APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

• CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants.

Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants.

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POSITION SPECIFICS​

Penn State's Office of Central Procurement is searching for a Senior Category Lead who will have University-wide responsibility for creating and driving strategic sourcing and vendor management for the Scientific and Research Category Team.

The Senior Category Lead acts as a strategic business partner providing leadership in the designated category, providing strategic planning and sourcing and other procurement processes such as supplier relationship management, spend performance management, category contract management, internal spend and external market analysis, and category governance for all units/colleges that are active in the assigned category.  The Senior Category Lead collaborates with stakeholders on the development and implementation of annual and multi-year category strategies in order to achieve category goals, achieve business strategies and deliver sustainable category value.

The successful candidate for this position will serve as the subject matter expert within a large, high performance category buying team, including assigning workload, monitoring cycle time, identifying efficiencies and providing status updates to procurement leadership and customers.  The Senior Category Lead will also coach and mentor buying team members and provide a support structure for the team to excel.

The successful candidate for this position must demonstrate knowledge of broad concepts, industry policies and procedures related to the development, management, and implementation of a strategic category management plan with University-wide impact.  They must possess:

• Extensive knowledge of category, market, and suppliers to drive value and savings for categories.
• High level of analytical skill to develop and maintain detailed reporting and analysis of proposals and vendor capabilities, negotiations, and supplier selection as well as ability to analyze purchasing data, trends and habits within the category.
• High level of communication skills to create and maintain sustainable partnerships and networks both within and outside of the University to ensure comprehensive strategy planning and implementation.  This position communicates at all levels of the University and with exter