Category Manager 2 Strategic

Nouryon•Houston, TX

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Nouryon, our global team takes positive action every day, to reach higher collectively and individually. We create innovative and sustainable solutions for our customers to answer society’s needs – today and in the future. We are looking for team members who bring ideas forward, champion others and work together to do better. In your future role as a Category Manager – Strategic, you will Develop procurement strategies at a regional category level for a total annual spend of 30-50 million USD of direct materials, leveraging value chain analysis to identify opportunities to optimize value across the supply base and align procurement decisions with business needs. Actively engage with key stakeholders from relevant Business Lines and sites to understand business and technical requirements, incorporating them into the supplier selection and decision-making process while building long-term partnerships with key suppliers. Explore cost reduction opportunities and establish a total cost of ownership approach internally and with external suppliers, actively working to improve commercial terms in line with the company’s financial objectives. Identify, assess and mitigate supply risks within the category, including supply continuity, price volatility and supplier dependency risks, ensuring appropriate contingency measures are in place. You will have the chance to work with various stakeholders across all levels of the organization. Amongst them is a mature procurement team, senior management teams and several site functions, and suppliers in North America. On top of that the opportunity to drive and contribute to regional and local continuous improvement projects. You will be working in an international procurement team and reporting to the Regional Procurement Manager in Americas Region.

Requirements

Bachelor or Masters Degree in a business-related area or industry, or equivalent work experience.
Minimum 3-4 years’ experience in strategic and operational procurement.
Good understanding of regional chemical market dynamics and ability to apply critical thinking to develop effective procurement strategies that balance value with risk mitigation.
Good negotiation skills.
Ability to build and manage stakeholder relationships, ensuring smooth collaboration internally and externally.
Good communication skills with the ability to engage people at all levels of the organization in a multicultural setting.
Ability to resolve conflicts and building organizational alignment.
Ability to apply value chain thinking to category strategy, identifying levers to create and capture value across the supply chain.
Ability to identify and assess supply risks and define appropriate mitigation actions to ensure supply continuity and business resilience.
Proficient with MS Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Fluent in English.

Nice To Haves

Additional languages are an asset.

Responsibilities

Develop procurement strategies at a regional category level for a total annual spend of 30-50 million USD of direct materials, leveraging value chain analysis to identify opportunities to optimize value across the supply base and align procurement decisions with business needs.
Actively engage with key stakeholders from relevant Business Lines and sites to understand business and technical requirements, incorporating them into the supplier selection and decision-making process while building long-term partnerships with key suppliers.
Explore cost reduction opportunities and establish a total cost of ownership approach internally and with external suppliers, actively working to improve commercial terms in line with the company’s financial objectives.
Identify, assess and mitigate supply risks within the category, including supply continuity, price volatility and supplier dependency risks, ensuring appropriate contingency measures are in place.
Drive and contribute to regional and local continuous improvement projects.