Category Manager - MRO & Capital Equipment

Mold-Rite Plastics•Franklin Township, NJ

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The MRO & Capital Equipment sourcing manager is responsible for leading all related procurement activities throughout the organization with the mission of supporting the company’s productivity, lead time, and working capital business strategy. This person will manage the supply base and strategy that builds a sustainable competitive advantage. The MRO & Capital Equipment sourcing manager serves as an authority on developing and leading procurement guidelines, policies & procedures, contracts, and negotiations. This person will manage a complex bid process for conformance with regulatory requirements, corporate policies, and procurement practice, ensuring fair and open competition that creates the appropriate benefit to the company. This role partners closely with a centralized engineering organization that owns technical specifications and standards. Further, this person directs the full range of actions required for the contract administration phase, post-award conferences with bidders, track productivity progress, track delivery progress, remedial action, and settle claims. The mission of this role is to convert capital procurement from a transactional activity into a strategic advantage that improves cost, reduces risk, and accelerates growth.

Requirements

Any combination of degreed education and experience providing the required skill and knowledge for successful performance would be qualifying.
BA/BS in supply chain management, economics, finance, operations, engineering or business related filed preferred.
At least 7+ years related work experience.
Experience sourcing: Industrial equipment, tooling, or automation systems
Must possess the ability to “sell” value and to run your category as a services business like any other well-run professional services operation.
Experience in a fast moving, complex supply and trading environment.
Must be a self-starter with a very strong cross functional team attitude by making strategic recommendations and taking appropriate action.
Proven record of initiating and carrying out cost reduction / productivity improvement programs.
Strong analytical skills
Great attention to detail, and the ability to thrive in a team based culture.
Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communications, listening and presentation skills.
Experience in dealing with suppliers and distributors.
Strong negotiation skills.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute category strategies for: Injection molds and tooling, Presses and auxiliary equipment and Automation and assembly systems.
Build and actively manage a segmented supplier portfolio (strategic, competitive, niche)
Introducing competitive alternatives to drive cost and innovation
Lead all commercial negotiations for capital purchases: Pricing structures, payment milestones, warranty and service agreements, finally performance guarantees and penalties
Develop should-cost models and benchmarking to ensure competitive pricing
Structure contracts to protect the company from: Delivery delays, performance shortfalls and cost overruns
Implement: Milestone-based payments tied to deliverables and clear acceptance criteria aligned with engineering
Partner with Engineering, Operations, and Finance through the Stage Gate / CapEx process
Category Manager owns commercial evaluation
Ensure alignment between technical requirements and commercial outcomes
Establish and manage supplier scorecards: Cost, delivery, quality and startup performance
Lead supplier reviews and corrective actions for underperformance
Drive continuous improvement across the supply base
Support early project phases to enable faster project starts (“advantaging”)
Maintain pre-negotiated frameworks and supplier readiness
Manage commercial aspects of change orders and claims.
Strictly reviews scope creep with the executive staff and develops ways to prevent scope reep in the future.
Supports a culture where employees address unsafe conditions and behaviors, make suggestions for improvements, and actively participates in implementing solutions
Identifies safety gaps and self-initiates corrective actions
Strictly adheres to plant safety, housekeeping, and 5S efforts
Understands, identifies, and corrects safety hazards
Drives a culture which empowers employees to understand and embrace what they own
Monitors and verifies activities to ensure that finished goods and raw materials are coming in and out of the facility meet consumer safety and quality standards.
Complies with all company food safety and quality assurance procedures
Reports any product or process failures that could impact food safety of manufactured products to the location’s Food Safety Team Leader and submits an appropriate incident report