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Westrock Coffee Company · 1 month ago

Category Manager – Equipment, Facilities & Technical Procurement

Little Rock, AR

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level, Lead/Staff

$80K/yr - $80K/yr

8+ years exp

Westrock Coffee Company is seeking a dynamic and results-oriented Category Manager for Equipment, Facilities & Technical Procurement. The role involves developing sourcing strategies, managing vendor relationships, and ensuring effective communication between procurement and manufacturing teams.

CoffeeFood and BeverageGroceryRetailTea

Responsibilities

Develop sourcing Category Management plans (Aluminum Cans and/or Glass Bottles packaging for food + beverage manufacturing) that analyze and calculate costs of procurement and use those category management plans to drive multi-year procurement plans and events to maintain flat to down raw material costs in inflationary environments

Source and assess potential trustworthy partners

Develop a system to evaluate partners to ensure quality, price, delivery, and service. Review periodically to ensure compliance to agreed-upon terms and conditions

Create and utilize multi-step sourcing processes that drive Best Value relationships with vendors, teaching those sourcing processes to direct reports and the Global Sourcing team to ensure Continuous Improvement in the supply chain

Works with packaging vendors to minimize waste and introduce higher quality/lower cost packaging options

Works with product development on the future of Ridged packaging and is partner on innovation and the introduction of new technologies

Executes contracts, RFI/RFP, proposals and vendor agreements for legal correctness, price, and acceptability of items to specifications

Interfaces and aligns with Global Sourcing Quality Assurance team to ensure specifications and standards are consistently met

Support commercialization of NPD (New Product Development) projects with sales team

Liaise between Procurement and Manufacturing to ensure effective communication

Qualification

Category ManagementProcurementSupply Chain ManagementFoodBeverage ExperienceVendor ManagementContract ManagementFinancial UnderstandingContinuous ImprovementComputer SkillsCommunication SkillsProject ManagementAdaptability

Preferred

8+ years of years of experience in Category Management/Procurement, or Supply Chain Management, strong preference in the food and beverage manufacturing space or other consumer packaged goods

Bachelor's degree in Procurement, Supply Chain, Engineering, Business. Higher degree a plus

Preferred Licensing or Certifications for Procurement Category Manager: CPSM, CPM, PMP, MCIPS, CPIM, APICS, C.P.M, DOT, ISM, CIRM

Experience in packaging, preferably in a food and/or beverage manufacturing environment

Experience managing a diverse set of external vendors, including sourcing, managing contracts, risk management, forecasting, developing category strategies, and manufacturing relationships

Strong computer skills (Word, Excel, Outlook, NetSuite or other similar ERP systems)

Ability to work in fast paced high pressure environment where change is constant and needs to be managed with internal and external customers

Financial understanding of P&L and ability to drive results for bottom line profit