Job Description
Job Purpose
As a Procurement Buyer for External Manufacturing, you will be a member of Kraft Heinz’s North American Zone’s (U.S. and Canada) Procurement team and play a role in identifying external manufacturers supporting critical categories for the business. You will deliver value to the organization by facilitating the strategic sourcing process, establishing and maintaining relationships with our external manufacturers and suppliers, and developing the category strategy and ongoing category management. You will help us live our value of Daring to Do Better Every Day by delivering productivity and cash flow targets that are focused on our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). You will work and collaborate closely with several cross-functional areas.
Essential Functions & Responsibilities
- Manage mid-level clients and supplier relationships on an ongoing basis to ensure customer satisfaction, including conducting Supplier Business Reviews.
- Act as an escalation point for performance and risk Issues, including supporting supplier issues and work with stakeholders to identify and drive resolution.
- Support sourcing and category management for your assigned categories and deliver on performance goals for categories representing a significant amount of spend. Includes supporting strategic sourcing projects for supplier selection/optimization to execute on the category management vision and strategies.
- Lead discussions with suppliers around short to long-term objectives and strategies, ongoing market trends, innovation and technology advances, and potential investment decisions.
- Develop multi-year category vision and strategy based on the data, insights, and business requirements.
- Build strong business relationships to increase influence over total category strategy.
- Identify and evaluate potential value generating projects based on complexity, resources, risk, time to implement, and estimated financial impact.
- Manage prioritized portfolio of projects for the category in the near and long term.
- Drive accountability throughout the business to ensure category strategy execution.
- In partnership with category managers, execute contracts in accordance with policies and processes.
- Maintain a strong understanding of category dynamics (current market, pricing, cost drivers, industry, and supplier variables) and communicates changes to business stakeholders.
Expected Experience & Required Skills
- Bachelor’s degree in supply chain or operations management, finance, or related field. Candidates with equivalent related experience will be considered instead of a degree.
- Possess at least 1 year of experience in procurement, purchasing, strategic sourcing, or a related field. Prior experience in external manufacturing or direct procurement (e.g., Ingredients, Packaging, etc.) is highly desirable.
- Strong written, verbal, and analytical skills and, as well as interpersonal and presentation skills.
- We “own” it at KHC and success requires an individual who is results-oriented, self-motivated, proactive, independent, and responsive.
- Able to effectively negotiate and influence business decisions and change.
- Have strong analytical, planning, and execution skills.
- Can be forceful and direct as well as diplomatic.
- Able to multitask and juggle projects at varying levels of complexity.
- Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) and have an understanding for source-to-pay tools (SAP, Ariba, etc.).
Work Environment & Schedule
This position is considered a normal office environment with moderate travel to customer locations, stores, manufacturing facilities, etc.; offices are open workspaces. To create a more agile and modern workplace, we allow Chicago/Aon Center based employees to work virtually for up to two days each week and expect them to work in-person during the defined core days at their assigned work location at least three days per workweek.
Physical Requirements
Instructions: For each bullet point, include the frequency (List A) that actions or physical demands (List B) will be performed. In addition, please indicate the level of physical strength required (List C). NOTE: Mental abilities are not needed in this section, as they are encompassed in the Expected Experience & Skills section.
Physical demands include but not limited to
- List the job’s physical requirements. (Mental requirements are not needed.)
This job description is not designed to cover or contain all duties or responsibilities that are required of the role. Duties or responsibilities may change or be added with or without notice.
Location(s)
Chicago/Aon Center
Kraft Heinz is an Equal Opportunity Employer that prohibits discrimination or harassment of any type. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Applicants who require an accommodation to participate in the job application or hiring process should contact NATAI@kraftheinz.com .