Director, Strategic Sourcing & Category Strategy Leader- Avendra

Avendra

As part of the Aramark family, Avendra Group brings the collective power of the strongest experts in supply chain and procurement services together in strategic partnership with customers and suppliers and finds the right solutions to help organizations realize their full potential. From healthcare and hospitality to leisure and senior living—Avendra Group’s portfolio of companies offer best-in-class contracts and procurement solutions to help customers realize the highest value from our programs and services.

Job Description

Director, Strategic Sourcing & Category Strategy Leader- Avendra

The Director manages a team of associates for a specific group of categories within the Strategic Sourcing organization. This role requires a strategic approach to conducting sourcing initiatives and managing suppliers.  

The Director has multiple responsibilities and plays a key role in leading the Strategic Sourcing organization.  Among those responsibilities are: (1) understanding value proposition of each Aramark entity and developing sound supply chain approaches based on that value proposition, (2) defining supply chain strategies for assigned categories and then ensuring consistent alignment to those strategies, (3) leading and managing a staff of professional contracting managers that need to plan and execute initiatives that result in successful contracts and (4) collaborating with internal and external colleagues to ensure contracts achieve maximum value

 

Number of Direct Reports:     3 to 5
 

Job Responsibilities

•    Identify new opportunities or categories in which Aramark/Avendra Group can create value for our clients and/or our suppliers
•    Manage, coach, and mentor a team of associates

• Own results and motivate team to own their results
• Help team prioritize work – keep team members focused on delivering high quality work
• Provide performance evaluations for their team of associates

•    Manage the Planning and PDI completion process
•    Lead Business Ownership activity for his/her portfolio of contracts
•    Develop and document a defined strategy for each category in his/her portfolio.

• Utilize a deep understanding of relevant supply markets including distribution channels, cost structures, economics, trends, etc.
• Incorporate understandings of Avendra’s business model/processes into these strategies
• Include a thorough understanding of Avendra’s customer target markets, including current and potential customers

•    Approve all Initiative Strategy Worksheets (ISW) within his/her portfolio to ensure high quality initiative approach and contracting manager has autonomy to independently drive the initiative

• Partner with all relevant internal departments to create program development and rollout strategies
• Maintain awareness of team’s initiatives’ status; update leadership on status on a regular basis and help team move forward on initiatives

•    Act as the product technical expert (where appropriate) in client meetings; ensure team is able to demonstrate product technical knowledge

• Act as the sourcing technical expert in client and prospective client meetings
• Identify and help build best practices that can be built upon by own team or other teams within Strategic Sourcing
• Understand expectations for good ISWs, train team and continuously improve team’s writing capability with respect to ISWs

•    Lead supplier negotiation and pricing strategy development efforts for complex supplier agreements.  

Secondary Responsibilities

•    Ensure team collaborates with internal departments, clients and suppliers to maximize the success of all contracts
•    Ensure team is responsive to contract ownership issues, e.g., address competitive issues within categories, pricing strategies, allowances, supplier performance, innovation, etc.
•    Establish and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders that will help team complete  their job
•    Collaborate with Business Ownership colleagues to improve performance of Avendra’s contracts and promote the use of available Business Ownership Tools.
•    Ensure team is responsive to client requests, as appropriate

 

Primary Competencies  
•    Functional/Technical Skills
•    Problem Solving & Analytical Skills
•    Quality & Continuous Improvement
•    Conflict Management
•    Negotiation
•    Results Orientation

Supervisory Competencies 
•    Valuing and Managing Differences
•    Performance Management
•    Managerial Courage
•    Team Development
•    Leadership Agility 

Other Duties.  Please note this role description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehe