Manager, Strategic Sourcing and Planning

We are seeking a forward thinking and results driven Manager, Strategic Sourcing & Planning to play a critical leadership role within the NASC Strategic Sourcing Food & Beverage organization. In this highly visible role, you will shape and advance sourcing strategies that support Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruise Line, Holland America Line, and Seabourn, with a particular focus on high impact protein categories.

As a strategic leader, you will partner closely with executive level stakeholders across Supply Chain, Culinary Operations, Finance, and Sustainability teams to build multiyear category strategies, unlock enterprise value, and safeguard supply continuity across the fleet. You will interpret business needs, translate insights into actionable sourcing plans, and drive initiatives that elevate cost competitiveness, quality, innovation, and supplier performance.

In this role, you will serve as the category leader, responsible for influencing key decisions, strengthening supplier partnerships, anticipating risk, and ensuring strategic alignment with brand and corporate priorities. You will be accountable for managing complex project pipelines, communicating progress and impacts, and consistently delivering favorable outcomes that support long term business objectives.

As a people leader, you will manage and develop a team of 25 sourcing professionals, ensuring consistent application of best‑in‑class procurement methodologies including the 7‑Step Strategic Sourcing Process to drive breakthrough value creation. You will coach the team to think strategically, proactively identify opportunities, and execute with discipline and clarity.

This role requires a blend of strategic mindset, strong analytical capability, supplier relationship acumen, managing a sourcing team, and the ability to influence senior stakeholders in a dynamic operating environment.

• Development of an effective long‑term strategic sourcing plan for highly complex categories and projects that create long term value while meeting brand objectives, including value creation, supply continuity, risk mitigation, and innovation.
• Effective collaboration on strategic sourcing categories and projects within the organization and stakeholders; developing relationships to become a trusted sourcing partner.
• Ensuring cross‑functional engagement and support of category projects and initiatives.
• Remaining connected to key stakeholders and soliciting input from them at appropriate times to stay aligned with the needs of the business, as well as run meetings providing key supplier and product updates and/or address specific needs of key stakeholders.

• Apply spend category management best practices, tools and techniques in the development and implementation of an integrated strategic sourcing strategy to assess the overall opportunity within the categories for projects.
• Serve as a subject‑matter expert on strategic sourcing categories with the stakeholders and foster effective relationships.
• Maintain focus on project timelines and deliverables to ensure business goals and objectives are met.
• Strong partnership with Finance team to accurately forecast impacts of category strategy, including scenario modeling.
• Manage annual initiative plan by creating realistic timelines and meeting contracting deadlines, communicating initiative status.

• Provide oversight, performance manage, coach, and develop a highly skilled team of 25 category leaders able to drive strategic approaches and cultivate their own strong business relationships with both internal stakeholders and external partners.

• Research best practices and conduct baseline due diligence to best understand opportunities for savings, reducing TCO, improving efficiencies, quality improvement and service of the sourcing teams.
• Lead supplier qualification, segmentation and certification programs.
• Be well informed about commodity markets and use information to report trends, pricing fluctuations, provide forecast detail and product cost shifts to…