Senior Category Manager

CEL Critical Power designs and manufactures critical power infrastructure – switch gear, modular power PODs, metering and automation – for data-centre and mission-critical customers in Europe and the United States, with its Group HQ and manufacturing in Dublin and a US operation in Williamsburg, Virginia. The business is targeting 3–5x growth, with new switch gear and POD factories coming on line in Dublin in 2027.

CEL is building its first strategic procurement function, and these roles are its core.

Own a category of CEL’s spend end to end and secure the supply, capacity and cost the business needs to grow 3–5x. The Senior Category Manager is CEL’s expert in their market: who makes what, where capacity really sits, how suppliers price and allocate, and where the risks are. They turn that knowledge into a category strategy, supplier agreements and day-to-day commercial decisions that protect delivery, margin and cash.

This is a specialist role, not a generic buying role. CEL staffs specialists aligned to the constraint each market presents, because a market as tight as transformers, breakers or copper rewards people who understand the constraint.

Category strategy

• Build and own a 2–3 year category strategy: market and supplier analysis, demand outlook from S&OP, cost drivers, risks, target supply base and sourcing plan.
• Know the market better than anyone in CEL – capacity, lead times, pricing trends, new entrants, technology change and supplier financial health – and brief the business on it.

Sourcing, negotiation and agreements

• Run sourcing events, should-cost analysis and supplier selection with Engineering, on a total cost of acquisition basis.
• Negotiate and manage long-term, master supply, capacity reservation, VMI and consignment agreements, with Legal.
• Set commercial terms – price, indexation, payment terms, cancellation and remaindering – that protect margin and cash.

Capacity and supply security

• Turn the S&OP demand plan into capacity commitments and allocations ahead of need, including the long-lead orders that gate new product launches.
• Bring supplier capacity, lead times and allocation to the monthly S&OP Procurement and Allocation Review, and maintain the category’s supplier capacity data in CEL’s planning data set.
• Reduce single-source and unqualified exposure: qualify second sources and alternatives with Engineering as design authority.

Cost

• Own material cost against bid, purchase price variance and cost avoidance for the category, and give Sales accurate, current supply costs and approved suppliers for bids.
• Drive value with Engineering and Production: make-vs-buy, sub-assemblies, multi-use parts, parts reduction and design for manufacture.

Supplier performance and qualification

• Qualify every supplier before CEL relies on it: technical specifications, audits and onboarding, with Quality and Engineering.
• Run scorecards and business reviews on delivery, quality, cost and responsiveness; lead supplier development and recovery when performance falls short.
• Support the BU Supply Chain Operations teams with escalations on shortages and supplier recovery, while keeping day-to-day expediting with them.

Trading Business Unit

• Hold the buy/sell P&L for the assigned trading product line: pricing with Sales, supplier terms, margin, stock risk and growth of the line.

Essential

• Specific buying or commercial experience in the seat’s category – this is the most important requirement. Candidates must know the products, the suppliers, how the market prices and allocates, and where capacity really sits.
• 8+ years in procurement, category management, sourcing or commercial roles in manufacturing or the wider industrial supply chain, with at least 3 years owning a category or…