Global Category Manager

Everything we do starts with people. Our purpose is to provide freedom to move, in a personal, sustainable and safe way. We are committed to simplifying our customers’ lives by offering better technology solutions that improve their impact on the world and bringing the most advanced mobility innovations to protect them, their loved ones and the people around them.

What we offer

Our Procurement purpose is as follows, together we shape competitive, sustainable and resilient value chains – for life.
We work in global category teams with end-to-end responsibility for commercial and quality deliveries in the whole cycle including program, running a business, and aftermarket.
The tasks balance between strategic and operational nature, such as commodity business plans and strategy, sourcing, industrialization in new vehicle programs, and developing supplier base to be more cost-efficient, with the lean manufacturing process and stable quality and delivery precision. 
Further on, staying updated with new technology development, scouting for new business partners, and challenging existing ones to continuously develop in pace with our aspirations to grow as a leading sustainable company.
We offer an exciting and dynamic work environment, with a broad spectrum of tasks with truly global collaboration, both with internal and external stakeholders.

What will you do

You will lead the global category team responsible for a team that consists of procurement professionals in Europe, China, and the US working as buyers and supplier quality engineers. The category has a significant turnover with strategic suppliers, and complex parts with high content in Raw Materials, steel, and aluminum.

As GCM for this category, you should: 
-    Enjoy taking your own decisions and having the freedom to decide on the strategy of your own category. 
-    Be confident in presenting to executive audiences. This is a very visible/strategic portfolio that often requires interaction with PMT / EMT members. 
-    Have negotiation experience with global suppliers with a proven track record of success.  The category consists of large spending and strategic suppliers. 
-    Have demonstrated expertise in leading a global team of professionals. The team is highly diversified and consists of very motivated people that are located on all regions. 
-    Enjoy strategic challenges that can be solved with teamwork within procurement and cross-functionally. You believe that your strength is in the team! 
-    Enjoy having a lot of internal and external interactions, acting as an ambassador for procurement internally and for Volvo Cars externally. 

More specifically, you will be responsible for: 

Strategy / Procurement Deliveries Execution:
Accountable for Procurement end-to-end deliveries for the global category team (Strategy, Sourcing, Supplier portfolio, Industrialization, Running production, End of life)
Intake Management:
Decide on new intakes to the global category team backlog based on different stakeholder needs and fast-shifting priorities. 
Backlog management:
Own, prioritize and secure the Procurement deliveries by the global category team to maximize the business value through the whole lifecycle. 
Global Category Team Facilitation:
Lead planning events, remove impediments, and facilitate problem-solving, collaboration, and workload distribution to enable efficient delivery by the global category team.
Stakeholder Engagement:
Develop stakeholder engagement through identifying stakeholders, finding out their needs/issues/concerns, and reacting to these to support business information and decisions.
Risks and Issues Management:
Manage identification of risks, issues, dependencies, and constraints, escalating these where appropriate. Where necessary, develop, agree on, and implement solutions to overcome these. 
Horizon Scanning:
Maintain an understanding of current and future trends within the category area
Continuous Improvement:
Review existing operations and implement innovation processes to generate new ideas and ensure the required continuous improvement.
Personal Capability development:
Maintain an in-depth understanding of industry best practices through continuous professional development.

Do you fit the profile

You have an Engineering/Economy bachelor’s degree or equivalent job experience,
and 6-8 years of experience in Procurement.
You have strong business acumen and a supplier network is beneficial.
You are fluent in English, spoken and written.
Experience with steel and aluminum commodities is beneficial.

 On a personal level

You collaborate, build partnerships and work collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives. 
You are result-driven, and consistently achieve results, even under tough circumstances.  
You work on your self-development by actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels.  
You build trust and gain the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity.