Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist for Marketing
Company
Location
Chicago, IL
Job Description
This position is accountable for execution and implementation of effective procurement strategies for indirect and/or direct goods and services. This includes development of short-term and long-term sourcing strategies that align with the Company goals for reducing cost and meeting financial expectations, while managing vendor relationships, new product innovation, project implementation, and process efficiencies.
This position will be responsible for negotiating, coordinating, and assuring that assigned spend categories and services are purchased at the lowest possible cost through the negotiation and execution of effective supplier contracts. Duties include: assessing near-term and long-term plans to establish that supplier priorities are balanced with business needs; consulting with Senior Management and other subject matter experts to develop alternative plans or solutions; advising on options, risks, total cost of ownership, and business impacts.
This position will build and implement sourcing strategies that optimize the total cost of ownership and include developing supplier relationship strategies, conducting fact-based negotiations, and ensuring that contracts are effectively written and approved, all of which are integral to fulfilling the department's mission of leveraging targeted spend across the organization.
Specific Responsibilities
- Have a good understanding of functions within Supply Chain, Purchasing, Supplier Diversity, and Strategic Sourcing including Procure-To-Pay.
- Gain a thorough knowledge of products and services in category space, supplier's processes, and industry trends and practices.
- Perform moderate to complex financial analysis of supplier data, organizational spend, project data; assess total cost ownership to identify savings and general sourcing opportunities.
- Identify and assess potential opportunities, develop business cases, and present recommendations to various levels of management to build support for the initiative.
- Actively seek opportunities to streamline business processes, reduce costs, mitigate risk, and add value to the organization through the strategic sourcing process.
- Identify and develop cost reduction opportunities by collaborating with operations, legal, supply chain, finance, and other departments as needed on cross-functional sourcing opportunities.
- Research, recommend, initiate, implement, and manage supplier programs that result in cost reductions, process improvements, and risk mitigation.
- Lead cross-functional teams, prepare RFx's, develop RFx scoring models, perform vendor analysis, develop Service Level Agreements, develop, recommend, and execute sourcing strategies for assigned commodities or projects.
- Negotiate with suppliers on a variety of purchase agreements, contracts, and special projects to drive favorable contract terms and pricing.
- Participate in strategic meetings with suppliers and business leaders to ensure execution of defined strategies and contractual requirements.
- Develop strong working relationships with various internal departments and associates to service both their day-to-day and project related needs.
- Responsible for working with suppliers to provide cost-effective, timely delivery of products or services with stringent technical specifications and complex quality requirements.
- Develop, establish, and maintain high caliber professional relationships with suppliers and internal customers.
- Ability to establish and develop preferred supplier programs and partnerships to meet the current and future needs of the organization.
- Manage supplier performance and perform supplier evaluations. Develop plans for service improvement and implement corrective actions as required.
- Ability to extract data from various sources including ERP.
Qualifications
- 3-5 years of sourcing or procurement experience with emphasis on financial analysis.
- Bachelors Degree required preferably in Business, Finance, Legal, Supply Chain, or related field.
- CPM, PMP, and Six Sigma Certification or equivalent is a plus.
- Required proficiency in ERP's, Windows and MS Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Project).
- Knowledge of the telecommunications or wireless industry is beneficial.
- Working knowledge of e-procurement initiatives and technologies a plus.
- Must have demonstrated supplier negotiations and contracting skills.
- Must have excellent interpersonal, customer service, organizational, reasoning, and decision making skills.
- Must have strong communications skills including oral, written, and presentation.
- Must be able to work independently, demonstrate strong personal work initiative, innovations, and ability to think "outside the box."
- Strong Project Management skills with the ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously and continuously reprioritize to ensure timely completion with minimal supervision.
- Proven track record demonstrating a high level of professional conduct and ethics.
To Apply
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