Category Specialist - The Toro Company

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Who Are We?     

The Toro Company is a homegrown, Minnesota-based company that has been in business since 1914. We pride ourselves on providing world-class equipment to help maintain the environment that we love, while putting an emphasis on giving back to the communities that surround us. From residential lawns and gardens, to venues such as St Andrews Links and Target Field, we are a company with a global footprint and a passion for helping people beautify whatever landscape they may be in. With 100 years of operation under our belt and a healthy tenure, come find out what makes The Toro Company the best place to build a career. 

The Category Specialist is an integral role in the sourcing department, often collaborating with every position within the Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) to help ISC achieve its goals of Operational Excellence and Sustainability. The Category Specialist’s major responsibilities are reducing costs, cultivating strategic supplier relationships, improving quality and delivery metrics, supporting continuous improvement projects, and growing the skills and knowledge needed for advancement into a Category Management position and beyond. This role blends tactical and strategic capabilities, with a heavy focus on the strategic, within the global sourcing department and significantly impacts the day-to-day operations and the long-term strategic goals of The Toro Company (TTC).  The Category Specialist role demonstrates the ability to lead key responsibilities and is deemed an expert in their role. This role is highly engaging and can also provide opportunities to explore additional future career paths within our dynamic Sourcing department.

What Will You Do?  

In order to grow and build a successful career with The Toro Company, you will be responsible for:  

• Enhance and grow supplier relationships through excellent communication to ensure the supplier’s alignment with ISC’s goals.
• Support development and implementation of supply agreements, Long Term Agreements (LTA), and collaborative partnerships.
• Execute category team’s cost reduction strategy through supplier negotiations and partnership with cross functional teams. Complete and review total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis and provide guidance to category team and leadership.
• Lead, understand, and execute category specific strategy by using past experiences and drawing upon historical data to draw conclusions and pivot strategy within the category to align with ISC strategy.
• Collaborate and partner with Category Manager(s) in cost negotiations and contract implementation with strategic suppliers.
• Lead negotiations, develop and implement cost reduction initiatives of non-strategic spend suppliers. 
• Research, identify and determine new suppliers that align with Toro values and select the best possible supplier for a part based on the supplier classification criteria set by category team’s strategy.
• Lead and support supplier transitions. Participate and advise in supplier exit process standardization and continuous improvement projects.
• Analyze quote packages from suppliers using the TCO model with the support of the category team to select the appropriate supplier.
• Collaborate with engineering on strategic initiatives and ensure engineering change notices (ECN’s/ECO’s) are completed timely.
• Support category manager to reconcile monthly purchase price variance (PPV). Identify root cause for variances and improve controls to minimize those.
• Lead monthly reconciliation of PPV of 10-15% of category spend.
• Ability to troubleshoot unique issues that arise of moderate to advanced complexity.
• Drive continuous supplier lead time reduction.  Assist Sourcing Specialist I, II, and manufacturing plants on supplier deliveries and escalations as required.  
• Resolve invoice discrepancies and authorize payment on invoice holds as appropriate. 
• Support sourcing finance by negotiating payment terms and promoting the supply chain finance program.
• Champion various intradepartmental process improvement projects including lean activities, productivity improvements, lead time maintenance and others as assigned, present to leadership.
• Support training and onboarding of new Sourcing Specialists while being an ongoing point of contact for assisting them in continued learning and troubleshooting.
• All other tasks and projects as assigned.

Dimensions:

• Typical office environment as it pertains to lighting, temperature, and noise level when in administrative / operations offices.
• Able to travel both domestically and internationally, approximately 15%.
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and mouse, and to handle other computer components.

What Do You Need? 

To be considered for this role, an individual should meet the following minimal requirements:  

• Bachelor’s degree required, preferred in Supply Chain Management, Operations or Engineering.
• Level determined by years of sourcing experience:
  • Specialist I: 0-2 years sourcing experience
  • Specialist II: 2-4 years sourcing experience
  • Specialist III: 4+ years sourcing experience
• Experience in Steel Components & Flexible Manufacturing category preferred with ability to learn other categories and shift based on business need.
• Ability to Obtain a Supply Chain Management certification required.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to professionally interact with internal and external stakeholders at all levels in the organization.
• Highly self-motivated, ability to work under pressure, manage and prioritize multiple objectives concurrently, attend to details, and meet deadlines in a dynamic environment.
• Proven ability to analyze situations and drive to standardize process improvements.
• Excellent computer skills including Microsoft Suite, MRP/ERP experience required, SAP® experience preferred.
• Ability to import data into Excel and analyze using pivot tables, graphs, sorting, filtering, find and replace, and formulas including lookups, sum, average. 
• Ability to maintain composure and support their peers during rapidly changing situations, remaining focused on the relevant objective.
• Capacity to work independently as well as within a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Understanding of manufacturing processes, cost drivers, and market dynamics for assigned commodities.

What Can We Give You?    

At The Toro Company, we are always working to make sure our employees know just how valued they are. In addition to a competitive salary, an affordable and top tier medical/dental/vision plan, 401k, and many other great benefits - The Toro company offers employees at our Bloomington, MN HQ location a variety of perks, including: 

• Dress for your day - We know you're more productive when you're comfortable, which is why TTC employees are encouraged to take advantage of our casual, corporate environment. 
• Wellness - In addition to physical wellbeing, TTC offers a variety of mental health and financial health resources to all employees. 
• Volunteerism - The Toro Company is proud to provide employees 20 hours of paid time to volunteer in the community.  
• Flexible Work Arrangements – This team is currently implementing a hybrid work schedule. The opportunity to collaborate in a hybrid way, with some time spent in office and some from home, has promoted team building and flexibility. ​#LI-Hybrid​
• Competitive Salary – The pay range takes into account skills, experience, education, and location. It is not common to be hired at or near the top of the range; compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the annual pay range is between $65,000 - $90,000​. Cash compensation is one piece of our competitive total rewards package. You may be eligible to participate in an incentive program, which rewards employees based on individual and organizational performance. Eligibility and award amounts are determined by company policy and performance metrics. If you need to, you can access your pay early with the dailypay app. 

At The Toro Company, we are committed to fostering a secure and trustworthy recruitment experience for our applicants. Recruitment fraud is a growing concern for job seekers, so please be aware that throughout our recruitment process, you’ll never be required to pay any fees or disclose personal financial details when applying to TTC opportunities. All legitimate job opportunities must be applied for directly through our official careers page at jobs.thetorocompany.com or via Workday, our applicant tracking system. 

The Toro Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants based on merit and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military service, or other non-merit factors. We are committed to creating a welcoming environment for all employees.