Manager, Category Management

Business context
The Cooling Line of Business designs and manufactures the thermal management portfolio that keeps data centres running - from chillers and CDUs supporting high-density liquid-cooled AI racks, through to in-room, InRow and Fan Wall air cooling.

Demand in this segment is growing faster than the supply base can naturally absorb, while the refrigeration component market is simultaneously being reshaped by low-GWP refrigerant transitions, A2L safety requirements, regional trade barriers and extended lead times on critical items.

The F7 category group covers the core refrigeration and thermal content of these products and represents roughly €250 million of global annual spend.

It is one of the highest-leverage categories in the Cooling LoB: it drives a large share of product cost, it sits on the critical path of every offer lead time, and it carries the highest technical qualification burden.

Category Managers in this group are part of the Cooling LoB Procurement team and operate globally, across all five manufacturing sites and their design centres.

Purpose of the role

Own the end-to-end performance of an assigned portfolio within HVAC Category - cost, quality, continuity of supply, supplier risk, innovation and sustainability - by building and executing a global sourcing strategy and a qualified, competitive, resilient supplier panel that supports both the installed base and the new-product pipeline.

The role is expected to lead, not administer: to form a point of view on the market, to challenge specifications with engineering, to consolidate demand across plants that have historically bought independently, and to secure supply for a business whose volumes are scaling rapidly.

Key responsibilitiesCategory strategy and market intelligence


* Build, own and refresh the global category strategy for the assigned portfolio, including segmentation, make-vs-buy, supplier panel design, share-of-category (SOC) evolution, supplier reduction and concentration targets, and a 3-year roadmap.


* Maintain a live view of the supplier market: capacity, capability, technology roadmaps, financial health, ownership changes, capacity expansions and regional cost positions.


* Run structured cost-driver analysis - raw material indices (copper, aluminium, steel), energy, labour, freight, currency - and translate movements into negotiation positions and price-adjustment mechanisms.


* Benchmark landed cost across regions and identify low-cost-country and localisation opportunities, taking tariffs, duties, logistics and qualification cost into account.


* Consolidate demand across the five plants and across brands; eliminate duplicate part numbers and fragmented buying of technically equivalent items.

Cost and productivity delivery


* Own the annual productivity target for the portfolio and build a bottom-up, project-level plan to deliver it, with named actions, owners and dates.


* Deliver savings through the full lev...