Category Specialist

Overview

Category Specialist at Hitachi Energy in Maneja, Gujarat, India, owning category strategy and supplier performance for HBU spend.

What you'll do

• Analyze commodity spend, market dynamics, and price developments.
• Compare spend cost development versus market development on a total cost of ownership basis.
• As a spend owner, assess, define, adjust, and improve the HBU category strategy and plan using CIPS methodology, aligned with business needs and Hitachi Energy procedures and regulations, and align it with key stakeholders.
• Execute and deliver on agreed strategy deployment actions, following up with responsible functions and other stakeholders.
• Align and deliver on HBU category targets for KPIs, focusing on cost, quality, and timely delivery.
• Regularly report on financial and supply performance.
• Regularly review the balance of demand versus supply for critical materials, taking measures to secure supply and anticipate changes or new requirements.
• Promote emerging market sourcing activities where they bring additional value.
• Mandate the Supply Quality & Development team in resolving supplier issues and hot topics.
• Collect detailed factory requirements.
• Run tender/order-specific RFx and negotiations as applicable.
• Negotiate spend for selected suppliers, allocate volume, and sign and monitor contracts, frame agreements, and service level agreements (SLAs).
• Provide input on price trends to BU Commodity Managers for commodity guidelines and HBU sales bidding processes.
• Distribute market allocation, pricing, lead times, MOQ (if applicable), and Terms & Conditions information to factories and relevant responsible persons, controlling its usage in local ERP systems.
• Improve tender and project material costing on demand or where appropriate.
• Promote cost breakdown analysis, should costing, and regular benchmarks.
• Approve contracts and purchase orders as per applicable CAT/LAT.
• Oversee supplier relationships with regular reviews of contract execution, supply performance, improvement activities, and future plans, and assign supplier account owners for the majority of HBU spend.
• Lead supplier qualification, perform risk assessments, and plan and assign audits to Supply Quality & Development Engineers.
• Evaluate, define, and monitor improvement measures for selected suppliers based on performance data, organizing or requesting resources accordingly.
• Act as the resolution owner for escalated topics as mapped in the escalation matrix.
• Identify and address performance hot spots, escalating with corrective and preventive measures.
• Manage claims to maximize compensation for Hitachi Energy.
• Research and scout new suppliers in collaboration with other functions (e.g., SQ, Engineering).
• Work closely with other functions to initiate, promote, and support project execution to bring value in total cost of ownership, risk mitigation, quality, cash, lead time, and material availability.
• Implement material cost-cutting and risk mitigation projects, preferably using the Dynamic Evolution methodology.
• Execute forward sourcing activities for R&D, DtV, New Product Introduction, product cost improvement projects, support technology transfer projects, footprint changes, and other agreed initiatives.

What you'll need

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, Supply Chain Management, or a related field.
• 14+ years in Supply Chain Management, preferably in Category Management or Strategic Sourcing in multinational companies.
• Strong understanding of procurement principles and best practices.
• Proven ability to develop and execute procurement strategies.
• Excellent negotiation and communication skills.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to transform data into short and long-term plans.
• Fluent in English.
• Flexibility to travel up to 25~50%.

Nice to have

• CIPS or ISM CPSM certification.
• Other languages.

Details

• Location: Maneja, Gujarat, India.
• Job schedule: Full time.
• Not remote.
• Travel: up to 25~50%.
• Pre-employment background checks, which may include enhanced checks for certain roles.