Senior Category Manager

• Ways of Working:
  Set Schedule - This job will be onsite weekly, the percentage of onsite work will be defined by the leader.
• Employee Type:
  Employee
• Min. Salary Region 1: 181500 USD
• Global Job Level (HCM):
  Professional 5 (13)
• Min. Salary Region 2: 154300 USD

It started with a simple idea: what if surgery could be less invasive and recovery less painful? Nearly 30 years later, that question still fuels everything we do at Intuitive
. As a global leader in robotic-assisted surgery and minimally invasive care
, our technologies—like the da Vinci surgical system and Ion
—have transformed how care is delivered for millions of patients worldwide.

We’re a team of engineers, clinicians, and innovators united by one purpose: to make surgery smarter, safer, and more human. Every day, our work helps care teams perform with greater precision and patients recover faster, improving outcomes around the world.

The problems we solve demand creativity, rigor, and collaboration. The work is challenging, but deeply meaningful—because every improvement we make has the potential to change a life.

If you’re ready to contribute to something bigger than yourself and help transform the future of healthcare
, you’ll find your purpose here.

Primary Function of Position

Manages supply chain of direct materials suppliers and parts (machined parts, castings and motion control components) to support business continuity and optimization, including sourcing, development of category strategy roadmaps, negotiating contracts, analyzing spend, creating inventory management strategies, gathering commodity intelligence, and managing supplier performance; may include limited management of purchase orders.

Leads and executes strategies with cross-functional category team(s) to optimize supply chain across all manufacturing locations

Identifies and implements key Global Supply Chain initiatives

Develops and refines key business processes; champions and mentors team members in use of Sourcing processes; monitors industry and professional best practices

Category Management

Provides cross-functional team leadership within metals category; leads cross-functional category team meetings

Collaborates with manager and cross-functional peers to create long-term supplier strategies and roadmaps. Engages with internal stakeholders to develop and influence category strategy that aligns with long-term business objectives, including capacity management, cost reduction targets, supplier performance improvement plans, inventory health targets and supply risk optimization.

Co-leads direct procurement supplier selection process with collaboration from Supplier Engineering. Leverages knowledge of strategic sourcing practices to identify a core supply base able to offer lowest total cost of ownership and high-quality product while identifying value improvement opportunities.

Leads alignment of production supplier requirements and sourcing strategies with those of new product development (NPI) for designated suppliers/categories to ensure uninterrupted material availability, alignment of risk, and cost goals with long term vision for the category / business

Prioritizes category team projects in collaboration with manager and ensures team goals and objectives are achieved

Leverages knowledge of commodity trends to propose and execute category strategies

Develops and presents category strategy reviews for metals category

Leads supplier score carding and supplier business reviews for assigned suppliers

Effectively identifies areas of improvement and sets internal and supplier targets to align with business objectives

Proactively collaborates with supply base and procurement team to understand and communicate demand changes and minimize excess inventory or material shortages

Leads continuous improvement efforts needed with suppliers and collaborates internally with cross-functional team to drive performance improvement projects

Effectively manages improvement projects and key milestones and presents progress to the internal and external stakeholders

Escalates issues with supplier executive leadership and drives resolution to achieve business objectives

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