Lead Category Manager
About The Position
L3Harris is seeking a Category Lead to join our Space and Mission Systems Category Management Team. The Category Lead is responsible for developing and executing multi-year category strategies that optimize cost, quality, service, supply continuity, and compliance across assigned commodities. This role serves as the category subject matter expert, leading sourcing strategy development, supplier performance, and risk mitigation while partnering cross-functionally to support business objectives, technical requirements, and product roadmaps. A key aspect of this role is identifying, assessing, and mitigating countries of origin (COO), rare earth element (REE), critical mineral, geopolitical, and regulatory risks to strengthen enterprise supply chain resilience.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of 9 years of prior relevant experience; Or, Graduate Degree and a minimum of 7 years of prior related experience; Or, in lieu of a degree, a minimum of 13 years of prior related experience
Nice To Haves
- Strong analytical, negotiation, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills
- Ability to influence without direct authority and manage multiple strategic priorities simultaneously
- Experience working with forecasting, demand planning, and supplier capacity alignment processes
- Comprehensive knowledge of Category Management and Strategic Sourcing processes
- Experience in the Aerospace & Defense (A&D) industry preferred, with specific FAR/DFARS experience
- Self-managed/motivated – ability to independently set priorities and meet commitments, with a desire to continuously improve
- Ability to influence without direct authority and manage multiple strategic priorities simultaneously
- Strong interpersonal and planning skills to lead change through influencing abilities
- Ability to coordinate across commodities and segments
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute multi-year category strategies focusing on rare earths and critical minerals to drive cost reduction, supply continuity, risk mitigation, and compliance
- Serve as the category SME, partnering with internal stakeholders to align sourcing strategies with business objectives, technical requirements, and product roadmaps
- Monitor market conditions, supplier capabilities, geopolitical risks, trade regulations, and emerging technologies to inform category strategy and sourcing decisions
- Lead supplier diversification, strategic negotiations, and long-term agreements to strengthen supply resilience and maximize enterprise value
- Influence cross-functional teams and suppliers to drive design-to-value ideation, joint process improvement, and enhanced innovation
- Develop market insights through research and data, industry developments, supply/demand dynamics, emerging technologies, and leading-edge practices
- Drive supplier risk management, traceability, and due diligence to ensure compliance with sourcing restrictions, import/export controls, and regulatory requirements
- Manage strategic supplier relationships, performance reviews, and escalations to improve accountability, quality, service, and delivery
- Apply procurement levers and analytics such as supplier rationalization, should-cost modeling, make-vs.-buy, and inventory optimization to deliver value
- Partner cross-functionally with engineering, R&D, quality, legal, and operations to support innovation, NPI execution, and overall category performance
- Assess supplier and platform risks, develop appropriate contingency plans, and drive inclusion into the overall decision-making process
Benefits
- health and disability insurance
- 401(k) match
- flexible spending accounts
- EAP
- education assistance
- parental leave
- paid time off
- company-paid holidays
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
