Sr. Manager, Indirects - Utilities and Services

As an Indirect Procurement Senior Manager, you will lead category strategy and sourcing execution across 8+ utilities and services sub‑categories (e.g., energy, sanitation chemistry, waste management, and water treatment) within the North American Zone (U.S. and Canada). This is a hands‑on people manager role: you will deliver key sourcing initiatives yourself while coaching and developing others through clear expectations, feedback, and accountability.

You will partner with stakeholders across Operations, R&D, FSQ, and Corporate functions to drive project delivery, simplify processes, ensure supply continuity, and improve total cost. You will also lead supplier relationship and contract management, including KPI tracking and quarterly business reviews, to ensure consistent performance, service, and risk management. Through strong execution and leadership, you will model and reinforce high standards that strengthen team culture and results.

• Build and maintain strong internal stakeholder and supplier relationships to ensure alignment, responsiveness, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Lead sourcing and category management for a portfolio of utilities and services categories, ensuring clear requirements, aligned expectations, and measurable outcomes.
• Set and deliver performance goals for a high‑spend category portfolio, including a robust productivity pipeline that maintains operational excellence.
• Partner with Sustainability, suppliers, and business stakeholders to execute short‑ and long‑term sustainability strategies in a cost‑effective manner.
• Lead supplier relationship management and conduct supplier business reviews; serve as an escalation point for performance, continuity, and risk issues (experience with utilities, sustainability, and sanitation industry leaders is a plus).
• Develop and maintain a fit‑for‑purpose supplier base that ensures supply continuity while reducing tail spend.
• Lead strategic supplier discussions on long‑term objectives, market trends, innovation/technology, and investment opportunities.
• Own escalations for critical supplier issues; align cross‑functional partners and drive timely resolution.
• Translate business needs into sourcing and category plans across AQSCI (Assurance of Supply, Quality, Service, Cost, and Innovation).
• Develop multi‑year category strategies grounded in data, insights, and business requirements.
• Build strong cross‑functional partnerships to influence decisions and drive adoption of category strategies across total spend.
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize value‑generating initiatives based on complexity, resources, risk, time to implement, and financial impact.
• Prioritize and allocate work across the team while personally owning key sourcing initiatives.
• Review key deliverables (strategies, RFx packages, negotiation plans, and contracts) to ensure quality, consistency, and compliance.
• Lead contract negotiations and execute agreements in accordance with procurement policies; apply expertise across categories as needed.
• Maintain a strong understanding of category dynamics (market conditions, pricing, cost drivers, and supplier landscape) and communicate key changes to business partners.
• Drive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) improvements through analytics and cross‑functional collaboration; measure and report value delivery.
• Coach and develop team members through clear expectations, regular feedback, and performance management; simplify complexity and enable execution.

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain management, finance, business, engineering or related field. Candidates with extensive relevant experience and certifications (e.g., CPM, CPIM, etc.) may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Possess at least 5 to 7 years of experience in Procurement, preferably in Indirect Procurement with relevant category expertise.
• Strong written, verbal, analytical, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
• Ability to prioritize multiple concurrent tasks and drive assignments to timely completion.
• Ability to understand, organize, and communicate complex information or data sets in an easily understandable format…