Global Category Lead - Meetings, Conferences, Events, Travel & Fleet

Takeda•Boston, MA

About The Position

The Global Category Lead is a member of the Indirect Procurement Leadership team and provides global leadership for Meetings, Conferences, Events, Travel, and Fleet. The role leads category strategy and a team of category professionals, connecting business and program needs with supplier strategy, commercial models, contracts, user experience, compliance, sustainability, resilience, and value delivery. The role defines and leads an integrated global category strategy supporting business priorities, user experience, compliance, sustainability, resilience, and total cost. It serves as a strategic partner to senior business leaders and program owners, shaping demand, service models, supplier choices, and investment priorities before commitments are made. The position builds a competitive and resilient global supplier ecosystem, leads and develops the category team, and creates global frameworks that support effective regional and market execution. The Global Category Lead partners with functions including the Meetings & Travel Center of Excellence, embedded meetings planners, fleet managers, Finance, business functions, Operations, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Technology, and regional teams. It translates enterprise and functional priorities into category strategies, multi-year roadmaps, and governed initiative pipelines, while overseeing spend visibility, sourcing, contracts, supplier performance, risk, and value realization. The role also uses market intelligence, analytics, automation, and responsible AI to improve procurement decisions and productivity.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Economics, or a related field.
10 or more years of experience in procurement, category management, supply chain, supplier management, or a related commercial function within complex global organizations.
Subject matter expertise across several relevant categories, such as meetings and events agencies, venues, event production, group travel, transient travel, travel management services, airlines, lodging, ground transportation, payment solutions, fleet management, or vehicle leasing.
Demonstrated success developing and executing global category strategies and delivering measurable enterprise value.
Strong commercial and financial acumen, including strategic sourcing, negotiation, supplier economics, total cost of ownership, contract strategy, and value realization.
Ability to influence and constructively challenge senior leaders across functions, business units, and geographies.
Experience leading cross-functional transformation in a highly matrixed and regulated environment.
Deep understanding of supplier segmentation, relationship management, performance governance, third-party risk, business continuity, and sustainable procurement.
Strong analytical and executive communication skills, including the ability to turn market, supplier, spend, and performance data into clear decisions and compelling narratives.
Demonstrated people leadership, talent development, and change leadership, with experience leading globally distributed teams.
Experience using digital tools, automation, analytics, and AI-enabled approaches to improve procurement outcomes.
Fluent written and spoken English.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree or MBA.
Experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, financial services, or another highly regulated global industry.
Experience with meetings and events operating models, travel programs, fleet programs, or related technology and data ecosystems.
Knowledge of global and local market dynamics, including how enterprise strategies must adapt to regulatory, service, and market requirements.
Experience balancing stakeholder experience with commercial, sustainability, compliance, and operational priorities.

Responsibilities

Define and continuously evolve global category strategies for meetings, conferences, events, travel, and fleet using spend, demand, process, supplier, risk, and market intelligence.
Manage selected subcategories and lead enterprise-wide initiatives to drive category excellence and external spend management.
Partner with senior business leaders, program owners, Finance, business functions, Operations, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Technology, and regional teams to align sourcing choices with operating models, controls, transformation, and business objectives.
Shape demand and service models by assessing scope, role mix, locations, process design, automation potential, service levels, pricing mechanisms, and supplier dependencies.
Lead make-versus-buy, insource-versus-outsource, supplier consolidation, benchmarking, and competitive sourcing decisions where appropriate.
Own strategic sourcing, negotiation, and contracting frameworks, including master agreements, statements of work, pricing structures, rate cards, service levels, incentives, performance guarantees, audit rights, data protections, and transition provisions.
Establish supplier segmentation and governance for strategic and critical providers, including executive reviews, performance scorecards, continuous improvement, innovation, issue resolution, and remediation.
Lead complex and enterprise-critical commercial initiatives while enabling category managers to execute within approved global strategies and frameworks.
Create transparency across total and addressable spend, demand drivers, contracts, rate and fee structures, supplier performance, concentration, risk, and value realization.
Integrate third-party risk, regulatory, financial control, data privacy, information security, business continuity, sustainability, and responsible sourcing requirements into category decisions.
Maintain appropriate independence and governance boundaries for regulated or assurance services while pursuing commercial value and high-quality delivery.
Translate enterprise and functional priorities into global category strategies, multi-year roadmaps, and clearly governed initiative pipelines.
Establish global, regional, and local decision rights and enable execution within common strategies, preferred supplier models, commercial frameworks, and buying channels.
Own the end-to-end portfolio view, including spend visibility, category taxonomy, sourcing pipeline, contracts, supplier performance, risk, tail spend, and value realization.
Use market intelligence, advanced analytics, automation, and responsible AI solutions to improve decision quality, speed, transparency, and Procurement productivity.
Lead, coach, and develop category managers and associates, improving the quality and consistency of category strategies and execution across the portfolio.
Allocate capacity and priorities across the portfolio, balancing enterprise value, business urgency, risk, and available resources.
Foster accountability, curiosity, inclusion, collaboration, continuous improvement, and strong business partnership.