Senior Specialist, Supply Chain

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions•Milwaukee, WI

About The Position

The Senior Specialist, Supply Chain reports to the Category Manager and provides global strategic leadership to identify and qualify suppliers for direct materials related to New Product Development and other sourcing projects. The role leads cross-functional sourcing activities, collaborating with Engineering, Finance, Quality, Procurement, Manufacturing, the China Sourcing Team, and Customer Service to complete work within project timelines. The position is responsible for planning and implementing multiple domestic and international sourcing and re-sourcing projects. It also manages supplier relationships, spend and performance analytics, and cost-savings initiatives. The role evaluates supplier capabilities and supply-chain risks, leads supplier selection and negotiations, and develops sourcing recommendations and mitigation plans.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, operations management, engineering, or finance.
At least 5 years of experience in a sourcing role, including low-cost country sourcing experience.
Experience building Requests for Proposals and creating tools to analyze responses.
Proven success in a change-management and “stretch” environment.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Strong problem-solving, strategic-thinking, oral, written, interpersonal communication, and presentation skills.
Ability to understand company goals, focus resources to meet or exceed them, lead change, and drive projects to completion.
Expert negotiation skills, including the ability to lead contract negotiations and build strong supplier relationships.
Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% domestically and internationally.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree.
CPSM certification.
Experience using data visualization software such as Tableau or Power BI.

Responsibilities

Maintain the highest standards of conduct and ethics.
Lead sourcing channels and internal cross-functional teams to meet project timelines and action commitments.
Use total cost of ownership principles to identify and justify sourcing and re-sourcing projects.
Evaluate supplier capabilities and risks, including capacity, quality, logistics, tariffs, financial stability, and business continuity, and recommend mitigation actions.
Source assigned commodities and develop global implementation plans to source new items and re-source existing items to optimize total cost.
Lead sourcing initiatives to ensure on-time delivery of project components, assemblies, and finished goods by troubleshooting outstanding issues.
Collaborate on new product development projects to ensure on-time product availability.
Work with global business units to prepare RFPs and RFQs, and lead supplier screening and selection.
Evaluate bids, analyze alternatives, develop negotiation strategies, and recommend contract awards.
Negotiate and draft supply agreements with domestic and international suppliers, covering payment terms, deliveries, price, freight terms, currency exchange, raw-material commodity fluctuations, and inventory levels.
Manage relationships between internal and external parties to evaluate and execute recommendations for changes to the supply base.
Analyze market trends, commodity movements, supplier performance, and spend data to support sourcing recommendations and continuous improvement initiatives.