Procurement Lead

Foods people love. Brands people trust. And a career that nourishes your future like no other.

If you're driven by the passion to do something meaningful that changes lives, Nestle is the place for you. Nestle USA is one of seven operating companies that make up Nestle's presence in the United States. We're in 97% of American homes, and as the leading food and beverage company, our goals are to continue to deliver quality food and beverage products, strengthen our local communities, and reduce our environmental and climate impact.

We're determined to challenge the status quo and be better tomorrow than we are today. As individuals and teams, we embrace our entrepreneurial culture and have created a workplace where collaboration is essential, courage is rewarded, speed is expected, and agility is the norm to delight our consumers every single day. Here, you will find limitless opportunities to learn and advance your career and feel empowered to succeed in the workplace and beyond. Because our focus is not only on nourishing our customers, but also about enriching you.

This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.

In this role, you'll serve as a Lead Procurement Specialist in the Commodities team, managing the procurement strategy for spend areas in your scope and localizing any globally created strategies. This role identifies value-creation opportunities and leads cross-functional projects for the category, as well as supplier strategy, category risk management, collaboration, and local relationship management with a focus on risk mitigation, innovation, sustainability, and supplier diversity. You will provide oversight for category-critical tasks like business continuity planning, supplier performance management, ensure supply, PPV forecast, etc., while working with the business to understand strategy, requirements, and challenges and to report updates. This role is the face of their assigned category to Nestrade (Global Buying Organization for Nestle) and serves as the key interface with business/functional leadership across Nestle USA for their respective categories. The Procurement Specialist Lead will also play an indirect leadership role by mentoring, drive excellence in Purchase Price Variance (PPV) management and delegating tasks to lower-level team members.

Job Duties/Deliverables:

• End-to-end management of assigned category/categories, including localization of global strategies, development of at-market strategies, and coordination with suppliers and Nestrade buyers (as required)
• Execute Nestle's 7-Step Strategic Sourcing Process in the North American market, enabling value generation through sustainability, innovation, and cost improvements for Nestle business units
  • Identify value creation opportunities by developing a deep understanding of each relevant business unit's requirements, challenges, and opportunities, and leveraging these insights to create and implement savings initiatives
  • Leverage opportunities to lower total cost of ownership or increase value to the business while ensuring supply
  • Assign initiative owners for category aligned spend initiatives; provide category expertise and help guide initiative savings execution and pull through
  • Use knowledge of global suppliers and processes to bring opportunities to the forefront
  • Benchmark against competitors and promote supplier-led innovation to unlock value
  • Use insights and trends to liaise strategically with the business, factories, and suppliers
• Define risk management strategies for the business and promote mitigation activities to reduce the chance of disruption
  • Proactively manage supplier relationships resulting in a reduction of contractual risks
  • Clearly communicate risks and issues to key stakeholders, knowing when and to whom to escalate significant issue
• Suggest improved ways of working, introducing new processes or re-engineering existing ones in support of key priorities
  • Recognize strategic drivers and activities that support key priorities, both within your category and across the organization
  • Leverage intelligence tools and participate in professional associations to learn best practices and industry trends; apply the learnings to the category strategies to drive continuous improvement
  • Comply with all Procurement and company policies, procedures, and practices, and promote adherence across the organization
  • Apply project management principles to drive cross-functional teams in effective and efficient delivery of business objectives for both day to day activities and key project
  • Developing and leading hedging strategies with cross functional teams to minimize financial risks.
  • Collaborating with internal teams, such as finance and risk management, to align hedging policies with overall business objectives
  • Analyzing market trends and assessing potential risks to identify hedging opportunities.
  • Other duties as assigned

Critical Experiences/Education:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in applicable fields required
• 2-4 years of knowledge and experience with global procurement and sourcing processes, legal contract negotiations, and contract management systems
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including but not limited to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
• SAP, Ariba, and I-Nexus experience preferred

Qualifications/Certifications:

• 3-5 years in Procurement experience
• Strong understanding of financial markets, derivatives, and hedging instruments
• Proficiency in financial modeling and risk assessment techniques
• Knowledge of relevant regulations and compliance requirements
• Interpersonal skills to effectively build relationships with and influence a dynamic and diverse set of stakeholders, including the ability to listen and understand differing perspectives
• Strategic mindset with quantitative, problem-solving, project management, and negotiation skills and a strong desire for progress and continuous improvement
• Proven ability to analyze and present findings in a clear and cohesive manner to senior stakeholders.
• Adept at managing change and working through ambiguity to identify and drive to a solution, both independently and collaboratively with cross-functional teams
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to liaise across boundaries and boarders and influence with integrity
• Strong understanding and demonstration of procurement processes, category management, and supplier relationship management.
• Proven ability to create strong and comprehensive category strategies that drive savings and/or innovation to the businesses they support.
• Ability to independently navigate complex problems and make decisions to change processes to drive improvements with cross functional teams considering end to end impacts, and make decisions that drive value for the businesses they support.
• Ability to coach, review, and delegate work to lower-level professionals, mentoring and helping them to build capability.
• Proficiency in using SAP, Microsoft Excel, Prism, PowerPoint, Word, and PowerBI

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It is our business imperative to remain a very inclusive workplace.

To our veterans and separated service members, you're at the forefront of our minds as we recruit top talent to join Nestle. The skills you've gained while serving our country, such as flexibility, agility, and leadership, are much like the skills that will make you successful in this role. In addition, with our commitment to an inclusive work environment, we recognize the exceptional engagement and innovation displayed by individuals with disabilities. Nestle seeks such skilled and qualified individuals to share our mission where you'll join a cohort of others who have chosen to call Nestle home.

The Nestle Companies are an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer seeking diversity in qualified applicants for employment. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, gender, gender identity, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, perceived disability, medical condition, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other protected status, as defined by applicable law. Prior to the next step in the recruiting process, we welcome you to inform us confidentially if you may require any special accommodations in order to participate fully in our recruitment experience. Contact us at accommodations@nestle.com or please dial 711 and provide this number to the operator: 1-800-321-6467.

This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.

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