Category Manager, Innovation

Diageo•Stamford, NY

About The Position

The Procurement Category Manager, Innovation connects Diageo’s brand and innovation ambitions to supplier capabilities across North America. The role embeds Procurement early in the innovation lifecycle, anticipates packaging and liquid capabilities needed by the innovation pipeline, and turns business strategy into scalable sourcing and supplier solutions. It shapes future sourcing choices and partnerships rather than administering purchasing transactions. Innovation Project Managers, Supply Category Procurement and in-market teams handle routine execution within the frameworks, governance and standards established by this role. The role owns the North American Sourcing Innovation strategy and the Supplier Performance Management framework for innovation. It works across multiple markets and innovation programs, balancing speed, cost, risk and capability while aligning stakeholders from Brand, R&D, Innovation, Finance, Supply and Commercial. It also owns the strategic graphics supplier relationship across the North America portfolio and supports innovation and renovation commercialization projects. The position identifies supplier capabilities and technologies, develops strategic supplier relationships, shapes financial and sourcing decisions, and establishes innovation operating practices and governance. It drives performance, compliance and continuous improvement across the end-to-end innovation value chain. The role reports to the Supply Procurement Director, Raw Materials, Logistics and Supply Innovation, and supports all locations and innovation programs in North America.

Requirements

University degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Engineering or equivalent.
6–8 years of experience in procurement, innovation, supply chain and/or R&D in a forward-thinking, fast-paced, value-adding environment.
Proven experience in packaging and/or liquid categories, with exposure to new product development or commercialization.
Track record of building stakeholder alliances, influencing senior leaders across functions, and developing and managing strategic supplier or agency relationships.
Strategic thinking and strong business acumen, connecting sourcing decisions to brand, category and business strategy.
Influence and negotiation skills to shape decisions, build alignment and navigate conflicting priorities in a matrixed organization.
Analytical and data-driven capabilities, including building business cases, cost models and scenarios.
Advanced written and verbal communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to explain complex ideas clearly to different audiences.
Critical thinking on complex problems, including risk sensing, trade-off analysis and decision-making under ambiguity.
Change leadership and a continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to take work from concept to execution.
Proficiency in SAP, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and a working understanding of source-to-pay processes.
Enthusiastic, tenacious and a strong team player.

Nice To Haves

Purchasing, project management and/or business qualification, such as CIPS or an MBA.
Comfort with business intelligence tools such as Power BI or Tableau.
Curiosity about emerging technologies and AI and how they can improve insight generation and ways of working.

Responsibilities

Own the creation and delivery of the Sourcing Innovation strategy for North America, connecting the innovation pipeline to sourcing plans, supplier capability roadmaps and value objectives.
Own the strategic graphics supplier relationship across the North America portfolio, including joint business planning, business reviews, performance, cost and capacity.
Partner with Brand, Innovation and R&D leadership early in the stage-gate process to inform concepts and go/no-go decisions on cost, supply risk and supplier readiness.
Translate business innovation priorities into category sourcing strategies for packaging and liquid, aligning with global category strategy.
Establish Procurement Innovation best practices and an operating model, including clear handoffs from launch to base-business procurement.
Advise senior stakeholders and communicate sourcing and financial drivers using data, scenarios and clear storytelling.
Build and manage an innovation pipeline with external partners, mobilizing suppliers to solve business challenges and converting supplier ideas into projects.
Assess supplier and market landscapes in packaging and liquid, including emerging technologies, materials, sustainability solutions and supplier capabilities.
Lead supplier capability gap assessments with Category Managers and Directors; determine when to develop, onboard or exit suppliers.
Source new-to-world suppliers and technologies and lead strategic selection and negotiation of critical partnerships.
Design and run supplier-enabled innovation events, such as innovation days and challenges, with R&D and Brand.
Guide COGS-setting for new-to-world components, establish cost-modeling principles and challenge assumptions early in development.
Identify and deliver savings and value through innovation sourcing, design-to-value collaboration and process improvement.
Anticipate supply risk and conduct scenario planning for the innovation portfolio, developing mitigation paths for critical launches.
Own the innovation KPI framework across packaging and liquid suppliers, including OTIF delivery and 100% compliance; use performance insights to drive supplier development and provide feedback to leadership.
Set standards for innovation Supplier Performance Management and the Supplier Lifecycle Development Process, and coach Innovation Project Managers and Supply Category Procurement on launch-level vendor execution.
Define and champion Procure-to-Pay compliance requirements for innovation, embed them in ways of working, monitor compliance through dashboards and exception reporting, and escalate recurring issues.
Lead process and Way of Working improvements that simplify complexity and create scalable best practices across the innovation value chain.
Facilitate cross-functional forums with Finance, Supply, Marketing, Legal, Quality and R&D, and escalate conflicting priorities to senior leaders.