Job Summary: Leads strategic sourcing initiatives and procurement category management in U.S. transportation and logistics for assigned categories, which may include some or all of the following: Rail, Railcar Leases, Bulk Truck, Bulk Terminals, Barge.
Job Responsibilities: - Serve as company expert in the assigned logistics categories. Leverage in-depth understanding of transportation markets within the area of procurement responsibility, including but not limited to market structure, global and national factors driving the supply/demand balance, main players, short- and long-term market trends, and technology developments.
- Provide periodic market updates to leadership.
- Work cross functionally with Supply Chain and Operations to understand the transportation and logistics requirements.
- Develop Requests for Proposals (RFP's) in compliance with legal, technical, SHE and supply chain requirements, to competitively source transportation and other logistics services.
- Negotiate, implement, and manage contracts, ensuring adherence to all company policies, directives, and sustainability targets related to purchases from outside vendors.
- Understand vendor capabilities, identify opportunities for alternative sources and arrangements, and make recommendations to reduce cost and risk, and optimize working capital.
- Serve as primary point of contact to develop and manage relationships with key carriers / service providers to drive continuous improvement.
- Establish, collect and analyze metrics to track vendor performance, and conduct periodic performance and business review meetings with key service providers.
- Track and report monthly realized cost savings and cost avoidance from procurement initiatives and actions.
- Serve as an escalation point for correcting systemic vendor performance issues as well as incidental urgent issues within the managed logistics spend categories.
- Work to streamline invoice audit and pay process. Address any systemic invoicing issues.
- Support development of new business opportunities by providing the business with quotes, freight cost estimates and reliable logistics solutions for customers, inbound raw materials and special projects.
- Participate in logistics budget development and forecasting.
Qualifications:- Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Economics or related field and/or combination of education and related experience.
- Minimum 5 years' experience in Logistics or Purchasing is required.
- Analytical skills: Will be working with multiple vendors to determine best options and will need to evaluate and compare multiple pricing components, service elements, and economic factors.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel.
- Knowledge of the chemicals industry, or related industrial manufacturing environment, and associated modes of transportation.
- Strong organizational, communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills (written and verbal).
- Ability to travel as required to vendors, other Synthomer sites, etc.
- Excellent skills in: problem solving, facilitation, negotiation, multi-tasking, project management.
- Strong advocate for safety, driving a safety culture in a positive manner.
- Must maintain high ethical standards.
- Ability to work collaboratively and demonstrate effective listening skills.
- Attention to detail will be critical to making sure all issues are addressed effectively.
Preferred Qualifications:- Knowledge and experience utilizing SAP and/or Ariba.
- Experience in barge and/or packaged truck modes of transportation.
- Experience in both logistics operations and procurement of freight rates.
Why Synthomer?We are ambitious!We have grown significantly - both organically and inorganically. We are a FTSE 250 listed company, 22% of our revenue comes from newly commercialized products, and we're recognized in the top-quartile for chemicals manufacturing safety.
We believe in high challenge, high support!We are keen to let you contribute in real roles from day 1. We expect a lot, but offer a lot, too. This includes onboarding, induction and learning events, networking opportunities, mentoring and personal development planning. So, be up for an inspiring long-term career adventure.
We personalize our approach to development!At Synthomer, you won't find generic career tracks or development programs but rather a one-size-fits-one approach to employee development. We'll partner with you to ensure you have the right experiences that build your capabilities and accelerate your career growth.