Head of Indirect Procurement

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.

As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact

The Challenge

We are looking for a Head of Indirect Procurement Europe, with a big passion for indirect goods and services, category strategy and biscuits. We offer you the opportunity to join our team and contribute to our mission to bring ‘Happiness with every bite’. This might be the challenge you’ve been waiting for!

The position entails

As a Head of Indirect Procurement Europe, you will lead and manage the Indirect procurement scope for France and The Netherlands.

You will maintain and develop the supplier base, drive strategic relationships, and execute material group strategies. You will collaborate with key seniors partners at a local and global level, developing strategies and leading procurement initiatives ensuring supply continuity, cost optimization and sustainable sourcing.

The position is full of exciting challenges where you will have the opportunity to add your own touch through your ownership of the indirect categories and have an impact on the business through strong and efficient relationship to be built with internal stakeholders.

You are based at pladis Europe HQ in Zaandam and report into the Procurement Director of the region.

Your main responsibilities

The main expectations are to manage and drive the indirect categories for both France and The Netherlands, been one of the main influencer. You are taking ownership and escalate when needed and you build strong working relationships.

Strategic Responsibilities

• Develop strong and efficient relationships with key partners to align indirect procurement objectives with business needs
• Map the indirect procurement activities across France and The Netherlands and build a roadmap of action accordingly, including prioritization
• Collaborate cross-functionally with the local teams (e.g. manufacturing sites, supply chain, R&D, Finance,…) to deliver local projects for productivity and business continuity
• Develop and implement local category strategies for indirect procurement, focusing on key strategic deliverables: cost-out, cash flow, supply continuity, sustainability and innovation
• Build strong SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) across local strategic suppliers
• Create, develop, and implement key strategic projects, working in coordination with local counterparts such as factories, supply chain, marketing teams…
• Share best practices and benchmarks across regions and with the global team
• Implement all local procurement driven processes and tools within indirect categories
• Provide input into the global indirect categories and supplier segmentation, and manage suppliers related to local categories
• Connect and interact efficiently with the global team in order to align the indirect global strategies with the local needs
• Lead local tenders
• Support the sustainability related topics in the indirect scope, as well as been force of proposal for new projects, ideas, and/or markets development

Operational Responsibilities

• Collaborate with suppliers and manufacturing sites to ensure on time and complete deliveries, minimizing risks
• Ensure the indirect categories have a robust contract process in place, from needs definition to contract follow-up
• Lead the AOP (budgeting process) for the indirect categories in France and The Netherlands
• Continuously monitor the market for intel and new suppliers
• Establish contracts with suppliers and ensure compliance to pladis T&Cs
• Gather all necessary requirements (volume, specifications, service levels, KPIs) from stakeholders, define and understand the business requirement
• Manage closely: current volumes, spend and specifications by supplier
• Evaluate and challenge supplier specifications to ensure alignment with business requirements
• Ensure local contracts are in place, local prices up to date
• Measure and track supplier evaluation data, manage non conformances and claim processes

What do you bring?

• 5+ years relevant experience, preferably in FMCG
• Understanding of Indirect procurement
• Excellent stakeholder management with the ability to explain and communicate around indirect procurement and form strong relationship
• Negotiation and commercial analytical skills
• Project management and leadership skills
• Ability to lead many workstreams and work in a team whilst managing key stakeholders
• Ability to think strategically and set a 3 year categories plan
• Analytical mindset and pragmatic approach
• Results oriented
• Understanding of sustainability opportunities in the indirect procurement landscape

What we offer

Working for pladis means challenging jobs, career opportunities and an inspiring environment that allow you to enhance your personal development. pladis recognizes that the on-going success of the company depends on the continued development and engagement of our employees and pursues a fair and competitive remuneration policy, recognizing individual and team competencies and performance.

A few of our benefits:

• A permanent contract
• Development opportunities through our pladis Academy & other training programs
• A competitive salary
• Fulltime employment (37,5 hours per week)
• 34 holidays (based on fulltime)
• Pension in pension fund ‘Zoetwaren’
• Discounts on health insurance, gym memberships, bikes etc
• Biscuits, chocolate and other snacks from our personnel store;
• The best colleagues in an informal working environment.

Who are we?

Koninklijke Verkade, with amazing brands like Verkade and Sultana, is part of pladis. pladis is one of the world's leading snacking companies. A worldwide community with 16.000 colleagues around the world.

pladis succeeds because of people like you. People who wake up in the morning excited to get to work. Who believe in themselves and their potential. Who want to grow as part of a global community of like-minded colleagues.

pladis colleagues care deeply about being the best. About winning, staying the course and never giving up. Whichever part of the world we’re in, whatever our role. Whether we’re baking, working in HR, finance, marketing or many other areas – we win as one pladis team.