Sr. Category Leader, IT

Kohler Co. • Kohler, WI

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Responsible for supporting the financial and operational performance within specific areas of IT Categories including a share of the $175M IT spend. Responsible for negotiating XaaS, telecom, infrastructure, security, AI, and IT service agreements globally, for all business units. Accountable for supporting the IT team with supplier selection, value analysis, and go/no go decisions. Serves as the liaison between legal, privacy, risk, IT and business stakeholders and supplier partners. Analyzes supplier quotations, SOWs and other contracts to determine the best solution based upon metrics such as value delivered and total cost of ownership. Familiar with a variety of purchasing concepts, practices, and procedures.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain, Operations, IT, Business or another related field (Advanced degree a plus)
• Minimum 10 years of IT and/or strategic purchasing experience (specific IT purchasing experience a plus)
• Experience independently managing contracts and projects with $1-10M in annual spend
• Experience utilizing supplier and contract management platforms (Jaggaer a plus)
• Contract Proficiency
• Understand the importance of contract quality
• Proficient understanding of business and legal Interpretations of contract T&Cs
• Proven ability to manage various commercial and legal aspects of IT agreements
• Proficient in managing/leading the contract and sourcing process
• Able to build and maintain key internal / external relationships critical to success, including those with senior leaders including directors, VPs and C-level officers
• Comfortable collaborating with stakeholders on requirement gathering and execution
• General understanding of IT solutions, concepts and terms
• Able to prioritize workloads due to actual level of urgency, and proactively keep stakeholders up to date
• Experienced in negotiating the gamut of hardware, software licensing and services agreements
• Ability to negotiate with varying degrees of negotiation power and leverage
• Skilled in cost analysis, with a focus on total cost of ownership and value delivered
• Develop and execute negotiation strategies for large opportunities
• Delight customers/stakeholders
• Strong drive for results
• Ability to learn quickly
• Strong degree of independence in work
• Comfortable asking questions when unclear
• Solutions-oriented problem solving
• Develop and maintain relationships
• Accept responsibility and be accountable for commitments
• Communicate proactively, timely and effectively
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the US without requiring sponsorship now or in the future.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of Category Strategies
• Learn and understand the current state of the category in the market and at Kohler
• Identify gaps issues and challenges affecting assurance of supply, quality, service, cost, lack of innovation and relationships
• Proactively identify future areas of opportunity to address cost, building a pipeline of value to be executed through a variety of sourcing and other approaches
• Support the execution of IT and business projects and initiatives focused on driving and delivering value to the organization
• Develop sourcing strategies for cross-functional RFx, evaluation, supplier selection, proposal analysis, and contract negotiation
• Manage and defend against cost increases at contract renewal
• Implement various negotiation tactics to minimize unfavorable risk and impact to Kohler
• Evaluate and support the addition of new providers and technology, and improved processes
• Support the management of existing vendor relationships and performance
• Interact with senior leaders and report on cost savings and avoidance, risk mitigation, and keep stakeholders informed of project development
• Become an expert in understanding the procurement purpose and process
• Develop key relationships with stakeholders and provide training and support
• Identify areas of improvement in the procurement team and process, and propose changes to make improvements happen

Benefits

• We believe in supporting you from the moment you join us, which is why Kohler offers day 1 benefits. This means you’ll have access to your applicable benefit programs from your first day on the job, with no waiting period.
• In addition, this position is eligible for a performance bonus/variable incentive compensation.
• We empower each associate to #BecomeMoreAtKohler with a competitive total rewards package to support your health and wellbeing, access to career growth and development opportunities, a diverse and inclusive workplace, and a strong culture of innovation.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level