Procurement Category Manager, Air Freight

The Category Lead develops category strategies for regional and local categories, including sourcing strategy definition, deployment, value engineering and stakeholder management. The Category Lead supports the implementation of Category Strategies in Europe, to maximise total cost of ownership savings and procurement value contribution. He/she is the resident expert for strategic procurement in the specific category, sharing and facilitating best practices, working closely with the local businesses, wider Cencora business and category teams.

• Leads strategic planning for regional and local categories and ensures alignment across businesses in Europe
• Takes strategic and long-term view of category, identifies and develops innovative sources and contractual arrangements
• Develops category strategies and initiatives, including value engineering
• Provides analysis and support in relation to the setting of category spend baseline and category profile, including risk assessment
• Aligns category strategy with local businesses and their financial plans
• Supports VP Procurement for the IBG in the definition of a priority list of categories suitable for strategic sourcing initiatives, aligned with the countries & Global Indirect Category procurement
• Records and reports value delivery of conducted sourcing projects
• Leads implementation of procurement strategy and sourcing execution
• Participates in internal and external analysis (industry and supplier) in collaboration with in-country procurement Managers as a member of a cross-functional sourcing team
• Aligns global, regional and local category activities
• Supports supplier selection and provide recommendations to VP Procurement for final decision
• Supports fact-based negotiations with suppliers
• Obtains stakeholder and leadership team approvals as required eg SCP & Delegation of Authority
• Ensures that governance processes are followed eg SCP, Delegation of Authority, Code of Conduct
• Ensures that category-specific operational processes and policies are in place and a compliant usage
• Proactively organises sessions with internal customers to identify further Total Cost of Ownership reduction and value engineering opportunities for regional categories
• Supports the delivery of value engineering projects in countries
• Establishes measures and controls for countries to ensure and track successful implementation in alignment with KPIs
• Supports alignment of negotiation timing and contract durations between countries to enable Best Practice Sharing and supplier leverage
• Actively engages in local key initiatives (aggregate demand, construct bid packages, value engineering projects and support sourcing through suppliers around the region) especially negotiations to ensure value levers are effectively played
• Leads contract implementation and drives contract compliance and payment terms as per agreed procurement policies
• Works in close collaboration with in-country procurement Managers in order to ensure local acceptance of new contracts, and extended value generation to increase customer satisfaction
• Coordinates contract implementation tasks with in-country procurement Managers and users
• Closely monitors internal customers contract compliance; defines and takes approved corrective actions to improve contract compliance
• Secures knowledge transfer and exchange by creating and storing project deliverables and relevant tools and templates in knowledge repositories
• Manages supplier relationships with key suppliers within the defined category scope
• In line with defined procurement strategy, supports the classification and categorisation of suppliers, including definition of supplier evaluation and audit policies
• Continuously tracks supplier performance, according to defined framework
• Supports supplier development activities; sets up cross-functional review meetings with suppliers in order to improve performance and further reduce cost
• Proactively organises work with suppliers under the guidance of VP Procurement to identify further value delivery projects
• Initiates and conducts supplier audits according to defined framework under the guidance of VP Procurement
• Continuously identifies potential contract improvement opportunities and re-negotiations
• Executes large Spot Buys
• Sources major unplanned ad hoc demands to keep control over high spend utilising deep sourcing and/or category expertise

• Extensive knowledge of Air Freight Logistics
• Proven experience managing Air Freight Procurement, including end-to-end sourcing
• Minimum of 5 years' experience in Procurement
• Proven Category management experience
• Experience on implementing strategies aligned with organisational goals
• Procurement experience on a Pan-European scale is preferable

• Full time
• Total rewards

Our team members are at the heart of everything we do. At Cencora, we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures, and every person here is essential to us being able to deliver on that purpose. If you want to make a difference at the center of health, come join our innovative company and help us improve the lives of people and animals everywhere.