European Category Manager Industrial Chemicals (€ 200 mio)

In this role, you will be responsible for the scope Europe and category Industrial Chemicals with products such as Methomyl, Sodium Carbonate & MCA (app € 200 mio). You spend approximately 20% of your time traveling. You will be joining a team of 25- 30 Category Managers with all their own category and scope. This means it’s an individual contributor role.

You will be reporting to the PR Procurement Director. Location the Netherlands

Your mission is to make sure that we’re positioned in the Raw Materials market with an advantage. You will face a high level of complexity and diversity in the categories and supplier base. Hence a critical element of the job will be to align stakeholders and get buy in to drive standardization and consolidation of suppliers, products and services. You will be also expected to select and develop a supplier base that can successfully support the current operations as well as future projects and balance different business needs and requirements effectively.

What tasks and responsibilities can you expect?

• You will develop and implement sourcing strategies for the assigned category Industrial Chemicals designed to support the identified business needs and targets in line with the Global Procurement strategy and the SSM methodology
• You will source products and optimize commercial terms and total cost of ownership
• You will actively engage with key stakeholders from different Business Units to gather business requirements and specifications within Europe and incorporate into sourcing strategies, supplier selections and decisions
• You will select, drive and develop suppliers in line with organizational business requirements and track supplier performance on a continuous basis in collaboration with the tactical procurement team in the Europe as well as key stakeholders at the sites
• You will monitor the external market to explore new business models and innovation, identify potential new suppliers, assess best country sourcing alternatives and industry best practices and consequently build up deep expertise around the products and services within scope.

Besides the commercial awareness you have a strong sense of accountability and ownership with a high level of autonomy to develop spend and cost reduction projects and execute on those together with stakeholders and other procurement members. You have the ability to communicate professionally with people at all levels of the organization and you are highly effective with stakeholder management and capability to build strong relationship internally and externally. We hope that you are familiar with the next aspects we think are essential to have to make this job a success:

• Bachelor/Masters Degree in a business related area/industry
• Minimum 5 years’ experience of strategic procurement and category management; leadership experience is preferred.
• Extensive negotiation experience and ability to influence people and selling concepts and ideas
• Excellent relationship builder and skilled at managing external contacts.
• Advanced strategic thinking skills and analytical mindset with ability to analyze data, understand interdependencies and develop strategies at a regional or global category level
• Comprehensive experience of working with international sourcing across regions in high complexity environment
• Good presentation skills and ability to analyze data and technical requirements from different angles
• Fluent in English and additional languages are an asset.
• Proficient with MS Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and data tools

Nouryon (former AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) provides a wide range of high quality and sustainable ingredients that are integral to numerous key industrial processes worldwide. Thus we serve high profile customers in sectors including paints, detergents, foods, plastics, cosmetics, construction, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, electronics, agro and oilfield applications. Nouryon has € 5 bln revenue, 10.000 employees, five business lines, 67 manufacturing sites and operates in over 80 countries around the world.

Nouryon’s Industrial Chemicals (IC) business unit produces world-class salt products, chlor-alkali products, chlorinated hydrocarbons (such as MCA), energy and DME. IC is mainly located in the Netherlands and Germany, however it has a global presence with plants and joint ventures also in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, China and Japan.

If you share our values and ambitions, we offer a fascinating international environment that rewards your skills and enthusiasm. Our employment package comprises a competitive salary, 30 vacation days and an attractive bonus scheme. Training opportunities and internal networks enable valuable personal and professional development. And through challenging projects with like-minded people, you will help us become first choice for our customers, shareholders and employees, all over the world.