruiting agreement in place to fill a specific position.