The Procurement Manager for Logistics in North America will be responsible for supporting the sourcing strategy development and assisting with the procurement of transportation services for the US, Canada, and Mexico. This position is responsible for business partnering with logistics function at a market level to land relevant capabilities that drive service, value creation, and responsible sourcing in the markets. This role will report to the Associate Director for Procurement and partner with two peer managers to support the procurement of multiple modes of freight in the network. Approximate scope is $35M in spend, 30+ carrier partners across truckload, intermodal, less-than-truckload, dedicated fleets, drayage, and bulk transportation.
Who You Are and What You'll Do
This role will support the buying activities of the North America network including but not limited to:
• Following the standard 7-step strategic procurement process from strategy alignment and market scans to supporting Request for Proposals and contract discussions to business approval, contract signing, and operational implementation.
• Support preparation of executive level briefs on the negotiation strategy for annual bids for review by the Global Head of Logistics Procurement and Chief Procurement Officer.
• Maintain market intelligence to forecast future cost structures with internal stakeholders in Logistics and Finance.
• Identify disruptive emerging technologies to create capacity or innovation for the business, e.g., autonomous trucking, paperless BOLs, API integration, etc.
• Support any North American logistics network redesign projects to identify capacity solutions and providers that provide the right end to end need for cost, capacity, and service.
• Business partnering to the Logistics operations team in the markets to deliver savings projects while achieving service level targets.
• Support Global benchmarking project work for Transportation to gain and maintain cost transparency and competitive buying for North America.
• Maintain productive relationships with external 3PL carrier partners, organizing strategic business reviews and joint business development plans with Strategic partners.
• Support the development and implementation of the North America Sustainability Roadmap to decarbonize Unilever’s carbon emissions by 2039.
• Develop opportunities to decouple the value chain for transportation with carriers and other external partners to drive competitive advantage and savings for Unilever.
What You'll Need to Succeed
• Bachelor’s Degree required with preference in Logistics, Supply Chain, or other Business field.
• 8+ years of relevant Procurement or Logistics experience required, preferably in Consumer-Packaged Goods company.
• Knowledge and experience of the Strategic Procurement Process and application in Logistics.
• Understanding of Value Chain of transportation and demonstrated ability to extract costs via Should Cost models.
• Experience negotiating cost variables with transportation providers leading to successful outcomes of over $20M in value.
• Awareness of transportation providers and market intelligence sources in North America.
• Proven abilities in stakeholder management, with an emphasis on listening and influencing.
• Experience working with enterprise level logistics systems, such as a Transportation or Yard.
• Fluency in English in written and verbal forms.
Preferred Qualifications:
- ASCM/APICS certification in CLTD or CSCP
- CSCMP SCPro certification
- Formal negotiation training or experience
- SAP, Oracle TMS, JDA WMS, Jaggaer contracting, and PINC YMS experience are preferred
Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.
