Market Area Procurement Lead

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At Kalmar, we are moving goods in critical supply chains around the world. As the forerunner in sustainable material handling equipment and services, we set the industry benchmark for a zero‑emission future. We are driven by teamwork, innovation, and taking ownership to deliver results. With our global reach and local expertise, our success starts with a strong focus on the customer, ensuring their needs guide our daily work.

We are dedicated to respecting others and fostering an inclusive culture where all voices are heard, empowering us to succeed together. With us, your work has an impact. Your work moves the world!

Join us and take your career to the next level.

The Market Area Procurement Lead for North America will lead the development and execution of sourcing activities for the North America region, including Front Line Units (FLUs) and manufacturing plant (Ottawa, Kansas), across all indirect categories within the regional organization. You will collaborate with global category and country procurement organizations, lead savings projects, ensure supplier preferencing and consolidation activities, create synergies and drive sustainable compliance improvements that are aligned with local and regional needs.

• Lead cost‑saving initiatives by identifying opportunities for RFQs, process optimization, supplier renegotiation, TCO initiatives, and agreeing implementation within the country.
• Lead contract negotiations for procurement projects and contracts, ensuring compliance with legal and commercial terms.
• Facilitate communication between business functions and central category management teams to ensure alignment and implementation of global procurement strategies.
• Structured in sourcing vs outsourcing analysis and dialogue on core capabilities and in/outsourcing activities together with negotiation and implementation of those with functional partners.
• Build and maintain strong local relationships with preferred suppliers, ensuring high levels of collaboration and mutual benefit along with supplier consolidation and tail spend reduction.
• Lead key supplier development initiatives, including risk mitigation strategies (together with TPRM) and continuous improvement efforts.
• Ensure that all procurement activities adhere to both Kalmar internal policies and local legal requirements.
• Work closely with finance, operations, and other relevant departments to align procurement activities with business needs. Promote and increase procurement process awareness across functions.
• Identify inefficiencies in local procurement processes and work with the country procurement teams to implement improvements that enhance operational efficiency.
• Support front‑line units in implementing procurement best practices, including process standardization and tool utilization.
• Provide regular reporting to country directors and controllers on procurement performance, highlighting key achievements, risks, and areas for improvement against targets for cost, quality, and delivery.
• Ensure transparency in procurement activities by using Kalmar digital procurement systems and tools to streamline procurement workflows and increase transparency in procurement activities.

• Closely collaborate with business stakeholders at all levels ensuring impactful category strategy and savings action implementation.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders across the organization, including Finance, Legal, Sales & Service, and other relevant departments.
• Effectively communicate sourcing strategies, plans and results to stakeholders, ensuring alignment and buy‑in.
• Proactively identify and address stakeholder needs and concerns ensuring compliance whilst supporting business growth and flexibility.

• Ensure best practice sharing across counties and across regions.
• Develop and manage procurement metrics and KPIs, developing dashboards to track sourcing performance on a country, regional and global level.
• Drive improvements in the source‑to‑pay process, including…