Category Specialist Leader - Erlanger, KY

Category Specialist Leader - Erlanger, KY

The Procurement Category Specialist Leader is a key role within Procurement, reporting to the NA Sr. Manager of Supplier Documentation Governance. The role leads raw material approval activities supporting North America Human Nutrition including a focus on the Colors business. Responsibilities include the acceleration of raw material approval by ensuring timely and accurate supplier documentation, setting priorities, achieving goals, and resolving escalations. This position collaborates closely with cross functional entities including Quality, Regulatory, Operations and external suppliers while promoting consistent processes, compliance and strong execution across the business.

KEY SKILLS & COMPETENCIES:

• Leadership, coaching, teamwork, and a collaborative style   
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail
• Coordinate and drive execution among team members
• Cross-functional interaction and consensus building, influencing without direct authority
• Problem-solving and critical thinking with an eye for continuous improvement opportunities
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Results oriented, proactive, and responsive to time-sensitive demands
• High level of professionalism and alignment to ADM values
• Escalation and conflict resolution

DESCRIPTION OF WORK PERFORMED OR SUPERVISED:

• New Vendor/Raw Material, Second Source and New/Revised Formula Raw Material Workflows from initiation to completion.  This includes gathering, reviewing, and confirming accuracy and completeness of required documents for workflow approvals.
• Manage Workflow process in AS400 (system) to ensure timely POs for customer launches.
• Drive excellence in raw material category specialist priorities, escalating as needed for resolution, responding to internal customer inquiries, and providing regular status updates.
• Coordinate documentation collection, review, management and workflow completion among cross-functional teams (e.g. R&D, Regulatory, and Quality).  This work includes strong collaboration with third party document retrieval contractors.
• Lead cross-functional Raw Material Workflow Priority meetings.  Identify and implement continuous improvements to minimize timelines from commencement to close.
• Raw Material Inactivation and Mass Replacement workflows for all approval stages. 
• Vendor/supplier set-up and name/address and/or distributor change workflows and AS400 vendor file maintenance.
• Utilize workflow tracking mechanisms to measure speed of workflow completion and bottlenecks.
• Lead, upload and maintain all related raw material document databases (including Open Text and Trace Gains or similar data base) for NA Nutrition Sites.  This includes the document coordination of acquiring, reviewing, classifying, and uploading vendor and raw material documentation.
• Request, manage, and track samples as needed for QC workflow review and approval.
• Raw material scouting and sourcing (RFX process) support when required, delivering options for new innovation or replacement raw materials.
• Lead and manage procurement support for sales requests.  
• Support category management when necessary.  This includes supplier communication and coordination of critical work to secure raw material.

REQUIREMENTS:

• 4-year University degree in a business-related field (e.g. Supply Chain, Management, or Data Analytics) or equivalent experience.
• 5 years in procurement, project management, supply chain or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated capacity to excel in a fast-paced, multi-task work environment
• Demonstrated interpersonal and communication skills
• Proven ability to manage effectively within a team-based work environment
• Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with suppliers and internal stakeholders & colleagues
• Highly proficient in computer processes, Microsoft Office tools including Word, Excel, Teams, and Outlook.
• Experience with AS400, SharePoint, and Power Bi a plus.
• Position requires sitting for prolonged periods of time & heavy computer and phone use.

Excited about this role but don’t think you meet every requirement listed? We encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings.

ADM requires the successful completion of a background check. 

REF:112502BR