Sr Buyer and Category Leader

Ashland Inc.

Ashland has an exciting opportunity for a Category Leader - Indirect MRO / CAPEX / Site Services - Global Procurement to join our Global Procurement team, location is flexible and eligible for work from home, but must reside within 200 mile radius of Calvert City, KY or Texas City, TX This is a very visible, significant role within the Company and the procurement function.

This position will report to Associate Director MRO/Site Services, - Global Procurement.

The responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to, the following:


* Develop Category Strategy plans following 7 step strategic sourcing methodology and use appropriate support tools to drive results and deliver savings.


* Ensuring all procurement services are met for the assigned Ashland plants, labs, and / or facilities.


* Negotiate, implement, and manage strategic contracts to ensure optimum cost and reliable supply.


* Identify opportunities for cost savings, better efficiency, and other areas of improvement; recommend and/or implement policy or process changes, as appropriate.


* Develop and deploy supply risk assessment and mitigation programs to ensure business continuity.


* Manage operational issues related to supply challenges.


* Facilitating RFP / RFQ / RFI and preparing Coupa sourcing / bidding events according to engineering specifications and / or business requirements.


* Conducting bid analysis with a cross functional team and awarding based on internal team consensus.


* Lead cross-functional team as well direct reports.

However, person would be responsible for managing assigned high value/complex spend categories directly.


* Be an active member of MRO / Site Services Leadership Team and actively collaborate with other leadership team members to deliver on procurement/corporate objective.


* Develop and maintain strong relationships with key suppliers driving optimized value through strategic relationship management program.


* Extracting and analyzing spend data by various criteria from various ERP/S2P reporting tools (Coupa, SAP, QlikView).


* Representing as Corporate Agent: Ensuring Regulatory Compliance and Corporate Policies are enforced.


* Ensuring strict compliance to Ashland's Zero Incident Culture and Responsible Care Guidelines.


* Travel - Limited.

Up to 25% to visit Ashland sites, supplier visits, internal meetings, and industry conferences.

To be qualified for this role, you must possess the following:


* Minimum of 10 years of strategic MRO / CAPEX / Site Services procurement and/or related experience required.


* Minimum Education: bachelor's degree preferably in engineering discipline; MBA and / or CPSM Certification a plus


* Leading a team and directly managing complex multi category spend greater than $60MM.


* Experience in Chemical or Pharmaceutical industry and/or in Fortune 500 companies a plus


* Demonstrated knowledge of catego...