Senior Manager, Category Lead

Job Description

About the Role:
We are seeking a strategic and experienced Senior Category Manager to lead and oversee the development and execution of category strategies across multiple spend areas. This role will directly manage a team of category managers and play a critical role in driving commercial performance, supplier innovation, and enterprise-wide value creation.
The ideal candidate will combine strong leadership skills with deep procurement and category management expertise, along with a proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and foster cross-functional collaboration.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of category managers to ensure high performance and career growth.
• Define and drive category strategies across assigned spend areas, ensuring alignment with business goals and procurement best practices.
• Partner with senior business leaders to understand requirements, define sourcing strategies, and align procurement initiatives to enterprise objectives.
• Oversee end-to-end sourcing processes, including market analysis, RFx, evaluation, negotiation, and contract management.
• Promote supplier relationship management (SRM) practices to improve performance, foster innovation, and deliver sustainable value.
• Conduct regular reviews and performance evaluations of strategic suppliers.
• Drive cost optimization, risk mitigation, and supply assurance across categories.
• Champion data-driven decision-making through spend analysis, market intelligence, and supplier benchmarking.
• Ensure category strategies incorporate ESG, compliance, and risk considerations.
• Contribute to the evolution of procurement policies, frameworks, and digital tools.
• Act as a senior member of the procurement leadership team, supporting broader transformation, capability-building, and governance.

Qualifications

Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in Business, Supply Chain, Engineering, or a related field (Masters or CIPS certification is a plus).
• At least 5 years of experience in strategic sourcing, category management, or procurement operations.
• Proven track record of managing complex sourcing initiatives and delivering measurable value.
• Commercially savvy with strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Proven track record of delivering cost savings, value creation, and risk mitigation.
• Experience with procurement tools and systems.
• High level of integrity, adaptability, and results orientation.
• Results-oriented mindset with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.