Category Manager, Indirect Procurement

Department

Procurement

Director of Procurement

Hybrid
-work arrangement

Full-time, permanent

Up to 15% across U.S. and Canadian operations

Bright Path Kids, part of the Busy Bees family, operates a large and growing network of early childhood education and care centers across the United States and Canada. Its purpose is to give every child the best start in life, supported by values of care, service, quality, and value. We are building a centralized procurement function to make it easier for our centers and support teams to obtain the goods and services they need reliably, responsibly, and at the best total value.

The function will balance disciplined commercial management with an uncompromising commitment to child safety, regulatory compliance, educator productivity, and continuity of center operations.

The Category Manager, Indirect Procurement will lead strategic sourcing, contracting, supplier performance, and category-management activities for indirect spend across Bright Path Kids’ multi-site North American operations. This is a hands-on, high-impact role for a commercially astute procurement professional who can convert distributed local buying into scalable, service-led category strategies. The role will initially focus on facilities and operational services, including maintenance and repair, janitorial and sanitation services, waste and recycling, pest control, security and life-safety services, landscaping and snow removal, uniforms and linen services, utilities-related services, and other center-support requirements.

The precise category portfolio will evolve with business priorities and may expand into additional indirect categories such as professional services, technology and telecom, fleet or travel. Reporting to the Director of Procurement, the Category Manager will work closely with Facilities, Operations, Finance, Legal, IT, Risk, regional and center leaders, and Accounts Payable. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable negotiating a national agreement and presenting a clear business case to senior stakeholders.

Develop and execute category strategies. You will work with Director of Procurement to create multi-year category strategies that identify demand, market dynamics, risk, service requirements, sourcing opportunities, and implementation plans. You will establish category baselines using spend, supplier, contract, and service-performance data; prioritize initiatives according to total value, service criticality, and operational risk; and maintain a visible pipeline of sourcing and value-creation projects.

You will recommend the right sourcing model for each category, including national agreements, regional agreements, approved local supplier programs, or spot-buy controls. You will drive supplier rationalization where it improves service, cost, compliance, or administrative efficiency without compromising local responsiveness or business continuity.

You will lead end-to-end sourcing processes, including stakeholder discovery, specifications and scopes of work, supplier qualification, requests for information and proposals, bid analysis, commercial negotiation, business-case development, supplier selection, and implementation. You will negotiate agreements that define clear service levels, pricing and rate-card structures, performance remedies, renewal and termination rights, insurance and safety requirements, data and confidentiality expectations where applicable, and escalation processes.

You will partner with Legal, Risk, Finance, and operational stakeholders to ensure contracts are commercially sound, practical for center operations, and aligned with company policy and applicable requirements. You will maintain an accurate contract repository, renewal calendar, and supplier documentation record.

You will establish practical supplier-management routines for strategic and high-risk suppliers, including scorecards, quarterly business reviews, issue-resolution processes, corrective-action…