Procurement Category Manager, Air Freight

Overview

Procurement Category Manager, Air Freight. This role supports Cencora\’s wholesale distribution services in Europe, operating through Alliance Healthcare. We are hiring to join our international Procurement team.

Role: The Category Lead develops category strategies for regional and local categories, including sourcing strategy definition, deployment, value engineering and stakeholder management. The Category Lead supports the implementation of Category Strategies in Europe to maximise total cost of ownership savings and procurement value contribution. He/she is the resident expert for strategic procurement in the specific category, sharing and facilitating best practices, working closely with local businesses, the wider Cencora business and category teams.

Responsibilities

• Leads strategic planning for regional and local categories and ensures alignment across businesses in Europe
• Takes strategic and long-term view of the category, identifies and develops innovative sources and contractual arrangements
• Develops category strategies and initiatives, including value engineering
• Provides analysis and support related to setting category spend baseline and category profile, including risk assessment
• Aligns category strategy with local businesses and their financial plans
• Supports VP Procurement for the IBG in defining a priority list of categories suitable for strategic sourcing initiatives, aligned with country and Global Indirect Category procurement
• Records and reports value delivery of conducted sourcing projects
• Leads implementation of procurement strategy and sourcing execution
• Participates in internal and external analysis (industry and supplier) in collaboration with in-country procurement Managers as a member of a cross-functional sourcing team
• Aligns global, regional and local category activities
• Supports supplier selection and provides recommendations to VP Procurement for final decision
• Supports fact-based negotiations with suppliers
• Obtains stakeholder and leadership team approvals as required (eg SCP & Delegation of Authority)
• Ensures that governance processes are followed (eg SCP, Delegation of Authority, Code of Conduct)
• Ensures that category-specific operational processes and policies are in place and a compliant usage
• Organises sessions with internal customers to identify further Total Cost of Ownership reduction and value engineering opportunities for regional categories
• Supports the delivery of value engineering projects in countries
• Establishes measures and controls for countries to ensure and track successful implementation in alignment with KPIs
• Supports alignment of negotiation timing and contract durations between countries to enable Best Practice Sharing and supplier leverage
• Engages in local initiatives (aggregate demand, construct bid packages, value engineering projects) especially negotiations to ensure value levers are effectively used
• Leads contract implementation and drives contract compliance and payment terms as per agreed procurement policies
• Works with in-country procurement Managers to ensure local acceptance of new contracts and extended value generation to increase customer satisfaction
• Coordinates contract implementation tasks with in-country procurement Managers and users
• Monitors contract compliance and takes corrective actions as required
• Creates and stores project deliverables and templates in knowledge repositories
• Manages supplier relationships within the defined category scope
• Supports supplier evaluation and audit policies and continuously tracks supplier performance
• Supports supplier development activities and conducts cross-functional reviews with suppliers to improve performance and reduce cost
• Identifies potential contract improvement and renegotiation opportunities
• Executes large spot buys and sources major unplanned demands to manage high spend with category expertise

Qualifications

Academic Background

• Appropriate university/bachelor degree qualification preferred. A recognized qualification in procurement (e.g., CIPS) is an asset.

Experience

• Extensive knowledge of Air Freight Logistics
• Proven experience managing Air Freight Procurement, including end-to-end sourcing
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in Procurement
• Proven category management experience
• Experience in implementing strategies aligned with organizational goals
• Procurement experience on a Pan-European scale is preferable

Language Skills

• Proficiency in English essential

Travel: This role will require regular travel across markets within the IBG as well as supplier visits.

What Cencora offers

Benefit offerings outside the US may vary by country and will be aligned to local market practice. The eligibility and effective date may differ for some benefits and for team members covered under collective bargaining agreements.

Full time

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cencora is committed to providing equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or membership in any other class protected by law. The company’s continued success depends on the full and effective utilization of qualified individuals. Therefore, harassment is prohibited and all matters related to recruiting, training, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers comply with equal opportunity principles and are non-discriminatory. Cencora is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the employment process which are consistent with legal requirements. If you wish to request an accommodation while seeking employment, please call 888.692.2272 or email hrsc@cencora.com. We will make accommodation determinations on a request-by-request basis.