Category Lead

CSP is the industry leader in the formulation and molding of lightweight, advanced composite components for the transportation industries. As an innovative, full-service Tier One supplier, we offer an entrepreneurial environment where you’re only limited by your own imagination. In addition to our team-focused environment, we provide industry-leading benefits, called BENEfits4U. Our comprehensive offering includes: affordable medical, dental, and vision care; flexible spending accounts; life insurance; 401k with company match and much, much more.

Job Description

Essential Job Functions:

• Lead indirect procurement activities across multiple manufacturing facilities and assigned categories, including maintenance, repair, operations, services, equipment, and plant support needs.
• Manage, coach, and develop multiple Indirect Buyers to ensure consistent execution of procurement processes, priorities, policies, and performance expectations.
• Establish category priorities, workload allocation, and purchasing support models for assigned facilities in partnership with Corporate Purchasing and plant leadership.
• Design, develop, and own category and commodity strategies for assigned indirect spend categories, incorporating market intelligence, should-cost analysis, total cost of ownership, and multi-year sourcing roadmaps that support cost reduction, supplier consolidation, service reliability, risk mitigation, and operational continuity.
• Negotiate, draft, and manage contracts and supply agreements for assigned categories throughout their full lifecycle, including pricing, terms and conditions, service levels, and renewals, amendments, or terminations, in partnership with Legal and Finance.
• Lead supplier selection, bid events, negotiations, and commercial reviews in alignment with enterprise strategies, approved supplier lists, and business requirements.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships and serve as an escalation point for supplier performance, delivery, quality, service, and commercial issues.
• Monitor supplier performance and purchasing metrics, including cost savings, purchase order cycle time, on-time delivery, compliance, open order status, and service levels.
• Identify, prioritize, and implement cost and process improvement opportunities across indirect spend categories and supported facilities.
• Drive procurement standardization, policy compliance, supplier rationalization, and utilization of preferred suppliers across assigned locations.
• Review purchasing data, spend trends, market conditions, and operational requirements to support category planning and sourcing decisions.
• Ensure accurate purchasing documentation, contract support, purchase order management, and ERP data integrity within the team.
• Serve as a trusted business partner to plant leadership, maintenance, engineering, production, operations, finance, legal, quality, and EHS teams to understand business needs, resolve supply issues, and embed category and commodity strategies into plant and enterprise priorities.
• Provide leadership updates, reporting, and recommendations related to purchasing activity, supplier performance, savings initiatives, risks, and category improvement plans.
• Support cross-functional initiatives related to inventory reduction, maintenance reliability, capital projects, compliance, and enterprise procurement transformation.

Qualifications: 

• Minimum 5+ years of procurement, sourcing, or purchasing experience in a manufacturing environment.
• Prior experience leading, supervising, or mentoring procurement professionals is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing category/commodity strategies, and managing supplier relationships, sourcing events, and contract negotiation and management.
• Experience supporting multi-site manufacturing operations and balancing competing facility priorities.
• Strong knowledge of indirect materials, MRO, plant services, industrial suppliers, and manufacturing support requirements.
• Proficiency with ERP systems, purchasing systems, spend analysis tools, and Microsoft Office applications.
• Strong analytical, negotiation, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and lead procurement execution through direct reports and business partnerships.

Education:   

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business administration, operations management, engineering, finance, or related field preferred. Equivalent experience may be considered.

Physical Requirements: 

• Ability to walk manufacturing floors and interact with plant personnel as required.
• Ability to travel to supported facilities, suppliers, and corporate locations as needed. Travel 30%

Core Competencies:

• Leadership and Team Development
• Strategic Sourcing and Category Management
• Contract Negotiation and Management
• Supplier Relationship Management
• Cross-Functional Business Partnership
• Accountability and Continuous Improvement

If you enjoy innovation, and an opportunity to learn and contribute to a growing organization, CSP is the place for you!