At Medtronic you can begin a life-long career of exploration and innovation, while helping champion healthcare access and equity for all. You’ll lead with purpose, breaking down barriers to innovation in a more connected, compassionate world.

A Day in the Life

Join our Global Supply Management team as a Senior Category Manager – Plastics Molding and Tooling, where you will utilize your strong track record of delivering results in a matrixed organization, where collaboration with diverse individuals, teams, and skill sets is essential for success.

As a Senior Category Manager – Plastics Molding and Tooling, you will lead the strategic sourcing, category management, and program oversight for injection molded components and tooling across Medtronic’s global operations. You will manage a high-impact spend portfolio (~$200M) and drive value through cost optimization, supplier innovation, and robust tool replacement program execution.

This role blends category strategy development, technical program management, and cross-functional leadership to support Medtronic’s business objectives in quality, delivery, innovation, and cost-effectiveness. You will collaborate across global teams, supplier networks, and engineering functions to develop resilient, compliant, and high-performance sourcing strategies within the regulated medical device environment.

At Medtronic, we bring bold ideas forward with speed and decisiveness to put patients first in everything we do. In-person exchanges are invaluable to our work. We’re working a minimum of 4 days a week, onsite as part of our commitment to fostering a culture of professional growth and cross-functional collaboration as we work together to engineer the extraordinary. 

Supporting Category Management, you will:

• Lead and execute global category strategies for Molded Components and Tooling.

• Manage a ~$200M annual spend on injection-molded parts.

• Develop sourcing strategies that leverage supplier capabilities and Medtronic’s global scale.

• Conduct market intelligence and cost analysis to enable the best cost country sourcing.

• Drive contract negotiations, focusing on performance, innovation, and total cost of ownership.

• Support category transformation and long-term supplier rationalization.

Supporting Tooling Program Management, you will:

• Develop and execute Molding Category Transformation Strategy by understanding/analyzing product and tool life cycle management, on-going project timelines, and supplier strategy to drive value-based Injection Molding Tooling Replacement & Refurbishment Program.

• Partner with engineering, quality, sourcing, and tooling teams to align tooling initiatives and priorities aligned with business goals.

• Lead Molding RFQ activities and have oversight of execution timelines and deliverables, and data analytics across global tooling efforts from a Category management point of view.

• Support tooling lifecycle management and continuous improvement projects.

• Engage with multi-tier suppliers to ensure continuity, compliance, and the delivery of value.

Supporting Supplier Relationship & Performance, you will:

• Manage and improve strategic relationships with key suppliers in the molding and tooling industries.

• Lead supplier audits and ensure robust process controls and regulatory compliance.

• Support supplier innovation efforts and identify new technologies aligned with Medtronic's product strategies.

Must Have:

• Bachelor’s degree (Business, Engineering, Supply Chain, or related field) plus 7 years of experience in category management, sourcing, or supplier program management in plastics/molding industries or Master’s degree plus 5 years of experience in category management, sourcing, or supplier program management in plastics/molding industries.

Nice to Have:

• Proven experience in managing high-spend categories and large-scale supplier programs.

• Strong commercial and technical understanding of injection molding and tooling processes.

• Strong at data analytics to understand, manipulate, and re-arrange a large set of data for the decision-making process.

• Master’s degree (MBA or Technical Discipline).

• CPSM, CPIM, PMP, or equivalent certification.

• Experience in FDA-regulated environments (preferably medical devices).

• Skilled in SAP, Microsoft Excel, data analytics, and reporting tools.

• Strong communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.

• Experience in lean manufacturing or continuous improvement is a plus