Location: New England Area
Email: resume@bpsearches.com
Position Summary
The Executive Director leads all global strategic sourcing efforts for the global enterprise. The position is responsible for leading all global strategic sourcing efforts to efficiently and effectively enable spend owners such as business units and functional partners to maximize the value they receive from suppliers to meet their objectives. The incumbent will work with each business unit to lead centralized direct and indirect sourcing and strategic sourcing efforts. This will include working with the internal stakeholder from initial need identification to final goods or service delivery to meet stakeholder needs. The process starts with demand management (via stakeholder management) that then drives supply analysis/strategy, supplier identification, sourcing execution (i.e., “tendering”), contract negotiation, delivery planning and monitoring, purchase execution, and then ongoing performance management and improvement. Strategic Sourcing adjusts sourcing procedures, in an effective and efficient manner, to adapt to the continually changing global market, while ensuring that the organization gains the best cost, quality and delivery times at the most competitive price. Beyond cost reduction and cash flow generation, Strategic Sourcing delivers additional value through 5 core offerings to achieve world class results and leverage our supply chain as a strategic capability:
- Spend Analytics
- Strategic sourcing Optimization
- Strategic Sourcing
- Contract Performance Management
- Supplier Performance Management
This will be accomplished through a team of senior strategic sourcing professionals, local and remote, who will work for and with the various business units and suppliers selected to meet their needs.
The Executive Director will need to be a self-starter in a very dynamic environment with the ability to identify opportunities for strategic sourcing to partner with the business and to continuously improve current processes. The Executive Director will also develop strong partnerships with senior business leaders to support services provided to other departments, including Finance, Global Operations, Information Technology, Commercial, Compliance, Legal, HR and Information Technology.
The individual will interact on regularly with global teams in the US, EMEA, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
In addition, he/she will be responsible for overall long term strategic sourcing strategy and for increasing spend under management identifying and evolving best practices and transforming the organization from one that is often still locally driven to one that is led by a center of excellence.
Principal Responsibilities:
- Creation and ongoing value creation with a world class supply base that has the ability to scale. As the company grows leverage this scale and ensure the value is maximized globally
- Development of organizational strategic sourcing strategy
- Creation and management of short, mid, and long term goals and objectives
- Creation and improvement of best-practice based processes (e.g., leadership of high-value/strategic sourcing efforts)
- Management of business process outsourcing activities
- Identification and realization of cost-saving and cost-reduction opportunities
- Selection and management of strategic sourcing systems
- Management of strategic sourcing staff in (and across) sourcing, contracting, transactional purchasing, supplier management, and miscellaneous internal strategic sourcing support activities
- Creating a talent management process in coordination with HR to ensure that the right resources are in place
- Managing the skills and competency development of strategic sourcing staff, including training development and knowledge management capabilities
- Leadership of cross-functional teaming across other business functions and initiatives
- Budget management for categories under management – and for strategic sourcing itself
- Development of benchmarks and scorecards to be used for continuous improvement
- Building a Strategic Sourcing Center of Excellence (CoE) to help transform Strategic sourcing, and also support broader transformation of the value chain and the enterprise
- Establishing Global Category Management Structure that delivers world class support to the business today and into the future
- Collaborate with IT, Finance and other functions to support the scale up of our internal systems capability to meet the business needs of an organization that will continue to grow in both scale and complexity
Qualifications:
The organization seeks a candidate with the following skills, education and experience.
- Strong leadership skills
- Team player at executive levels to collaborate with business units and functional partners like IT, finance, HR, legal, etc.
- Solid operational management and general business skills and savvy
- Working knowledge of finance and/or accounting in terms of budgeting, cost management, financial accounting, treasury, risk management, etc.
- Industry knowledge in terms of broad industry dynamics on the buy-side (and the sell-side), but also the internal knowledge and “language of the business”
- In-depth knowledge of strategic sourcing principles and best practices,
- Strong negotiation skills to use for large commercial deals
- Experience with modern sourcing and strategic sourcing systems
- Familiarity with relevant legislative and regulatory requirements, as well as understanding of standard contractual terms and conditions to mitigate legal risk
- Strategic mindset and problem-solving skills
- Change management skills and self-awareness to take varying approaches with a dynamic set of stakeholders (e.g., expert model vs. facilitative model)
- Knowledge of enterprise risk management and business continuity planning
- Analytical mindset, but also creativity to seek, encourage and find non-traditional approaches that have historically “boxed-in” strategic sourcing
- Superior written and verbal communication skills and ability to influence and tailor messaging for various audiences and stakeholders.
- Ability to succinctly present key findings and analysis to executive level leadership.
- Excellent interpersonal skills required for relationship building. Ability to motivate teams to produce quality results within strict time frames as well as simultaneously manage several projects.
Must possess the ability to provide value added recommendations that will support the long term growth of the business via strategic sourcing improvements that truly enhance the business; quickly identify hidden values in the business and know how to leverage or unlock it.
Must be able to make a meaningful contribution to drive results in the organization. Will be well versed in performance management and have the capability to be a strong business partner within the organization. He or she must be able to “deep dive” into the details of the business while staying focused on the big picture and be able to conceptualize both problems and solutions.
Possess the highest professional and personal standards, unquestioned integrity and business ethics. Demonstrated ability and courage of his or her own convictions and adhering to strongly held principles and values – and hold others to the same standards. This person must be prepared to define their position on significant issues and drive change when necessary.
Candidate will be highly motivated, energetic and possess a natural curiosity to learn. They will see this role as an opportunity to understand and appreciate the nuances of our global business platform, providing them with the skills to further their career within the organization.
At least 15 years of senior supply management experience, operational management experience within a matrixed organization structure.
Proven ability to develop, lead and manage cross-functional / cross-divisional teams.
Ability to think creatively and initiate new projects as warranted.
Ability to deal with ambiguity and the corresponding capacity to make decisions or recommendations based on potentially incomplete information
Demonstrated ability to build and lead effective teams at a global level.
Education:
Bachelor’s degree, Master’s preferred