Category Manager-1

University of British Columbia•Vancouver, BC

10d•Onsite

About The Position

As a Category Manager, you will be responsible for developing category strategies and the strategic procurement for your respective category. You will manage the strategic sourcing process, negotiate, draft, and manage contracts and supplier relationships, and work closely with internal stakeholders to meet procurement needs. You will also leverage your market knowledge to develop and deploy world-class practices to spend management while utilizing e-procurement tools to deliver value and cost reductions for the University. This position will identify and leverage technology solutions and business processes improvement opportunities to lead and optimize the university’s category management practice.

Requirements

Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline.
Minimum of eight years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own
Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Nice To Haves

Minimum of eight years’ experience in procurement and strategic sourcing, coupled with experience in building category strategies and Category Management programs
Completion of a degree in business, commerce, supply chain management, or a related discipline – or a combination of education, training and experience deemed equivalent
Supply Chain Professional designation preferred
Project management designation and skills preferred, including work planning, monitoring and evaluation expertise, to manage large and complex projects with competing priorities and tight deadlines.
Oral communication, presentation, and consultation skills to provide expertise/advice to colleagues and management.
Superior written communication skills to provide internal and external reports, briefings, and memoranda.
Strong persuasion skills with the ability to influence at senior levels with strong interpersonal and conflict resolution skills focusing on business priorities.
Strong critical thinking and active listening skills to understand the full extent of issues, concentration to analyze issues, and resolve issues.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to analyze problems, detect root causes, and resolve issues.
Proficiency in computer applications, including MS Office (e.g., Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
Public sector procurement experience.

Responsibilities

Developing, implementing and optimizing the overall framework for strategic sourcing and category management which will enable an ongoing cycle approach to identify opportunities for improvement and value creation for the UBC Community.
Developing and Executing Category Strategy, Lead Strategic Sourcing for high risk and high value requirements from a category perspective, and manage the suppliers within the spend category.
Leading and supporting the UBC Community with sensitive and complex relationships with strategic vendors.
Providing advice and guidance to Faculty/Staff with complex needs relating to category management and strategic sourcing process.
All procurement activities shall be in accordance with the University's standard practices and all municipal, provincial and federal laws.
The incumbent will comply with Supply Management's code of ethics.
Sets Strategic vision and goals and develops annual plans for the Category Management and Strategic Sourcing program (wave plan)
Develop market knowledge through identifying market leaders, understanding value chains, supply and demand drivers, monitoring supply trends and shifts in technology to identify areas of opportunity and risk.
Proactively identify supply base issues to minimize risk, protect continuity of supply, and leverage emerging opportunities
Leads process improvement projects as identified in specific category plans and strategies, including the development of any documentation required to secure approvals or budget as appropriate
Assesses opportunities; develops category profiles and sourcing strategies for high dollar value, or complex suppliers; executes strategic sourcing and achieves cost saving/value add targets; leads in supplier negotiations including commercial contract terms; manages categories on an on-going basis through the category lifecycle
Facilitate cross functional strategic sourcing and supplier selection; work closely with external departments and faculties to align and ensure the selection meets the needs of the faculties/ departments
Engage in strategic supplier reviews and managing the relationship.
Monitoring & analyzing supplier performance; delivering executive presentations with clear story including articulating findings, performance and recommendations for improvement where required
Manages teams working in all the major categories and leads teams through the Category Management and Strategic Sourcing Framework to develop category profiles, execute sourcing, negotiate master agreements, manage supplier relationships, etc.
Working with the team, facilitates the design of requirements, vendor evaluation criteria, evaluation weightings, and terms and conditions that reflect business group priorities and KPI’s specific to the needs of the client
Identifies opportunities that focus on vendor consolidation, cost reductions, efficiencies and on-going quality improvements and works with Faculties & Departments to achieve buy in for achievement of the opportunity
Develops a customer service and cost savings focus for their category.
Establish targets and key performance indicators to drive a culture of best practices and improvement in the day-to-day operations of the department.
Performs root cause analysis and recommends countermeasures if metrics are not met
Leads the analysis of industry and category trends to proactively identify supply base issues to minimize risk, protect continuity of supply, and exploit emerging opportunities
Owns the strategic sourcing methodology.
Identifies metrics, tools, procedures, templates & processes to optimize strategic sourcing, supplier activities, and efficiencies
Ensures Strategic Sourcing Category teams are established, and category plans are in place with milestones and deliverables and that the team is performing
Leads the full Procurement process for high value projects, including the evaluation team in the implementation of the Procurement approach best suited to meet client requirements
Manages the supplier relationship collaboratively with Faculties/Admin Units as established within the Categories
Provides regular dashboard reports on the value achieved within categories, benefit tracking reports to faculty/departments supported and status updates for leadership team
Develops a deep understanding of faculty/ admin units and their end-to-end operations to provide strategic solutions to meet their objectives
Proactively build and maintain strong relationships with units and creates trust and credibility individually and for the overall department
Acts as the primary point of escalation for Strategic Sourcing projects
Monitors and analyzes UBC’s spending trends in order to recommend areas for potential efficiencies and savings
Identifies opportunities for continuous improvement and works with appropriate groups to design/ develop/ implement
Diagnose problems using formal problem-solving tools and techniques from multiple angles and probes underlying issues to generate multiple potential solutions.
Works collaboratively to identify, implement and monitor the best solution for service delivery.
Partners with leaders at UBC to identify opportunities for significant technology and/or process enhancements
Interacts with governance, project teams and department committees to develop, implement and manage organizational policies, standards and service levels to facilitate effective service delivery and support, as well as complex project management.
Consults / liaises with University Counsel/legal as appropriate
Other duties/projects as assigned