Category Buyer

Reporting to the relevant Global Category Manager and / or Category(ies) Team leader (CTL) depending of geographic location.

Key Figures :
- Annual volume of commitment and spend within relevant category (ies) and % of Savings
- Number of suppliers for the given category and the structured closure of legacy close and disengage suppliers as defined by the category strategies
- Year on year competitiveness and cost reductions
- Category operational performance (quality on-time delivery supply risk assessment ..)
- % Category compliance with policy suppliers based on both commitment and spend
- Involve in the creation of specific contract(s) where there is a business need

The Category Buyer (CB) supports one or several procurement categories.
The CB works in close relation with the relevant Global Category Managers (GCM) the Categories Team leader (CTL) the Category Manager(CM) and the Tactical Buyer (TB).
All actions have to be in line with the strategy defined by the Global Category Manager and the CM. The CBs prime role is the management of the RFI or/and RFPs until PVet 4 stage (up to PVet 5 based on some Regions) in order to provide the competiveness to the business.

In addition to this their main tasks are:

Operational Support :
Ensure the BAs receive all required information to raise the Procurement Orders.

Procurement Competitiveness Capture:
Monitor the markets for defined categories including key players newcomers economic evolutions market or regulation constraints innovations and technology in order to support the development of the most up to date category strategies to the businesses.
Based on the above provide insights as to how products / projects could be more competitive via the adoption of different suppliers / methodologies / technology etc.

Governance Leadership and Performance Management:
Ensure appropriate governance is applied using KPIs and root cause corrective actions

Supplier / Acquisition Management:
Performance management of the supply base in line with the standards set out by the Global Category Manager .
Ensure that supplier competitions follow the governance process and are balanced and fair in order to improve business and customer performance.
Ensure that global contracts / framework agreements are adopted and utilised.
Ensure that Thales e-Acquisition and all THALES procurement tools are fully used.
Based on the performance management of the supply base identify the suppliers who require focused development actions and ensure that the Supplier Development Team have the required support / leverage in order for these actions to be successful.