Commodities Procurement Specialist Lead

Foods you love. Brands you trust. And a career that empowers you to grow.

At Nestlé USA, we're all working towards the same goal - to delight and deliver for our consumers. With a rich portfolio of beloved brands, including DiGiorno, Toll House, and Coffee mate, in 97% of U.S. households, we have a unique opportunity - and responsibility - to be there for every moment in our consumers' lives.

Joining Nestlé means becoming part of an inclusive workplace that inspires innovation, encourages strategic thinking and creativity, and celebrates your achievements. No matter where you work within the organization, you are empowered to challenge the status quo, embrace risk-taking, and pioneer new ideas. Our supportive and collaborative environment encourages bold ambitions and continuous learning so that everyone can grow and thrive.

This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.

In this role, you'll serve as a Lead Procurement Specialist, managing the procurement strategy for spend areas in your scope and localizing any globally created strategies. This role identifies value-creation opportunities and leads cross-functional projects for the category, as well as supplier strategy, category risk management, collaboration, and local relationship management with a focus on risk mitigation, innovation, sustainability, and supplier diversity.

You will provide oversight for category-critical tasks like business continuity planning, supplier performance management, ensure supply, PPV forecast, etc., while working with the business to understand strategy, requirements, and challenges and to report updates. This role is the face of their assigned category to Nestrade (Global Buying Organization for Nestlé) and serves as the key interface with business/functional leadership across Nestlé USA for their respective categories.

The Procurement Specialist Lead will also play an indirect leadership role by mentoring, drive excellence in Purchase Price Variance (PPV) management and delegating tasks to lower-level team members. Proven competence in influencing and ensuring stakeholder accountability within a matrixed organizational structure.

• End-to-end management of assigned category/categories, including localization of global strategies, development of at-market strategies, and coordination with suppliers and Nestrade buyers (as required)
  • Responsible for more complex categories that require executive-level collaboration
  • Managing categories with high internal or external visibility, ensuring stakeholder engagement and communication
• Execute Nestlé’s 7-Step Strategic Sourcing Process in the North American market, enabling value generation through sustainability, innovation and cost improvements for Nestlé business units
  • Identify value creation opportunities by developing a deep understanding of each relevant business unit’s requirements, challenges and opportunities, and leveraging these insights to create and implement savings initiatives
  • Leverage opportunities to lower total cost of ownership or increase value to the business while ensuring supply
  • Assign initiative owners for category aligned spend initiatives; provide category expertise and help guide initiative savings execution and pull through
  • Use knowledge of global suppliers and processes to bring opportunities to the forefront
  • Benchmark against competitors and promote supplier-led innovation to unlock value
  • Use insights and trends to liaise strategically with the business, factories, and suppliers
• Define risk management strategies for the business and promote mitigation activities to reduce the chance of disruption
  • Proactively manage supplier relationships resulting in a reduction of contractual risks
  • Clearly communicate risks and issues to key stakeholders, knowing when and to whom to escalation significant issue
  • Suggest improved ways of working, introducing new processes or re-engineering existing ones in support of key priorities
• Recognize strategic drivers and activities that support key priorities, both within your category and across the organization
  • Leverage intelligence tools and participate in professional associations to…