The Commodities team is responsible for over 200 million USD spend sourcing physical commodities such as corn, wheat, milo/sorghum, soybean meal/oil, barley, corn grits, and rice within the US and Canada.  Accountable for all aspects of sourcing strategy for assigned categories, from working across the business to creating strategies that meet business needs, to implementing the strategy through supplier negotiations and risk management and value improvement.  This role must work across the business segments to leverage scale across all Mars Petcare business units.  This role will sit on a Business Management Team (BMT) representing Commercial to influence the business strategy while ensuring Commercial plans are integrated to meet the business needs.    

The category is complex and volatile from a Supply Chain and Price Risk Management perspective. This individual should be a risk management expert, with a strong commodity background, strategic sourcing experience, and have demonstrated a capability to develop holistic risk management strategies. The individual should drive and challenge the team to reach the targets and provide solid advice on all related markets and supply issues to senior leadership.

The role operates in a pet friendly, open office environment supporting natural pet nutrition.

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

What will be your key responsibilities?

• Create and implement 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.
• Lead the Clean Grains Sourcing Strategy that protects the business from quality risks.
• Supplier selection aligned with our Sustainability requirements including Sustainable Farming methods like regenerative agriculture.
• Ownership and responsibility for Risk Management, price forecasting and communication to senior management.
• 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
• Lead and direct the risk management strategy mitigating market inflation and providing accurate cost forecasts.
• Develop hedging strategies that are based on fundamental economic analysis and implement within the context of tolerance for risk at the Business Unit
• Provide guidance on which indexes to use in supply agreements to assist ingredient buyers in the development of price/cost models where appropriate with integrated suppliers.
• 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.
• Proven leader who has demonstrated the openness to act as a team player, and situational leadership within peer group to influence business strategy. 
• 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.
• 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.
• Collaborate with all Mars NA units and cross functional stakeholder to deliver an annual  value improvement target of 4-6% of the total spend
• Drive “Best in Class” category leadership and implement tools such as sourcing strategies, cost model analysis, e-auctions, and RFP’s to deliver maximum value to the category
• Deliver finance excellence through cash initiatives such as payment terms and supplier owned inventory programs
• 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
• Ensure supply chain security and develop contingency plans to secure supply and provide recommendations to execute as appropriate

• 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
• Negotiate commercial terms and conditions applying business law to create legal contracts and intellectual property risk

Decision Making Authority and Impact

• Deliver value for money for Petcare NA given the dynamic commodity markets. Decisions in this area can significantly affect Pet profit and/or cause the business to cut investment spending in order to cover cost pressures.
• Supplier selection and business commitments for the portfolio of the annual volume, within the limits of the Finance Manual and the Mars Quality Manual (MQM).
• Prediction of costs, to maximize accuracy and delivery of the Pet’s business plan and P&L projections. Sets annual cost standards for all ingredients. 
• Make contractual commitments on behalf of the Company within the framework of the Finance Manual and Unit Limits of Authority.
• Career planning and development plans for direct reports.

Key Functional Skills/Knowledge

• 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 can you expect from Mars?

• Work with over 130,000 like-minded and talented Associates, all guided by The Five Principles.
• Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
• An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.

About Mars:
Mars is a family-owned business with more than $35 billion in global sales. We produce some of the world’s best-loved brands: M&M’s®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, MILKY WAY®, DOVE®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, EXTRA®, ORBIT®, 5â„¢, SKITTLES®, BEN’S ORIGINAL® and COCOAVIA®. Alongside our consumer brands, we proudly take care of half of the world’s pets through our nutrition, health and services businesses such as Banfield Pet Hospitalsâ„¢, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, AniCura, VCAâ„¢ and Pet Partnersâ„¢. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our 130,000 Associates into taking action every day towards creating the world we want tomorrow.

Disclaimer:
Mars is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.​​​​​​​

Note to Search Firms/Agencies:
Mars, Incorporated and its subsidiaries and affiliates (Mars) do not compensate search firms for unsolicited assistance unless they have a written search agreement with Mars and the requisition is position-specific.  Any resumes, curriculum vitae, and other unsolicited assistance from search firms that do not have a written search agreement or position-specific requisition submitted to any Associate of Mars will be deemed the sole property of Mars and no fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Mars.