Indirect Procurement Manager, Facilities

job purpose:

As fairlife continues to experience exponential growth as a company, we are looking for an Indirect Procurement Manager to help advance the strategic sourcing and procurement operations within our Supply Chain Team. This role is directly responsible for managing and overseeing all aspects of developing and implementing sourcing strategies that align with fairlife's strategic objectives. The Indirect Procurement Manager will be tasked with developing and executing upon sourcing strategies across indirect categories with a focus on supplier selection, relationship management and price negotiation. As Indirect Procurement Manager, you will be expected to liaise with multiple stakeholders across various areas of the business internally and externally, and support as a thought leader to drive strategic decision making. This role delivers value by ensuring fairlife partners and contracts favorably with high performing suppliers driving exceptional service, quality, and value for our business.

responsibilities:

• Plan, organize, direct, and control activities related to strategic sourcing for indirect spend, focused on facilities categories.
• Analyze spend to develop a productivity pipeline and execute robust category strategies that optimize the supply base.
• Own, develop, and execute category strategies for the Chemicals Category (water treatment, processing & packaging, and wastewater treatment).
• Collaborate with Transportation & Warehousing Teams to lead bid processes and contract negotiation.
• Manage the lifecycle of contracts related to co-manufacturing, own strategic and tactical relationships with all co-manufacturers, ensure vendor adherence to contracted terms, support our internal Operations teams by tracking all performance metrics and supporting all escalations, collaborating with Coca-Cola and manufacturers on improvement projects and initiatives.
• Own, develop, and execute category strategies for facility tail spend across the fairlife manufacturing network.
• Own, develop, and execute category strategies for the pallet category.
• Identify, support, and implement cost reduction opportunities.
• Lead Request for Proposal (RFP) process to ensure consistent lowest total cost of ownership.
• Earn trust with key internal stakeholder teams to collaborate on requirements gathering, while leading RFP development, response review, and supplier selection process.
• Develop and execute vendor service agreements in close collaboration with Legal Team; Develop and negotiate preferential terms.
• Manage vendor relationships, track performance, and communicate performance feedback.
• Identify supply risks in Indirect categories and develop risk mitigation strategies.
• Leverage functional experts through the sourcing process to assess market conditions, identify spend leverage opportunities, benchmark data, and other related activities.
• Assist in the development and management of annual budgeting process.
• Analyze and forecast market inflation trends and work to address any price variances to budget.
• Monitor, track and report on savings and key performance indicators for category.
• Resolve any unforeseen problems with suppliers relating to operations, purchasing or quality/performance.
• Partners with key stakeholders and project teams across the organization identify sourcing opportunities in the facilities categories.
• Other duties and category support as assigned and/or identified by the category manager.

skills/qualifications required:

• Bachelor's Degree (Preferably in Supply Chain, Procurement, Finance or Engineering).
• +5 years of indirect facility procurement experience or equivalent.
• Excellent negotiation skills, verbal and written communication, and a self-starter.
• Strong project management background desired with experience in CPG environment.
• Proactive business results-focused, and proven ability to provide insights that generate value and drive savings.
• Self-motivated; ability to execute and prioritize in a dynamic environment.
• Able to thrive in a dynamic and fast-moving environment; Eager to partner and create value-based relationships with team members up, down and across the organization.
• Ability to influence senior leadership teams at Plant level and Corporate Function level.
• Ability to handle ambiguity and work in a fast paced, entrepreneurial environment.

position location: Chicago, IL or Coopersville, MI

reports to: Indirect Procurement Director

travel requirements: 30%