Category Leader, Construction

Location: Onsite, 4 days per week – Kohler, WI

Opportunity

The Category Leader- Construction is responsible for the strategic procurement of major Construction and Facilities capital projects across Kohler’s US sites. This key role supports large project purchasing activities while ensuring compliance with internal processes, contracts, and global procurement policies. The position holder will act as the primary procurement partner with the Construction team and will work collaboratively to ensure on time delivery of projects, cost control, and quality. 

Specific Responsibilities

• Procurement Strategy & Execution: 
  •  Develop and execute a 3–5 year category strategy that aligns with the Capital Plan, risk, and stakeholder priorities.
  • Lead complex sourcing events and negotiations across different delivery models.
  • Drive value creation (savings, cost avoidance, cash, contract compliance, supplier consolidation).
  • Establish and govern preferred supplier/partner ecosystem and manage performance.
  • Own category governance, including sourcing playbooks, approval thresholds, bid requirements, and audit readiness.
  • Delivery against departmental KPIs, including cost savings and avoidance, DPO and supplier consolidation. 

• Supplier & Contract Compliance: 
  
  • Lead contract framework development (templates, rate cards, escalation clauses, warranty standards) with Legal/Finance. 
  • Implement supplier risk management and contingency planning. 
  • Build and lead supplier performance management, including QBRs, KPIs, escalation management and performance governance. 
  • Ensure projects have reputable suppliers in place through a thorough supplier selection process and conducting appropriate due diligence. 
  • Ensure robust contracts are in place that protect the business from a commercial and legal perspective. 
    
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation: 
  • Works alongside stakeholders in identifying procurement improvement opportunities. 
  • Promotes and leads value engineering exercises for Construction and Facilities Capital projects .
  • Stays at the forefront of leading trends in Construction industry, particularly those that bring cost saving and/or sustainability benefit. 
  • Driving standardization to reduce contract cycle time and variability. 
  • Embedding sustainability and responsible sourcing into strategy and selection. 
  • Actively participates in non-sourcing purchasing projects, as required. 
    
• Stakeholder Leadership & Governance: 
  
  • Act as strategic procurement advisor to Construction leadership. 
    
  • Lead cross-functional governance to balance cost, risk, schedule, and quality. 
    
  • Coach stakeholders on sourcing policy and supplier performance. 

Success Measures

• Annualized cost savings/avoidance  
  
• 90% usage of Kohler contract templates 
  
• Supplier consolidation  
  
• DPO improvement 
  
• Sourcing cycle time 
  
• Supplier performance 
  
• Partner with stakeholders to proactively manage project timelines and budgets per requirements