Commodity Manager

Tenneco•Grass Lake, MI

About The Position

The Steel Commodity Manager, Direct Materials, develops and executes sourcing and supplier strategies for carbon steel and stainless steel used across Tenneco’s Powertrain and Clean Air businesses. The commodity portfolio may change according to business priorities, organizational needs, and supply-market conditions. The role owns commodity strategy, market and index analysis, supplier negotiations, cost reduction, sourcing decisions, supply-risk management, and continuity-of-supply actions. It works closely with Engineering, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, Program Management, Commercial, and Supplier Development to meet cost, quality, delivery, working-capital, launch, and supply-continuity objectives. The successful candidate brings direct-material purchasing and negotiation experience, understands steel markets and commercial mechanisms, and can turn market intelligence into practical sourcing, negotiation, and risk-mitigation actions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Engineering, Finance, Metallurgy, Materials Science, Operations, or a related field.
Five or more years of experience in direct-material purchasing, strategic sourcing, commodity management, supply chain, manufacturing, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience leading supplier negotiations, sourcing decisions, cost-reduction initiatives, and commercial agreements.
Working knowledge of commodity indices, market-based pricing, cost breakdowns, total-cost analysis, and supplier cost drivers.
Experience managing supply shortages, capacity constraints, supplier-performance issues, and continuity-of-supply risks.
Demonstrated ability to develop and execute commodity strategies and translate market changes into commercial actions.
Strong analytical, financial, negotiation, communication, project-management, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to influence suppliers and cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and purchasing or ERP systems.
Ability to travel domestically and internationally based on business needs.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated knowledge of stainless steel and carbon steel markets, products, grades, manufacturing processes, supply chains, and commercial practices.
Experience with steel indices and pricing mechanisms, including base-price adjustments, alloy surcharges, conversion economics, lags, and periodic price resets.
Automotive or high-volume manufacturing experience involving sheet, coil, tube, bar, wire, stampings, fabricated components, or other steel-intensive products.
Experience sourcing through mills, service centers, processors, stampers, fabricators, and component suppliers.
Experience with VAVE, grade or specification changes, gauge reduction, yield improvement, scrap optimization, localization, resourcing, and new-product launches.
Familiarity with tariffs, duties, quotas, trade actions, regional sourcing constraints, and global steel-market dynamics.
Experience working with global or cross-regional suppliers and teams.

Responsibilities

Develop, maintain, and execute commodity strategies for carbon steel and stainless steel, covering supplier segmentation, regional sourcing, competition, cost drivers, risk exposure, and implementation roadmaps.
Collaborate with other commodity buyers to monitor steel-market developments, align sourcing activities, and consistently execute steel commodity strategies.
Monitor steel-market conditions, including indices, mill capacity, regional supply and demand, raw-material inputs, scrap, alloys, energy, conversion costs, freight, tariffs, duties, trade actions, and foreign exchange.
Lead RFQ and RFI activities, quotation analysis, supplier negotiations, sourcing recommendations, and implementation for assigned steel categories.
Negotiate base price, index and surcharge mechanisms, conversion costs, productivity, payment terms, freight, lead times, capacity, tooling, claims, and other commercial requirements.
Identify and deliver validated material-cost reductions through negotiation, competitive sourcing, resourcing, localization, specification optimization, supplier productivity, and supply-base optimization.
Lead and support VAVE initiatives with Engineering, Quality, Operations, and suppliers, including grade substitution, gauge reduction, product-form optimization, yield improvement, scrap reduction, and manufacturing-process changes.
Identify and mitigate steel supply risks involving mill capacity, allocation, financial health, raw-material availability, quality, logistics, labor disruption, geopolitical events, trade restrictions, tariffs, sole sourcing, and geographic concentration.
Own commercial relationships with assigned strategic suppliers and set expectations for cost, quality, delivery, capacity, responsiveness, productivity, and contractual performance.
Partner with Supplier Development, Quality, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Commercial, and Program Management to resolve supplier and commodity issues.