What are we looking for?

Required Experiences & Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, mathematics, economics, supply chain, procurement, engineering or a related field.

• Minimum 8-10 years of experience in in Procurement of agricultural materials; preferably within the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Industry

• Experience in managing dynamic business environments, where price stability, supply availability, and potential business outcomes are under continuous pressure and change.

• Experience in strategic sourcing including end to end strategy development.

• Experience in productivity or related cost reduction programs

• Experience in strategic negotiations including RFP’s (Analysis and recommendations)

• MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint functional skills

• Must be able to travel up to 20%+ of the time or as required by the business

Preferred Experiences & Education

• MBA

• Proficient in SAP and MRP systems

• Global category experience

Key Functional Skills/Knowledge

• Proven leader who has demonstrated the openness to act as a team player, and situational leadership within peer group to influence business strategy. 

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; both verbal and written including the ability to communicate effectively with all levels of the organization.

• Influence others not in direct span of control.

• Effectively manage relationships with all internal and external stakeholders; develop and maintain processes for integrating external supplier ideas into the business

• Self-motivated with excellent organization skills.

• Strong attention to detail and excellent problem-solving skills. Strong written, verbal, and listening skills

• Priority Setting – Spends his/ her time and the time of others on what’s most important. Eliminates roadblocks and creates focus

• Can be forceful and direct as well as diplomatic

• Demonstrated ability to be consistent, dependable and accurate in carrying out responsibilities to a successful conclusion. 

• Ability to work independently and efficiently, with minimal supervision in a fast-paced environment.

• Forecast impact to P&L for multiple businesses and stakeholders including tracking variances to budget.

• Ability to effectively negotiate and influence business decisions and change

• Clear and concise communications across all levels of the organization

• Can work through tough agreements and settle disputes effectively

• Anticipates and adjusts for problems and obstacles

• Establish trust and build effective business relationships and getting things done through others

• Organizational Agility – gets things done both through formal and informal channels

• Ability to influence others not in direct span of control

• Good interpersonal, team building, and conflict management skills

• Diagnose and prioritize activities appropriately including making trade-off decisions

What will be your key responsibilities?

• Creating and implementing robust, holistic sourcing strategies and manage sourcing categories by driving activities in the area of productivity, price risk management, long-term supply assurance, sustainable sourcing, supplier relationship management and quality management. Followed by Internal communication and documented approval of these strategies by the Technical Leadership Team (TLT).

  • Execute & Implement the ‘Clean Grains’ Sourcing Strategy that protects the business from quality risks.

• Collaborate with all Mars North American units and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver a target value improvement of 5-10% of the total annual spend. 

  • Identify and implement novel and creative means for reducing costs, improving quality, or otherwise improving total value for money.  This includes networking within the Mars Global Commercial community for best practices & ideas for reapplication.

  • Drive “Best in Class” category leadership and utilize tools such as sourcing strategies, cost model analysis, e-auctions, and RFP’s to deliver maximum value to the category

• Ensure long-term supply chain security and contingency plans to secure business needs and provide recommendations/execute as appropriate. Including Supplier capacity utilization analysis followed by Internal communication of these plans through Step 3 of S&OP, Supply Chain Management Review (SCMR).

• Ensure “Should-Cost” models/clean sheets are in place for all materials in your Team’s responsibility and that they are refreshed annually and used in the annual RFP process.

• Deliver finance excellence through cash initiatives such as payment terms and supplier owned inventory programs

• Negotiate commercial terms and conditions applying business law to create legal contracts that protect Mars from all risk.

• Supplier selection aligned with our Sustainability requirements including Sustainable Farming methods like regenerative agriculture

• Compliance, reporting and other duties

  • Ensure full compliance with Commercial Guide Policy and Conduct Policy

  • Ensure full compliance with any other internal guidelines and external regulations

  • Ensure full compliance and support to all on social, environmental and sustainability projects

• Price Risk Management: Lead and direct the risk management strategy mitigating market inflation and providing accurate cost forecasts.

• Innovate risk management tools to enhance and improve costs and margins.

• Analyze supplier and economic markets; identify and manage market risks and opportunities; identify and develop a supplier relationship management program with key supplier to improve the capability of our supply base. 

• Engage and energize the organization to create and implement breakthrough material sourcing strategies; effectively negotiate commercial terms and conditions; apply business law to create appropriate legal contracts; manage business, legal and intellectual property risk.

• Lead a team of Commercial associates.  Attract, retain, and motivate associates ensuring our human capital is a means to competitive advantage.  Develop associates in Commercial Competencies and Mars Effectiveness Competencies.  Create an energizing work environment along with an innovative, efficient and flexible organization.

• Ensure delivery of business plans at or ahead of targets & plans and appropriate Commercial representation in internal business processes.

• Obtain optimal terms by utilizing negotiation theory (BATNA) techniques when required to  understand the tradeoffs between cost, volume, and quality to meet our performance criteria and secure long-term supply continuity

• Visit supplier facilities to become the subject matter expert of your product which includes the manufacturing processes and all costs associated; Apply this knowledge to create should cost models and influence the future product roadmap and sourcing decisions