Global Category Manager – Meetings, Conferences, Events

Takeda•Boston, MA

19h

About The Position

The Global Category Manager manages Takeda’s Global Meetings, Conferences, and Events category, which supports scientific exchange, business engagement, employee connectivity, and external stakeholder interactions. Working within the strategy and governance established by the Global Category Lead, this role owns end-to-end category execution and translates enterprise priorities into actionable plans. It balances experience, service quality, compliance, sustainability, resilience, and total cost. The role engages stakeholders before requirements and suppliers are finalized, leads complex sourcing and contracting work, manages supplier performance, and delivers measurable value across financial performance, business outcomes, quality, sustainability, resilience, and risk. It develops and executes category plans, shapes demand and commercial decisions, builds a competitive supplier ecosystem, and maintains an actionable sourcing and value pipeline.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business, supply chain, finance, economics, or a related field.
At least 8 years of experience in procurement, category management, strategic sourcing, supplier management, or a related commercial function within complex global organizations.
Subject matter expertise in relevant categories such as meetings management, conferences, congresses, event agencies, venue sourcing, production, audiovisual services, attendee technology, virtual or hybrid events, group travel, and related services.
Demonstrated success developing and executing category plans and complex sourcing initiatives that deliver measurable enterprise value.
Strong commercial and financial acumen, including sourcing, negotiation, supplier economics, total cost of ownership, contract management, and value realization.
Ability to influence and constructively challenge senior stakeholders across functions, business units, and geographies.
Experience leading cross-functional initiatives in a highly matrixed and regulated environment.
Strong supplier relationship management capabilities, including segmentation, governance, performance management, issue resolution, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement.
Strong analytical and communication skills, including the ability to turn market, supplier, spend, and performance data into clear recommendations and decisions.
Experience with digital procurement tools, automation, analytics, and AI-enabled approaches.
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 sourcing and managing meetings and events services across multiple countries or regions.
Knowledge of event technology, data, payment, compliance, sustainability, and attendee experience considerations.
Experience working with global strategies that require thoughtful regional and local adaptation.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the Global Meetings, Conferences, and Events category plan in alignment with enterprise priorities and the strategy set by the Global Category Lead.
Analyze spend, demand, event types, attendee needs, supplier performance, market dynamics, risk, and sustainability data to identify category priorities and opportunities.
Create and maintain category plans covering meetings management, event agencies, venue sourcing, production, attendee technology, group travel, and related services.
Partner with stakeholders to define specifications, planning standards, service levels, buying channels, supplier engagement approaches, demand, service models, and commercial decisions.
Lead complex global and regional sourcing initiatives, negotiations, supplier selections, transitions, and contract implementations.
Manage master agreements and commercial frameworks, including pricing, fees, service levels, incentives, performance guarantees, data requirements, and escalation provisions.
Reduce supplier fragmentation and off-channel spending by directing demand to preferred suppliers, commercial frameworks, competitive processes, and buying channels.
Integrate third-party risk, confidentiality, conflicts, information security, privacy, business continuity, responsible sourcing, and knowledge-retention requirements into category decisions.
Translate global category strategy into an executable category plan, initiative pipeline, sourcing calendar, supplier roadmap, and stakeholder engagement plan.
Operate within global strategies, decision rights, preferred supplier models, commercial frameworks, and buying channels while adapting execution to legitimate regional, market, and functional requirements.
Engage upstream, before specifications, statements of work, supplier selections, and budgets are finalized, to shape demand and improve business outcomes.
Maintain an end-to-end view of assigned spend, demand, pipeline, contracts, supplier performance, risk, tail spend, and value realization.
Escalate portfolio choices and exceptions to the Global Category Lead.
Deliver assigned targets and KPIs across P&L impact, P&L protection, cash improvement, innovation, quality, sustainability, risk, and business performance.
Use market intelligence, advanced analytics, automation, and responsible AI solutions to improve decisions, execution speed, transparency, and stakeholder experience.
Lead cross-functional project teams without direct authority and clarify decisions, actions, owners, milestones, and value outcomes.
Provide the Global Category Lead with insights, recommendations, risks, decisions required, and progress against the category plan.