The final salary or hourly wage, as applicable, paid to each candidate/applicant for this position is ultimately dependent on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the candidate’s/applicant’s qualifications, skills, and level of experience as well as the geographical location of the position.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Sponsorship not available.

Our client is seeking a Category Manager in Smyrna, GA

Role Description

• Partner with business or functional stakeholder leads to develop and align category-specific procurement strategies and contribute to the development of a comprehensive annual strategic plan for the relevant category, incorporating category strategies that align with overall business goals.
• Relay insights and market intelligence from team analysis to Category Lead to inform strategic decision- making, staying abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and market dynamics.
• Manage strategic value drivers with key category suppliers to secure collaborative partnerships that challenge the status quo to achieve cost savings, optimize processes, and enhance overall procurement value.
• Manage and monitor supplier performance on sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measures, working alongside suppliers to enhance sustainable and responsible sourcing practices.
• Enable Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) strategies, driving innovation with key category suppliers and collaborating to enact creative and cutting-edge solutions to deliver on long-term business needs.
• Implement mitigation strategies to proactively manage procurement risk across the relevant category, overseeing process and policy compliance.
• Assist with the end-to-end procurement process from sourcing strategy to contract negotiation and execution, enabling negotiations with category suppliers and facilitating decisions by conducting required analysis and preparation.
• Monitor and report progress toward performance targets. Identify capability gaps and assist in developing focused action plans to address workforce requirements and team needs.
Strategic Guidance
• Drive consistent execution of the Category Strategy throughout internal and external (supplier) stakeholder interaction; identify any realignment or revisions as needed
• Provide insights from market trends, competitive landscape and the dynamics within Agency Industry, and interaction with the business, to inform evolution of the Strategy
• Develop and evolve supplier segmentation
• Develop commercial relationship models in line with the business strategy
• Ensure standard frameworks for sustainability assessment within the spend category are populated
Stakeholder Engagement and Process Support
• Independently manage Requests for Information/Proposals/Quotes as needed to support US business needs
• Provide fact-based sourcing recommendation for supplier selection, inclusion or exclusion
• Adept in implementing complex projects with a focus on effective change management.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives and synergies across the eco-system
• Ensure sustainability is included as a criteria for Supplier selection
Supplier Management
• Strong capacity and experience building and managing collaborative supplier relationships, aligning procurement activities with business need and category strategy.
• Safeguards the KPI’s and SLA’s as negotiated in the contracts
• Supports assessment of commercial performance within the spend category
• Acts as an escalation point for selected suppliers
• Ensure sustainability assessment meets Sustainability targets or flag for improvement
• Identify potential suppliers as Preferred Agencies and facilitate contract modifications to achieve this designation, and support existing Preferred Agencies to maintain designation
Contracting
• Ensure collaboration with Legal and other internal departments when needed for contract completion
• Negotiate terms and conditions with suppliers
• Ensures risk management strategies are embedded into contracts (when applicable)
• Ensure sustainability is embedded into contracts
• Share and support plans for commercial risk contingencies

Skills & Requirements

• Bachelors Degree
• Minimum 7 years’ experience in strategic Procurement roles
• Relevant experience with Agencies (Creative, Medical Communications, Media) or Marketing Category
• Knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry is preferred
• Tactical expertise in category management, including market analysis, cost and financial assessment, ensuring strategic and informed procurement decisions.
• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, facilitating empathetic interactions, effective communication, and robust relationship-building across a matrixed organization.
• Able to adapt and thrive in a dynamic team environment, operating in a cross-functional organization
• Strong communication skills and ability to build lasting business relationships
• Project management: overlapping tasks, projects, timelines, and deliverables
• Adept in drafting, negotiating, reviewing and managing contracts; understanding of relevant legal terms and business risks or implications
• Familiarity with procurement and finance tools and platforms [SAP/Ariba, PowerBI, Globality, Icertis (contracts)]
• Proficient in Category data/spend analysis and forecasting, market assessment, forward thinking and “connecting dots”
• Ability to think creatively, influence without authority, promote change with internal and external stakeholders
• Embrace inclusion and collaboration

Benefits/Other Compensation

This position is a contract/temporary role where Hays offers you the opportunity to enroll in full medical benefits, dental benefits, vision benefits, 401K and Life Insurance ($20,000 benefit).

Why Hays?

You will be working with a professional recruiter who has intimate knowledge of the industry and market trends. Your Hays recruiter will lead you through a thorough screening process in order to understand your skills, experience, needs, and drivers. You will also get support on resume writing, interview tips, and career planning, so when there’s a position you really want, you’re fully prepared to get it.

Nervous about an upcoming interview? Unsure how to write a new resume?

Visit the Hays Career Advice section to learn top tips to help you stand out from the crowd when job hunting.

Hays is committed to building a thriving culture of diversity that embraces people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better we serve our candidates, clients, and employees. We are an equal employment opportunity employer, and we comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, genetic information, HIV-positive status, as well as any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. One of Hays’ guiding principles is ‘do the right thing’.
We also believe that actions speak louder than words.
In that regard, we train our staff on ensuring inclusivity throughout the entire recruitment process and counsel our clients on these principles. If you have any questions about Hays or any of our processes, please contact us.

In accordance with applicable federal, state, and local law protecting qualified individuals with known disabilities, Hays will attempt to reasonably accommodate those individuals unless doing so would create an undue hardship on the company. Any qualified applicant or consultant with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to perform the essential functions of the job should call or text 813.336.5570.

Drug testing may be required; please contact a recruiter for more information.

#LI-DNI