Senior Procurement Manager - Chemicals & Raw Materials

Twin Rivers Paper Company•Madawaska, ME

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Procurement - Chemicals & Raw Materials leads the strategy and day-to-day execution of Twin Rivers' chemicals and raw-material portfolio. This includes strategic sourcing, purchasing, inventory management, material planning, supplier performance, supply assurance, and continuous improvement across the manufacturing network. The role involves leading and developing the current team responsible for purchase-order entry, inventory management, raw-material planning, delivery coordination, and resolution of supplier execution issues, with the ability to adapt the team structure as business needs evolve. The manager will own category strategies, sourcing, negotiations, contracts, supplier performance, budgeting, market intelligence, risk management, and cost-savings delivery. They must ensure tactical activities are executed accurately and on time, and be prepared to step in directly when shortages, delivery failures, purchase-order issues, or other supplier challenges threaten mill operations.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering, chemistry, supply chain, business, or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
8+ years of progressive experience in strategic sourcing, commodity management, chemicals, raw materials, or supply planning within a multi-site manufacturing environment.
Demonstrated leadership of people and cross-functional teams, including the ability to set direction, coach talent, and drive accountability across multiple sites.
Strong command of negotiations, contracts, supplier economics, market indices, cost modeling, budgeting, and risk management.
Working knowledge of inventory management, materials planning, MRP/ERP processes, and manufacturing operating requirements.
Executive-level communication, sound commercial judgment, and the ability to move between strategy, analytics, and urgent operational execution.

Nice To Haves

Pulp and paper, specialty chemicals, or process-industry experience strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and hold accountable a small hands-on team, currently two employees, with the ability to expand the organization as the portfolio and business needs grow.
Balance long-range category leadership with daily operational oversight; set priorities, clarify responsibilities, review exceptions, and ensure follow-through.
Provide governance for requisitions and purchase orders, inventory targets, material plans, delivery schedules, supplier escalations, and constrained-material allocation.
Create a practical operating cadence that gives the team clear priorities while providing Operations and leadership visibility to risks, actions, owners, and due dates.
Develop multi-year category strategies by chemical family and raw-material segment, including demand outlook, cost drivers, supply-market structure, risk exposure, sourcing options, and negotiation roadmaps.
Lead major sourcing events, negotiations, and contract strategies, with emphasis on total cost, index integrity, service, quality, payment terms, liability protection, and supply security.
Segment suppliers and lead strategic-business reviews, joint value creation, innovation pipelines, and corrective-action plans.
Create qualified alternatives, dual-source critical materials where economically justified, and maintain contingency plans for high-risk supply chains.
Work closely with product development and technical teams.
Use market intelligence and cost models to challenge supplier pricing, anticipate supply-demand shifts, and improve commercial leverage.
Set inventory strategy and target ranges by material, site, lead time, criticality, shelf life, storage capacity, and disruption risk.
Ensure raw-material plans align with production schedules, forecast changes, shutdowns, supplier constraints, transportation realities, and cash objectives.
Drive reduction of excess, obsolete, slow-moving, and off-spec inventory while protecting mill continuity and customer commitments.
Lead cross-functional responses to shortages, force majeure events, quality failures, logistics disruptions, and abrupt market changes.
Improve planning parameters, master data, visibility, and exception-based management.
Lead and develop a continuous-improvement pipeline across chemicals, raw materials, inventory, and planning, with clear priorities, owners, milestones, and financial impact.
Actively govern and engage in execution of the savings portfolio, removing barriers and tracking initiatives from validated opportunity through implementation, Finance confirmation, and sustained results.
Mobilize and support direct reports and cross-functional teams to deliver cost reduction, consumption improvement, standardization, substitution, waste reduction, and working-capital initiatives.
Develop the annual commodity and raw-material budget, including price, volume, mix, usage, freight, surcharge, and inventory assumptions.
Own the cost-savings and value-delivery agenda; track realized savings, cost avoidance, purchase-price variance, working capital, supplier performance, and contract compliance with Finance.
Partner with Operations and Technical teams on consumption reduction, substitution, standardization, and value-engineering opportunities.
Translate commodity movements and supply risks into concise executive recommendations, scenarios, and required decisions.