Associate Director, Ingredients - Commodities

Kraft Heinz • Chicago, IL

9d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director, Ingredients - Commodities will be responsible for building and maintaining excellent relationships with mid- to executive-level clients and suppliers to ensure customer satisfaction and increase influence over total category spend. This role involves developing new capabilities through people by hiring talent, ensuring clarity on vision and jobs to be done, and driving engagement through coaching and development. The position requires developing a category and sourcing strategy for a comprehensive portfolio of complex and critical categories, establishing and delivering performance goals for categories representing significant spend, and leading strategic sourcing projects for supplier selection and optimization. The role also includes managing supplier relationships, facilitating Supplier Business Reviews, acting as a high-level escalation point for performance and risk issues, and leading discussions with critical suppliers on long-term objectives and market trends. The Associate Director will identify crucial supplier relationships, create roadmaps for improvement, act as a thought leader for continuous improvement, and manage a prioritized portfolio of projects. They will lead the supplier selection and RFx award process, execute complex contracts, and apply expert negotiation techniques. Understanding category dynamics through various sources and communicating changes to stakeholders is crucial. The role owns, builds, and delivers productivity and cash targets focusing on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), manages TCO at the category level through collaboration with data analytics, and is accountable for measuring and reporting value delivery. Enabling continuous process improvement and cost reduction, ensuring robust application of the strategic sourcing process, and collaborating with global procurement peers for support and alignment are also key responsibilities. This role has people management responsibilities for a team of 2 directs and 9 team members.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, finance, business, or equivalent.
• 7 to 10 years of direct Procurement experience, with a minimum of 5 years of commodities or ingredient commodities experience.
• Experience building high-performing teams by setting clear direction and priorities, leaning into coach and guide, empowering the team, and driving accountability.
• Strong Business acumen with the ability to understand and explain Procurement results and variances to non-Procurement audiences.
• Results-oriented, adept at solving complex challenges and dealing with ambiguity; anticipates and adjusts to problems and obstacles in the team or the organization.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; proven track record of building effective business relationships.
• Effective negotiator and influencer with demonstrated examples with internal stakeholders and external suppliers/partners.
• Strong strategic thinker who considers various perspectives and impacts of issues and can project them into the future.
• Ability to quickly develop organizational agility, e.g., knows how to get things done through formal and informal channels and is an effective delegator.
• Ability to prioritize your time and others' time on what’s most important while eliminating roadblocks for the team, creating focus.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) and have an understanding for source-to-pay tools (SAP, Ariba, Workday, etc.).

Nice To Haves

• MBA and advanced Procurement qualifications preferred (CPM, CPIM, etc.).
• Candidates with equivalent experience will be considered.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain excellent relationships with mid- to executive-level clients and suppliers continuously to ensure customer satisfaction and increase influence over total category spend.
• Develop new capabilities for Kraft Heinz through people by hiring the right talent, ensuring clarity on the vision and jobs to be done, and driving engagement through effective coaching, guidance, and people development.
• Develop a category and sourcing strategy for a comprehensive portfolio of complex and critical categories to Kraft Heinz.
• Establish and deliver performance goals for a portfolio of categories representing a significant amount of spend.
• Lead strategic sourcing projects for supplier selection and optimization to execute Category Management vision and strategies, deliver on business needs based on data and insights and leveraging external best practices.
• Manage supplier relationships, facilitating Supplier Business Reviews, and act as a high-level escalation point for performance and risk issues.
• Lead discussions with critical suppliers around long-term objectives and strategies, ongoing market trends, innovation, and technological advances.
• Identify the most crucial supplier relationships in collaboration with operations and commercial; create a roadmap for improving or changing relationships for improved value aligned with category strategies.
• Be a thought leader and enabler for continuously improving internal and external routines and business processes.
• Manage a prioritized portfolio of projects for the category in the near and long term.
• Led the supplier selection and RFx award process by executing highly complex contracts following policies and processes, applying expert-level negotiation techniques and tools in all situations.
• Actively understand category dynamics (current market, pricing, cost drivers, industry, and supplier variables) through trade groups, publications, etc., and communicate changes to business stakeholders.
• Own, build, and deliver productivity and cash targets aligned with overarching goals and objectives, focusing on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
• Manage total cost of ownership at the category level through collaboration with data analytics and be accountable for measuring and reporting value delivery.
• Enable continuous process improvement and cost reduction.
• Ensure the strategic sourcing process is robustly applied to all sourcing projects.
• Collaborates with global procurement peers to ensure support and alignment with the supported functions.

Benefits

• Coverage for employees (and their eligible dependents) through affordable access to healthcare, protection, and saving for the future, we offer plans tailored to meet you and your family’s needs.
• Events, resources, and learning opportunities that inspire a physical, social, emotional, and financial well-being lifestyle for our employees and their families.
• Physical - Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental, Vision, Screenings/Assessments
• Social - Paid Time Off, Company Holidays, Leave of Absence, Flexible Work Arrangements, Recognition, Training
• Emotional – Employee Assistance Program, Wellbeing Programs, Family Support Programs
• Financial – 401k, Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Disability

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director