Procurement Category Manager, Packaging

Job Description Summary

Sandoz continues to go through an exciting and transformative period as a global leader and pioneering provider of sustainable Biosimilar and Generic medicines. As we continue down this new and ambitious path, unique opportunities will present themselves, both professionally and personally. Join us, the future is ours to shape!

The Procurement Category Manager, Packaging, plans and leads all strategic aspects within the Packaging Category, across platforms and develops proposals for strategic business decisions. The role provides high value procurement solutions to the business and category strategies; support third party vendor selection, vendor development, and technology management and performance measurement activities. The Procurement Category Manager,
Packaging, ensures best-in-class delivery of external services and products in the Packaging category to support projects and to realize year-on-year productivity improvements, cost savings, and process improvements in close collaboration with the stakeholders in the business.

Job Description

Your Key Responsibilities:

Your responsibilities include, but not limited to:

• Planning, organizing and managing projects taking into account priorities, resources, budgets, issues and constraints to achieve desired results; defining clear project scope and objectives; utilizing software and tools to plan, track and report status.
• Mapping the value chain, analyzing it and deriving potential scenarios. Includes the understanding and application of total cost of ownership, and should cost modelling.
• Participating in and / or leading financial discussions. Applying financial knowledge to participate actively, e.g. in budgeting process, including tax aspects in sourcing strategies and structuring sophisticated deals with ecosystem partners.
• Compliance & risk management: supporting reports to determine appropriate compliance level. Monitoring end-to-end compliance (budget, payment, vendor PO, contract invoice, buying channel, etc.) and deriving corrective actions to improve compliance. Applying risk management processes including identifying and evaluating risks, and defining and executing a risk mitigation plan.
• Projecting the dynamics and impacts (e.g. mergers and acquisitions). Extracting, cleansing and consolidating information to fact-based insights for further usage e.g. in category strategies. Maintaining and updating Procurement applications accordingly to the Procurement content (e.g. e-catalogs, user portal). Continuous improvement of procurement content and automation. Support definition and implementation of Procurement tools and processes.
• Managing data analysis and reporting, e.g. analyzing spend, demand, supply markets and competitors. Extracting, cleansing and consolidating information to fact-based insights for further usage e.g. in category strategies.
• Responsible to ensure the right balance between business needs and Sandoz’ strategy. Accountable to work with stakeholders to identify the most cost-effective ways to deliver business objectives. 
• Executing the Source-to-Contract process including respective strategies, approaches and methods: Preparing and conducting fact-based negotiations. Adapting tactics from a broad portfolio of negotiation strategies to achieve results that support business and Procurement objectives. Proactive assessment of new ways of working, involving innovative scientific & technical solutions by identifying and onboarding the right suppliers.  
• Analyzing specifications for optimization. Linking specification to customer value, challenging specification confidently. Conveying messages clearly and convincing stakeholders.
• Achieving results by proactively building long-term, sustainable and effective relationships, understanding the stakeholder landscape and demonstrating political astuteness across business structures and networks.

What you’ll bring to the role:

Essential Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree is required.
• Master’s Degree/other advanced degree in the Business Administration/Supply Chain is preferred.
• 7-10 years of experience in Procurement within the Pharmaceutical and or CPG industry, preferably in category management, supplier management, or related area, with a focus in the Packaging Procurement.
• Extensive experience in sourcing processes (e.g. RFI/RFQ), negotiation strategies, strategy development, project management, good communication and collaboration skills as well as market analysis capabilities to drive operational excellence.
• Solid experience in navigating in global, matrix organizations and across geographies and cultures.
• Strong project management skills.

Skills:

• Internal And External Customer Needs Analysis & Satisfaction Studies.
• Negotiating.
• Root Cause Analysis And Problem-Solving.
• Vendor Management.

Why Sandoz?

Generic and Biosimilar medicines are the backbone of the global medicines industry. Sandoz, a leader in this sector, provided more than 900 million patient treatments across 100+ countries in 2024 and while we are proud of this achievement, we have an ambition to do more!

With investments in new development capabilities, production sites, new acquisitions, and partnerships, we have the opportunity to shape the future of Sandoz and help more patients gain access to low-cost, high-quality medicines, sustainably.

Our momentum is powered by an open, collaborative culture driven by our talented and ambitious colleagues, who, in return for applying their skills experience an agile and collegiate environment with impactful, flexible-hybrid careers, where diversity is welcomed and where personal growth is supported! 

Join us!

Skills Desired

Internal And External Customer Needs Analysis & Satisfaction Studies, Negotiating, Root Cause Analysis And Problem-Solving, Vendor Management