Category Manager

Purpose of Position

The Category Manager – Real Estate and Construction will act as a trusted advisors to the Corporate Real Estate team to establish sourcing, supplier selection and supplier management strategies that support business objectives while managing cost and mitigating risk.  This is a high impact and high visibility role that will interface with senior business leaders and critical suppliers.  This role requires a strategic thinker with core foundational procurement expertise, strong negotiation skills, an analytical mindset, and the ability to build effective relationships across a diverse group of suppliers and internal stakeholders.  This role has direct oversight for procurement and sourcing activities supporting the expansion and reimaging of the company’s physical spaces across the globe including building a stable of qualified architecture and design partners, leading RFx events for general contractors and project-specific trades and leading the negotiation and execution of complex, high value contracts.  In addition, this role will also play a supporting role in analyzing real estate leases and partnering with finance to review own versus lease scenarios and evaluate lease renewal models.  Based on project flow and overall capacity, this Category Manager may also assume responsibility for other corporate services spend categories. Unlike traditional procurement roles that focus primarily on cost savings or transactional activities, this role takes a more holistic approach to connect stakeholders and initiatives to drive real, strategic value for the organization in a manner than balances cost management with speed, quality and risk management measures. 

Tasks and Responsibilities

•    Strategic Planning: Design, implement and monitor procurement strategies to ensure supply security, meet financial and budget objectives and mid to long term category developments.
•    Technical Expertise: Leverage knowledge of strategic procurement processes, supply chain strategies and contract drafting and negotiation to evaluate and select the best suppliers. Prior experience working with construction-specific contract templates (AIA, RIBA, etc.) is strongly preferred. 
•    Supplier Relationship Management: Lead negotiations and maintain relationships with suppliers to ensure the best quality, price and service. 
•    Internal Relationship Management:  Build strong, collaborative relationships across procurement, real estate, finance, legal, risk and other corporate functions to understand and support business needs.  Work effectively with legal, finance and compliance teams to efficiently and effectively develop and implement business cases and contracting strategies.
•    Process Optimization: Design and implement processes to improve visibility to spend and supplier relationship, speed up sourcing and contracting efforts and streamline processes to realize productivity by challenging status quo. 
•    Documentation & Compliance: Draft and negotiate contracts and statements of work to maximize value and mitigate risk for the company with a specific focus on understanding and assessing risks related to large-scale construction projects and designing a contracting strategy that effectively users LOIs, pre-construction agreements and full contractor agreements. 

Specific duties of this role include:

Category strategy development:
•    Collaborate with internal stakeholders to develop and implement creative procurement and sourcing plans.
•    Execute competitive sourcing events (RFQs/RFIs,/RFPs)
•    Develop and execute cost mitigation strategies
•    Continuously improve procurement processes within assigned categories and areas of support.
Relationship Management:
•    Build effective relationships with suppliers.
•    Negotiate favorable terms, pricing, and contracts.
•    Work with vendors to resolve any performance issues, including delivery, quality, or customer service through the life of the project.
•    Develop and maintain relationships with key business leaders to understand and support their supplier needs. 
•    Establish strategic cadence check ins with internal partners based in multiple locations to collaborate and align on opportunities and initiatives. 
•    Develop and manage sourcing project timelines and lead socialization meetings. Update stakeholders regularly on project progress, risks and mitigation strategies.
Risk Mitigation:
•    Identify and address risks related to supplier reliability, quality, and financial stability.
•    Develop business continuity and risk management plans.
•    Monitor and evaluate contractual arrangements to measure supplier performance.
•    Monitor total project costs, manage change order processes and build Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) models and validate savings/cost avoidance to ensure the best value for the organization.
Market Analysis and Trends:
•    Analyze market trends and supplier alternatives.
•    Make data-driven decisions to optimize procurement.
Leadership
•    Build buy-in to change by involving those affected and influencing key stakeholders across, up, and down the organization; advance problems toward resolution despite ambiguity or uncertainty

Minimum Education

Bachelor 's degree in Engineering, Business, or Supply Management, preferred 

Minimum Experience

5 to 10 years professional experience in procurement, project management or supply chain management 

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

•    High degree of financial and problem-solving ability
•    Prior experience managing real estate and construction sourcing events and contract negotiations
•    Familiarity with AIA contract templates and comparable contracting models in Europe and Asia
•    Strong negotiating, benchmarking, market analysis, competitive intelligence, and procurement projects management skills
•    Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate and engage at all organizational levels and ability to cultivate and sustain high quality professional relationships
•    Strong organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
•    Ability to influence and lead across functions and regions, aligning multiple stakeholders behind strategic sourcing decisions.
•    Ability to analyze data, make sound decisions and recommendations based on findings
•    Strong project management skills with proven experience closing sourcing projects efficiently; ability to own operational processes with minimal guidance.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those that must be met and/or encountered by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and communicate.  The employee may be required to stand; walk; sit.

Specific vision abilities required by this job include the ability to view monitors, technical documents, and reference material. 

The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.