Regional Category Manager

MOVING YOUR WORLD by focusing on your success:

FUCHS offers a challenging and rewarding working environment where employees are encouraged to develop and grow.  We stand behind our core values: trust, creating value, respect, reliability, and integrity. Ours is a culture that fosters creativity and empowerment, values work/life balance, and gives you the freedom to excel. At FUCHS we aim to nurture your capabilities, ideas and career.

Your responsibilities:

The Regional Category Manager plays an integral role in our supply chain by developing and maintaining supplier relationships and ensuring the availability, best price and quality of raw materials and services the business requires. As a member of our purchasing team, the Regional Category Manager will be empowered to lead the Company's sourcing activities in a significant portion of our raw material spend. 

• Develop and implement sourcing strategies for a variety of spend categories that may evolve based on business needs.
• Collaborative with internal stakeholders (i.e. Operations, R&D, Product Management, Quality, Sales) to develop RFQ packages accurately reflecting requirements to support each respective manufacturing location
• Issue RFQs to identified supply base and serve as primary point of contact for any questions/clarification as well as gatekeeper for all supplier submissions/responses.
• Analyze supplier submissions to RFQ and lead cross functional team to develop a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model to serve as the foundation for developing a sourcing strategy for the respective spend category.
• Monitoring relevant markets to identify supply trends and risks and communicating the research to the Company's leadership.
• Coordinating with Fuchs' global network of purchasing professionals to take advantage of our combined experience and buying power.
• Lead the management of all commercial aspects for suppliers within assigned spend categories including:
• Vendor Selection / Strategic Sourcing
• Commercial terms and conditions (including price)
• Cost savings initiatives
• Supplier performance (i.e. delivery, quality, capacity, financial health)
• Leading the resolution of all other commercial issues with the supply base
• Actively manage spend within spend categories by monitoring and analyzing supplier spend data.
• Foster collaborative and effective communication between supply base and internal stakeholders (i.e. operations, plant specific Purchasing personnel, quality, R&D, sales, etc…)
• Support the Procure-to-Pay process for the supply base of all assigned spend categories.

Travel is expected to be less than 10%.

Qualifications we are looking for:

• The position requires a bachelor’s degree, preferably in Supply Chain Management or a related field of study.
• 5+ years’ experience in a strategic sourcing role within a manufacturing environment and/or chemical industry preferred.
• 5+ years’ experience with supplier development and management.
• Demonstrated ability to negotiate and drive cost savings.
• An aptitude for problem solving and a high degree of organization.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Data analysis related to supply chain with forecasting experience a plus.
• Microsoft Office proficiency, including at least intermediate Excel skills.
• Strong competency within the purchasing module of an ERP system (SAP preferred).
• Applicable certificates a plus (CPM, Six Sigma, etc.).

These are your benefits:

Fuchs offers a challenging and rewarding working environment where employees are encouraged to develop and grow as professionals.  In this role, you will have the opportunity to work on projects that will expand your experience and challenge your abilities in the global marketplace.  The position also offers an excellent compensation package and a comprehensive suite of benefits. 

Fuchs Lubricants Co. is an equal employment opportunity (EEO)/AA employer and strongly supports diversity in the workplace (m/f/d/v).

Do you have any questions? Rosalinda Almanza (rosalinda.almanza@fuchs.com) will be more than happy to answer them!