Global Category Manager at Ashland Inc. — Remote

Ashland Inc.

Ashland has an exciting opportunity to join Ashland’s Global Procurement team for a Global Category Manager responsible for developing and executing global procurement strategies for Toll Manufacturing (Tolling), Purchased For Resale (PFR), Environmental Remediation Services and Waste Management. Work location is flexible and eligible for work from home.

This role serves as the primary procurement category manager for these categories, driving supplier performance, cost optimization, supply assurance, risk mitigation, compliance and sustainability objectives. In addition, this role manages complex commercial relationships, negotiates multi-million-dollar agreements, oversees toller and supplier networks, supports remediation programs and leads initiatives that improve procurement processes and governance.

This is a very visible, significant role within the Company and the procurement function. This position will report to the Senior Manager, Procurement Supply Chain, Tolling Services, Remediation and Global Real Estate– Global Procurement.

• Develop Category Strategy plans following 7 step strategic sourcing methodology and use appropriate support tools to drive results and deliver savings.
• Ensuring all procurement services are met for the assigned Ashland business units, plants, labs, and / or facilities.
• Negotiate, implement, and manage strategic contracts to ensure optimum cost and reliable supply.
• Identify and lead opportunities for cost savings, better efficiency, and other areas of improvement; recommend and/or implement policy or process changes, as appropriate.
• Develop and deploy supply risk assessment and mitigation programs to ensure business continuity.
• Manage the full vendor lifecycle, including supplier identification, due diligence, qualification trials,, contracting and operational and performance reviews, including resolving operational issues related to supply challenges.
• Facilitating RFP / RFQ / RFI and preparing Coupa sourcing / bidding events according to engineering specifications and / or business requirements.
• Conducting bid analysis with a cross functional team and awarding based on internal team consensus.
• Lead cross-functional global teams. However, person would be responsible for managing assigned high value/complex spend categories directly.
• Be an active member of the Global Tolling Team and actively collaborate with other leadership team members to deliver on procurement/corporate objectives.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key suppliers driving optimized value through strategic relationship management program.
• Extracting and analyzing spend data by various criteria from various ERP/S2P reporting tools (Coupa, SAP, QlikView).
• Representing as Corporate Agent: Ensuring Regulatory Compliance and Corporate Policies are enforced.
• Ensuring strict compliance to Ashland’s Zero Incident Culture and Responsible Care Guidelines.
• Travel – Limited. Up to 25% to visit Ashland sites, supplier visits, internal meetings, and industry conferences.

• Minimum of 10 years of strategic Indirect Procurement and/or Tolling Procurement Services and/or related experience required.
• Minimum Education: bachelor’s degree preferably in engineering discipline; MBA and / or CPSM Certification a plus
• Leading a team and directly managing complex multi category spend greater than $70MM.
• Experience in Chemical or Pharmaceutical industry and/or in Fortune 500 companies a plus
• Demonstrated knowledge of category management and use of 7SSS (Step Strategic Sourcing) methodology
• Demonstrated knowledge of applying TCO (total cost of ownership) and other methodologies in evaluating suppliers’ proposals
• Strong knowledge of deploying and leveraging Supplier Relationship Management program in a global supply base
• Demonstrated expertise in deploying supply Risk Assessment and Mitigation program in diverse categories of materials.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Contracting practices and processes in a global environment
• Strong communication, follow-up, presentation, and teamwork skills to be performed with a sense of urgency as required.
• Good knowledge of Coupa and other tools such as SAP, Ariba

The following skill sets are preferred:

• Five plus years’ experience – dealing with senior management, leading team, and managing complex small value spend as well as multi-millions $ high value spend/contracts.
• Demonstrated experience working in diverse global cross-functional teams in highly matrixed environment.