Manager, Strategic Sourcing and Planning -Proteins

Carnival Corporation•Miami, FL

4h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, Strategic Sourcing & Planning leads the development and execution of sourcing strategies for high value, high risk protein categories across North America and Europe. This role serves as a trusted advisor to business partners, recommending sourcing approaches that balance cost, quality, supply continuity, and service ultimately enhancing the guest experience across all brands. Reporting to the Senior Director, Strategic Sourcing and Supply Chain – Food & Beverage, this leader manages a team of 2–5 category managers, providing direction, coaching, and oversight to ensure consistent application of best-in-class procurement practices. The role is responsible for driving enterprise value by ensuring uninterrupted supply, managing category performance, and leading complex, high impact strategic sourcing initiatives. Success requires strong cross functional collaboration with stakeholders across all North America brands and disciplined engagement with global operating units to capture synergies, cultivate competitive supplier landscapes, and meet value creation and innovation targets.

Requirements

BS/BA in relevant field or equivalent years’ experience with education in supply chain, business, economics, or related field highly desired
CPSM or CPM, Six Sigma, Lean or equivalent
Master of specific categories and/or ability to develop knowledge of new categories
Master negotiation skills and solid business judgement
Master leadership and organization management skills
Courage and conviction to hold suppliers and distributors accountable during challenging times, events, or periods of change
Master technical sourcing process knowledge
Ability to conduct analysis required during a sourcing initiative
Ability to build strong relationships with suppliers
Ability to perform analysis and interpret results into actional steps
Ability to manage multiple initiatives and priorities at once
Strong attention to detail and process orientation
Excellent written/verbal communication and presentation skills
Strong people management skills: clear expectations/feedback, consistent coaching, and development.
Ability to effectively lead in a cross-functional team environment and manage multiple priorities.
Identify and resolve problems efficiently and effectively
Well-developed influencing skills and stakeholder management.
Experience with supplier relationship management.
7-10 years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, contracting, supply chain, and/or category management
Strong Microsoft Office skills (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook)
Experience with sourcing tools (Ariba, Coupa, CrunchTime, MXP)

Nice To Haves

MBA is a plus
Category level commodity sourcing experience

Responsibilities

Development of an effective long-term strategic sourcing plan for highly complex categories and projects that create long term value while meeting brand objectives, including value creation, supply continuity, risk mitigation, and innovation.
Effective collaboration on strategic sourcing categories and projects within the organization and stakeholders; Developing relationships to become a trusted sourcing partner.
Ensuring cross-functional engagement and support of category projects and initiatives.
Remains connected to key stakeholders and solicits input from them at appropriate times to stay aligned with the needs of the business, as well as run meetings providing key supplier and product updates and/or address specific needs of key stakeholders.
Apply spend category management best practices, tools and techniques in the development and implementation of an integrated strategic sourcing strategy to assesses the overall opportunity within the categories for projects.
Serving as a subject matter expert on strategic sourcing categories with the stakeholders and fostering effective relationships.
Maintain focus on project timelines and deliverables to ensure business goals and objectives are met.
Strong partnership with Finance team to accurately forecast impacts of category strategy, including scenario modelling.
Manages annual initiative plan by creating realistic timelines and meeting contracting deadlines, communicates initiative status
Provide oversight, performance manage, coach, and develop highly skilled team of 2-5 category leaders able to drive strategic approaches and cultivate their own strong business relationships with both internal stakeholders and external partners.
Researching best practices and conducting baseline due diligence to best understand opportunities for savings, reducing TCO, improve efficiencies, quality improvement and service of the sourcing teams.
Lead supplier qualification, segmentation and certification programs.
Well informed about commodity markets and uses information to report trends, pricing fluctuations, provides forecast detail and product cost shifts to brands
Effective supplier relationship management; leveraging data, metrics, and internal feedback.
Providing and reviewing score cards to improve supplier results.
Developing early supplier involvement to ensure suppliers are utilized to their full capabilities and proactively providing input to provide low cost, efficient, and quality goods and services.
Effectively influencing change and buy-in across the stakeholder group and leadership.
Oversees portfolio of contracts, builds and maintains supplier relationships, holds suppliers accountable to deliver contractual requirements
Implement gold-standard contracts across strategic supplier base.
Negotiate strategic supplier contracts, develop innovative pricing models and agreements to deliver value to brands.
Leads supplier negotiations, manages RFP/RFQs, utilizes 7-step sourcing process where applicable, and development and execution of category strategy

Benefits

Health Benefits: Cost-effective medical, dental and vision plans
Employee Assistance Program and other mental health resources
Additional programs include company paid term life insurance and disability coverage
Financial Benefits: 401(k) plan that includes a company match
Employee Stock Purchase plan
Paid Time Off
Holidays – All full-time and part-time with benefits employees receive days off for 8 company-wide holidays, plus 2 additional floating holidays to be taken at the employee’s discretion.
Vacation Time – All full-time employees at the manager and below level start with 14 days/year; director and above level start with 19 days/year. Part-time with benefits employees receive time off based on the number of hours they work, with a minimum of 84 hours/year. All employees gain additional vacation time with further tenure.
Sick Time – All full-time employees receive 80 hours of sick time each year. Part-time with benefits employees receive time off based on the number of hours they work, with a minimum of 60 hours each year.
Other Benefits
Complementary stand-by cruises, employee discounts on confirmed cruises, plus special rates for family and friends
Personal and professional learning and development resources including tuition reimbursement
On-site Fitness center at our Miami campus