Category Management Consultant - Corporate Services

MassMutual•Boston, MA

About The Position

At MassMutual, we’re passionate about helping millions of people find financial freedom and this passion has driven our approach to developing highly interactive digital experiences for our customers. As a Category Management Consultant , you will be responsible for managing supplier relationships, negotiating deals, facilitating sourcing events, and providing directed and independent analytical support for the assigned categories. To help us achieve our mission, we are hiring a Category Management Consultant supporting CFO and Corporate Services to join our team. Our ideal Category Management Consultant candidate will serve as a procurement subject matter expert for the CFO organization, partnering across the business and with other procurement functional areas including responsible sourcing, and procurement operations. A strong mix of analytic, strategic negotiation, creativity, strategic vision, and communication skills will ensure your success in this role. This role focuses on being a subject matter expert (SME) to assigned business groups. The Category Management Consultant partners with business leaders/internal procurement group to meet expectations to make sure that all purchases are smart, timely, cost-effective, and aligned with MassMutual Procurement policies.

Requirements

3+ years procurement, sourcing and negotiation experience
High School Diploma

Nice To Haves

B.S. in business or related fields
Experience in financial or insurance industry desirable
Experience in working complex sourcing projects
Experience creating and leading RFI/RFX sourcing activities to realign suppliers in the category
Possesses a strong understanding and prior working experience in supplier management activities including performance management (SLAs, KPIs etc.), relationship management, contracting and risk management
Seasoned individual capable of handling broad-scope projects with short to medium term focus independently
Team player who collaborates with business units and functional partners (i.e., IT, finance, HR, legal)
Extensive experience in negotiating agreements and managing complex vendor / client relationships and being creative to structure win-win outcome while optimizing value for MassMutual
Strong influencing skills to encourage leaders from across MassMutual towards positive supplier relationships and results delivery
Courage to influence across the organization for compliance with standards and escalate noncompliance when needed
Demonstrated verbal and written communication, change management capabilities, business acumen, project management and leadership skills
Ability to lead through transition; Communicate the vision for the future and provide motivation for people to change; Address questions and resistance to change with confidence and an understanding of what is needed for buy-in

Responsibilities

Drive key sourcing events and negotiations, leveraging the full suite of sourcing capabilities and market analysis
Responsible for managing and negotiating deals for select supplier relationships in the organization
Coordinate with Procurement, Contracting, Spend Analytics, Risk, Responsible Sourcing, Accounts Payable, Enterprise Risk Management, Enterprise Technology etc. to ensure an effective sourcing process and end-to-end supplier management approach
Champion third party risk management process compliance
Partner with Procurement to develop and execute supplier negotiations strategies to achieve the best value and least risk for MassMutual
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure key contracting elements, including service level agreement components and evaluation process are aligned and included in the draft contract before passing to Legal for review
Lead supplier onboarding and offboarding activities, including, but not limited to, coordinating supplier training, granting system access and ensuring that the supplier is familiar with their main contacts within MassMutual
Determine and lead appropriate supplier specific ongoing monitoring plan (operational business review meetings, executive oversight meetings, issue management reviews, performance monitoring, contract management reviews, risk management reviews etc.)