Category Management Coordinator

Summary/ Objective

Responsible for providing tactical support and driving continuous improvement and operational excellence within procurement category management. Key duties include coordinating procurement projects, managing SAP direct material price and material master data, ensuring raw material documentation compliance, evaluating supplier performance, and contributing to continuous procurement process improvements, along with other assigned responsibilities.

Essential Functions

Project Coordination:

• Support the planning, scheduling, and execution of assigned procurement projects including maintaining comprehensive project documentation (including data, plans, schedules, records/results etc.), meeting minutes, action item follow-up, and monitoring progress against defined project timelines and milestones.
• Foster clear communication with project teams and stakeholders regarding project status and efforts to keep initiatives on track.
• Create and oversee KPIs for major projects, reporting on metrics like completion rate, schedule variance, risk management effectiveness, issue resolution time, ROI, and more, while continuously improving project management processes through stakeholder feedback.

Administrative Support:

• Input raw material pricing and contracts into SAP as directed by Category Management
• Track SAP quantity contracts against current SAP planning - report bi-weekly
• Assist in the SAP direct material scrubbing process to eliminate obsolete materials from the database and improve purchasing material master settings by following Category Management directives to ensure data accuracy, optimized purchases, and system cleanliness - report quarterly / bi-annual as requested.
• Establish new raw material items and vendors in SAP as assigned.

Documentation Control/Compliance:

• Lead COA/COC compliance enforcement on existing ingredients and packaging as assigned.
• Maintain comprehensive and up-to-date documentation for all categories, ensuring strict compliance with procurement policies, standards, and regulatory requirements. This includes managing records and leading efforts in support of Category Management related to Special Regulatory Requests, BRC Documents, Contracts/Agreements, NDAs, Audits, Compliance Checks and Statements, etc.).
• Collect raw material vendor QA documentation for ingredients and packaging as assigned.
• Build/Maintain offline packaging specification file.
• Support supplier onboarding to ensure smooth integration and adherence to compliance standards.
• Compile and report USDA re-export sugar data monthly.
• Facilitate direct material CSR actions including Vendor Audit and Charter documentation along with support of special CSR projects assigned to Procurement; coordinate approval and filing of compliance records with Savencia Global Team and maintain a local CSR Procurement Database.
• Actively participate in and support the evaluation, development, and maintenance of comprehensive documentation for procurement processes and procedures. Ensure guidelines, workflows, and charts are up-to-date, clear, and accessible to all stakeholders, facilitating effective implementation and supporting training and onboarding as needed.

Supplier Scorecard Process:

• Conduct quarterly and annual supplier performance evaluations using established metrics and KPIs to ensure comprehensive assessments. Review scores with Procurement and Category Managers prior to quarterly or annual publishing.
• Continuously engage with internal stakeholders to address performance logging concerns and corrective action filings or requests.
• Collaborate with Category Managers to ensure timely and professional resolution of supplier-related challenges.
• Compile and analyze data related to supplier performance and risk factors to generate insightful reports.
• Present findings and actionable recommendations to senior management for informed decision-making.
• Identify opportunities and collaborate with stakeholders to enhance or further develop our supplier performance program.

Customer Specific Requests:

• Provide support in addressing customer inquiries and information requests related to raw materials and products.

Process Improvement & Optimization:

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Legal, Finance, IT, Audit, QA, Regulatory, Planning, etc.) to identify improvement opportunities and ensure compliance.
• Participate in implementing automation and digitalization initiatives within procurement and supply chain

Qualifications

Education & Experience:

• A four-year college degree or equivalent experience in materials buying/purchasing.
• 2+ years' buying, administrative, or project management experience in procurement, supply chain, or purchasing; experience with ingredient and packaging categories is a plus.

Competencies & Skills

• Experience with project management tools, expertise in Wrike is a plus.
• Skilled in project coordination and working with cross-functional teams.
• Experienced in process improvement (Lean, Six Sigma, Agile), procurement digitalization, and tools such as SAP/ERP, Ariba, and Tracegains.
• Strong understanding of procurement policies, quality compliance, documentation, and supplier onboarding.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; collaborative and effective with diverse stakeholders.
• Analytical and detail-oriented: adept at data analysis, KPI tracking, reporting, and advanced use of Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Microsoft Office, and other project tools.
• Ability to solve practical problems, engage a variety of changing situations, with minimal supervision.
• Ability to prioritize and meet deadlines within specified time constraints.