Ice Cream Sr. Procurement Manager- Packaging

If you are in the Unilever Ice Cream business or consider choosing to work for the Unilever Ice Cream business, you will work for the Global, leading Ice Cream player with €7.9bn Turn Over in 2023. The Ice Cream business is operating in a highly attractive category, as we are part of the 1 trillion snacking and refreshment industry, growing consistently at high pace. We have strong brands equities: 5 of top 10 selling brands including Wall’s, Magnum, Ben &Jerry’s. We are investing to unlock the full growth potential of Ice Cream as a standalone entity, once we separate from Unilever, which is planned to happen by November 2025.

Ice Cream has distinct characteristics from Unilever’s other operating businesses and the growth potential of Ice Cream will be better delivered under a different ownership structure. As Ice Cream company we are committed to developing and nurturing talent within our Ice Cream company. You will have ample options for career growth and exploration, allowing you for you to explore roles and opportunities across the new organisation. Your career development will be a priority for us, and we are dedicated to supporting your growth journey within the new company.We hope that you will want to build the new chapter of our Ice Cream history together with us.

JOB PURPOSE

The Procurement Manager for PackagingAmericaswill be responsible for the sourcing strategy development and procurement of all pack materials within the ICAmericas. The position is responsible forlanding relevant capabilities that drive service, value creation and responsible sourcing in the markets. This role will manage 4 direct reports, approximately $150M in spend and all external supplier relationships to support cartons, corrugate, plastic cups and lids, and plastic feedstocks. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Sourcing:

• Support in development and execution of the portfolio strategy in line with both short term and long-term Business Group objectives

• Support global packaging initiatives (e.g. Sustainability, Quality, Resilience, etc.) to create more leverage globally via ensuring strong connection between clusters.

• Bring external in: develop market insights to decide from who, when and how to buy

• Support regional negotiations, developing strong relationship with suppliers and analyse their capabilities to develop long term supplier strategies

• Support and Management of the RFQ process, E-tenders, data management and in-depth analysis of submissions.

• Support innovation projects through strong collaboration with R&D team, providing market intelligence, supplier capabilities and capacity

Supplier & Contract Management: 

• Excellent contract life cycle management and reporting, ensuring 100% coverage of contracts on time in full, including management of purchase price variances.

• Ensure supplier base is 100% compliant with Unilever standards (Specifications, Quality & Responsible Sourcing etc.)

• Identify and mitigate sourcing risks with cross functional team, ensuring high service levels to sourcing units

Value Delivery: 

• Support to create multi-year, cost savings programs funnel for market deployment.

• Work cross-functionally with both local and global counterparts to identify and implement value-project based projects and initiatives.

• Provide reliable and accurate forecast of market and Unilever portfolio prices

• Identify and execute incremental cash opportunities

WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED: 

Below are the differentiating skills which are important to be effective in this Portfolio Sourcing role. Further details about the meaning of each skill can be found in ourPortfolio Sourcing Role Plan.

These skills include:

• People Management and Development

• Procurement sourcing strategy; Supplier analysis

• Value chain understanding

• Supplier negotiation; Contract negotiation

• Strategic partnerships

• Sourcing resilience

• Collaboration

• Stakeholder management

EXPERIENCES & QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree

• 5+years’ experience in Procurement or Supply Chain

• Fluency in English

• Self-starter with strong accountability & responsibility and leadership skills

• Experience in strategic sourcing development and contract negotiations

• Very Strong Communication and Analytical skills:  data/information analysis and presentation. 

• Ability to read markets, gain insights and convey findings along with recommendations, to the business

• Comfort with systems:  SAP CLM, USQS, SRS, Velocity, etc.

• Experience in market forecasting, operations and supply chain dynamics

• Able to build relationships with people across the business (internally & externally).

WHO YOU ARE: 

• You’re detail oriented: This position will require meeting cyclical deadlines as well as ad hoc deadlines in addition to proactive business analysis that will identify risks and opportunities to drive competitive growth. The ideal candidate manages these changing priorities and ensures customer and internal deadlines are met.

• You’re a dot connector: The position will require the ability to retrieve and analyze many different data points from multiple sources and have business acumen to connect these data points quickly to identify emerging trends, determine the resulting business implications and clearly communicate these findings.

• You have an owner’s mindset: The ideal candidate will see the category they work on as their own business and have a strong sense of accountability and responsibility to the business. They will be proactive in looking for ways to grow the business and offer solutions and ideas. They will identify issues quickly and effectively work to prevent them in the future.

• You have a team mindset: In partnership with the Customer Business Manager, the ideal candidate will interact with the retailer and Unilever internal teams to develop a relationship, and lead communication around business operations and data insights.
  You’re a changemaker: The ideal candidate focuses efforts on continuous improvement, work simplification, and the elimination of non-value-added work that will more effectively produce quality results

• You’re an effective communicator: The position will require timely communication and problem-solving skills. The ideal candidate doesn’t just present the problem, they have connected the dots on several different solutions and where possible is empowered to make decisions on their own.