Associate Strategic Sourcing & Category Manager

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Reporting to the Senior Strategic Sourcing & Category Manager, the Associate Strategic Sourcing & Category Manager is responsible for long‑term planning, strategy development, and leading continuous improvement of assigned spend categories. The position will be responsible for the development and implementation of innovative sourcing strategies and standards across the assigned spend categories to meet Yale University’s needs by achieving high quality, reduced cost, and simplified global effective procurement strategies to drive value, improve service/quality, improve costs and minimize risk to the University community.

The successful candidate must be able to influence and persuade and demonstrate domain expertise. They will also analyze commodity areas, provide recommendations on sourcing strategy and deliver savings to the University. This person should promote a positive work environment, spirit of cooperation and support for coworkers.

• Thorough understanding of RFI/RFPs, negotiations, and contracting. Able to persuade stakeholders regarding the value of Procurement.
• High level of integrity and builds relationships to become a trusted resource to Yale community. Ability to partner with Stakeholders to understand their needs and deliver value for the University.
• Proven ability to conduct exceptional supplier resolution during instances of poor supplier performance, failed delivery, price increases, etc.
• Ability to improve the customer purchasing experience.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills. Advanced MS Office skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

• Delivers and reports cost savings to the University and aggressively pursue contract compliance.
• Leads cross functional or multi‑departmental sourcing activities throughout the University for assigned category.
• Leads the Category Management and sourcing execution process for assigned category(ies).
• Thinks strategically about the spend and key suppliers in their category(ies).
• Proactively engages category stakeholders to develop / align requirements and set objectives.
• Establishes definition of value and/or total cost of ownership Model for the category, in alignment with stakeholders.
• Identifies value‑generating opportunities within the category.
• Develops / documents category strategy that addresses stakeholder objectives and value‑generating opportunities including creation of category strategy playbooks.
• Defines pipeline of category execution activities (e.g., sourcing, supplier management, demand management, etc.) to implement the category strategy.
• Performs evaluation and review of all contract terms and conditions and identifies other potential risks to the University.
• Identifies new internal University customers and creates and builds strong working relationships where none existed.
• Develops and implements sourcing, negotiating and contracting strategies to achieve the desired outcomes including savings goals aligned with the Category Strategy for strategic categories.
• Works with stakeholders to identify preferred suppliers in the category, increase the number of preferred supplier agreements, decrease the quantity of suppliers per category, and promote use of preferred suppliers.
• Conducts/leads supplier management activities for key preferred suppliers.
• Collaborates with category stakeholders to manage alignment to category strategy and stakeholder goals.
• Leads regular category review meetings with stakeholders.
• Maintains knowledge of market trends and external insights including rigorous analysis of market drivers, cost structures and technical improvements.
• Collaborates with Procurement COE to track and report category spend, savings, and performance.
• Provides guidance as needed to buyers on category insights and strategies.