Category Manager III

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions•Downers Grove, IL

About The Position

This position Reports to the Director of Strategic Sourcing and is responsible for the management of global activities associated with procurement of direct material related to our Drinking Water & Filtration business units. This category Manager will provide leadership and strategic direction for assigned procurement categories within Zurn Elkay Water Solutions. This role is responsible for developing and executing category strategies that align with company objectives, ensuring cost competitiveness, quality, and delivery performance across multiple sites. The Category Manager will collaborate with cross-functional teams, suppliers, and stakeholders to drive value, mitigate risk, and support sustainability initiatives.

Requirements

BA or BS degree preferably in Engineering or Supply Chain competency. Minimum in a business/industrial related field
At least 5 years of experience as a Category Manager in an industrial manufacturing environment with experience in an Engineering, Supply Chain, or similar position
Proven success of strategically working with suppliers or customers
Ability to travel domestically and internationally ~25%
Experience sourcing in low-cost regions
Experience working with multiple locations globally
Proven success in a change management and “stretch” environment.
Category Strategy Creation and Implementation- Have the ability to create category and commodity strategies and drive the business towards these.
Decision Quality – Making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.
Manages Complexity – Making sense of complex, high quantity and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.
Drives Results – Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.
Manages Conflict – Handling conflict situations effectively, with a minimum of noise.
Plans & Aligns – Planning and prioritizing work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals.

Responsibilities

Maintains the highest level code of conduct and ethics.
Create and implement category strategies to optimize cost, quality and delivery
Manages complex multi-year customer / supplier relationships aligned to enable our front-end portfolio strategies
Plans, organizes, directs, controls, and communicates strategic sourcing activities related to BU products and other assigned commodities aligning cross functional supply, engineering, technical support, product management, and operations groups.
Conducts brainstorming sessions at Zurn Elkay facilities with cross functional teams to identify strategic commodities and deployment priorities on cost saving initiatives.
Provides oversight to sourcing/project managers on the deployment of projects with internal and external stakeholders.
Collaborates with internal stakeholders to identify, screen and qualify strategic suppliers.
Works with global facilities to create regional and global material cost savings funnels that align with commercial strategies and financial targets.
Drives spend analysis, including counter measures for projects that fall short of plan and makes decisions to remedy the issues to get the teams back on track to meet or exceed plan.
Possesses an understanding of total cost of ownership.
Proactively assesses internal and external process improvements and influences effective change and drive innovation and continuous improvements.
Collaborates with global business units on the preparation of Request for Proposals (RFPs), Request for Quotations (RFQ’s) and leads the screening and supplier selection process.
Negotiate and drafts supply agreements, including: payment terms, deliveries, price, freight terms, currency exchange, raw material commodity fluctuation, inventory levels.
Analyzes market and delivery conditions to determine present and future (industry trends in pricing and availability that will impact the business) material availability and prepares market analysis reports.
Responsible for timely reporting to agreed-upon KPI’s and presenting Strategic Sourcing plans, activities and progress.