Director - Pricing

Wesco•Pittsburgh, PA

About The Position

The Pricing Director leads the pricing organization and sets sell-side pricing strategy to optimize margin opportunities and achieve business-plan margin goals. The role provides strategic leadership for customer pricing and margin strategies, working with group leadership, category management, global account management, regional teams, and cross-functional partners to establish profitable pricing structures that reflect market conditions and customer commitments. The Director manages the pricing team, its goals and performance, and the team operating budget. The role develops short- and long-term margin-enhancement strategies, oversees pricing execution and analytics, and ensures pricing accuracy, data integrity, and compliance with customer agreements. The position also has a global role on the Digital Transformation Team, leading quality-assurance testing of new capabilities before production release to ensure they meet user expectations and functional requirements and to reduce price- and cost-related production issues.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, or a related field required.
Experience in the pricing and costing function supporting global commercial business teams.
Understanding of price and cost initiatives, with business value considered when assessing testing results.
8 years of price strategy development and execution experience required; 10 years preferred.
8 years of direct management of pricing team resources required; 10 years preferred.
8 years of functional and business leadership collaboration required; 10 years preferred.
Comprehensive understanding of pricing structures and techniques.
Ability to build strong business cases to defend price positions with field sales leadership.
Strong negotiation, implementation, and performance-management skills.
Strong personal leadership and ability to coach, counsel, mentor, teach, and develop others.
Strategic thinking and strong business analytics skills, including high proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
Goal- and results-oriented, with the ability to accomplish tasks at a fast pace.
Strategic goal-setting and performance-management skills.
Excellent communication, presentation, and analytical skills.
Ability to build strong business relationships with sales management and other functional areas to achieve objectives.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Business or Finance.
Pricing Professional Certification.
3 years of North American or global pricing management responsibilities.
3 years of pricing management experience within the distribution industry.
2 years of pricing management experience within electrical distribution.
Microsoft Access experience.
Electrical product knowledge.

Responsibilities

Develop a vision and strategy for price setting, price optimization and appreciation, price execution and validation, pricing and margin analytics, and margin realization.
Lead the pricing organization, set goals, and manage and develop staff.
Prepare the team operating budget; conduct staff performance appraisals; and interview and hire employees.
Develop short- and long-term margin-enhancement strategies through price appreciation and optimization.
Develop billing margin protection methods.
Direct execution of target and floor price protections and margin thresholds.
Lead pricing and margin analytics processes.
Work with regions and cross-functional teams to develop and implement pricing strategy.
Establish and maintain pricing performance metrics and drive the organization to meet goals.
Provide financial and performance metrics to company leadership.
Provide customer service to internal and external customers, and develop and maintain procedures and policies focused on pricing accuracy and profit maximization.
Manage pricing execution, including data integrity, consistency, and compliance with agreements.
Drive the team to proactively identify and resolve pricing and margin issues.
Identify and implement process improvements.
Design and maintain new and enhanced systems or applications and training.
Ensure complete, high-quality, and accurate testing of new capabilities, considering their impact on business behavior.
Reduce production issues related to price and cost that result from poor testing quality.
Ensure products meet user expectations and functional requirements.