Sourcing and Vendor Partner

REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.)•Seattle, WA

About The Position

REI Co-op is united in finding better ways to work. The goal is to help people find and enjoy the outdoors. When you work for the co-op, you do your best work. You also get support to live your best life. You help shape the future of the outdoors for people and the planet. This job helps REI succeed by handling sourcing requests based on strategies set with business partners, category managers, vendor relationship managers, or other REI staff. It improves processes to add value and manage risk. The role supports REI’s culture, purpose, values, and strategies. A successful candidate follows REI’s guiding values and mission. Sourcing and Vendor Partners will be specialists in their categories. Sometimes, they may support other categories by using sourcing best practices. They will get help from Subject Matter Experts, stakeholders, or other team members or business partners.

Requirements

4-6 years experience in strategic sourcing across various categories.
Exceptional communication, interpersonal, and relationship building skills.
Uses business knowledge, innovative thinking, and sound judgment to solve problems or pursue business opportunities in the assigned category.
Ability to develop and manage complex category profiles and planning documents.
Extensive experience leading and collaborating with cross-divisional project teams.
Exceptional business acuity, including understanding and practical application of relevant market/industry trends.
Exceptional critical capabilities to evaluate deals and understand whether pricing structures and commercial terms are optimal for the business.

Responsibilities

Acts as the main contact for all business levels regarding sourcing strategies in a specific category or business area.
Manages all sourcing activities for assigned business partners and third-party vendors.
Provides sourcing consultation support for non-managed vendor partners.
Negotiates terms and conditions for contracts for key vendor partners.
Performs data-driven examination to formulate negotiation strategies to drive business value (cost reduction, risk mitigation, innovation, process improvement).
Aligns sourcing requests to business strategies, growth agendas, and category plans.
Improves and implements strategic sourcing best practices, tools, and values.
Updates and advises assigned business partners throughout the strategic sourcing lifecycle.
Facilitates interactions among business partners and stakeholders in Finance, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Architecture, Legal, Communications, and Risk & Insurance. Ensures alignment of budgets, goals, risks, strategies, and tactics.
Supports risk analyses to identify issues and develop risk mitigation strategies while communicating risks and strategies to stakeholders.
Conducts spend analytics and reporting for assigned business partners or business areas.
Drives engagement with business partners and is seen as a value-added cross-functional team member.
Tracks the market-leading landscape (through web research, consultants, and research organizations) and presents suppliers for project consideration to business owners.
Manages the strategic sourcing process through the RFx process or direct negotiations with approved vendors. Provides an evaluation framework and selection recommendations.
Shares and celebrates continuous learning, seeing failure as opportunity for unlocking future value.
Identifies and executes process improvement opportunities.
Manages time as a valuable, non-renewable resource by prioritizing level of effort and customer expectations.