Personal Care EU Category Procurement Lead

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world.

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don’t believe that one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

We want our business to flourish, and we know that our success depends on others flourishing around us. That's why our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace, and why sustainable, long-term growth is at the heart of our business model.

JOB PURPOSE

The Personal Care Category covers a variety of well-known brands such as Dove, Dove Men +Care, Axe, Rexona, and Signal, to name a few.

The Category Procurement team is the face of the business to the Portfolio Procurement teams (buyers) and suppliers, and the face of procurement to the full cross-functional team, such as Marketing, Supply Chain, and R&D.

Your role as Category Procurement Lead is to create top and bottom-line growth and value for the business unit through a deep understanding of our category strategies and deployment of the procurement strategies in our BU. You will be directly exposed to all major functions and to the regional category leadership team frequently.

You will be responsible for leading the procurement activities related to innovation, cost savings, sustainability, in/out-sourcing, project management, and strategic projects, either translating and influencing business needs into requests to buyers or engaging with the cross-functional team to assure procurement topics are highlighted and addressed with the project teams.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE?

Innovation / Renovation projects:

• Participate in cross-functional project teams for Innovation and Renovation as the Procurement partner
• Lead Procurement input for decision making at leadership team level (innovation gatekeeping meetings for example) e.g. pricing of materials, risk statements, lead times, savings potentials and financial impact
• Brief Portfolio Procurement on upcoming innovations and initiate contracting requests to the buyers
• Identify (new) raw and pack materials introduced by Innovation projects together with business partners and ensure timely introduction, at a competitive price, ensuring supplier selection is in line with our Procurement Strategies and with sufficient capacity for growth
• As part of OTIF project delivery, follow-up with Portfolio Procurement and suppliers to secure supplier capacity and capability for strategic growth and ensure contract creation and first delivery in a timely manner to meet first production dates

Cost Management:

• Act as the procurement interface for the Category team’s 5S related activities
• Support on 5S projects (e.g. alternative supplier approvals, material changes) and ensure they are recorded by the Procurement Portfolio teams in our savings reporting systems
• Lead 5S workshops and support regular 5S updates in the Category
• Constantly monitor Gross Material Cost Impact and ensure business partners are clear on how much our savings program contribute to the GM ambition of the category and how material inflation is developing

Other:

• Support ASA/AMA (alternative supplier/alternative material) projects delivery for either resilience or 5S reasons
• Support on regulatory related topics (e.g. Reach, origin of materials, regulatory changes that may impact business and category)
• Support Procurement Operations with insights from business
• Lead/support Sustainability projects (PCR Agenda)

THIS ROLE WILL INTERFACE WITH THE FOLLOWING STAKEHOLDERS:

Internal:

• Procurement:
  • Procurement portfolios (global and regional)
  • Procurement operations (global and regional)
  • Collaborative manufacture
  • Sustainability teams
• Supply Chain (P&I, Manufacturing, Planning)
• R&D
• Marketing
• Finance (Category, Procurement)
• Quality
• AW team

External:

• Suppliers

MINDSET

• Be outstanding in idea generation, ideas (savings or disruptive innovations on raw and packaging materials) that are forward thinking and that contribute to creating sustained competitive advantage
• Strong at selling ideas to business partners, internally and externally, translating these into effective proposals conveying value and communicating it accordingly
• Act as an entrepreneur, treat business as your own, set trends and be willing to lead, follow or get out of the way
• Behave as a Partner to Win ambassador and demonstrate the value Procurement adds to the business
• Appreciate the value and impact of outstanding execution – an eagle eye for detail
• Genuinely committed to Unilever’s sustainably led business model, connected with Unilever and the business agenda

SKILLS YOU SHOULD HAVE

• Self Management (priority setting, risk analysis, resources)
• Take ownership and responsibility; have energy and drive
• Be result and solution oriented
• Networking and relationship management
• Excellent communication skills
• Analytical skills
• Project management skills
• Drive for team alignment; be able to work in networks; be able to work independently
• Ability to work in virtual teams
• Good understanding of business economics
• Supply Market Intelligence and Analysis - Collecting Relevant Information; Analyzing Supply and Demand Market Behavior and Understanding Key Cost Drivers & Price Trends
• Managing Partnerships and Relationships (e.g. managing the ongoing relationship to deliver value to the business)

EXPERIENCE EXPECTED

• University/Bachelor degree and relevant experience
• Preferably 5-7 years working experience in Procurement or Supply Chain, preferably in FMCG
• Experience of working in cross-functional project teams
• Experience on building strong governance
• Project management experience
• Experience within MS Office, SAP (PowerBI, Power Automate and Power App will be an advantage)

WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU?

• Attractive total remuneration package: excellent company pension, bonus, share scheme
• Flexible cross-disciplinary career opportunities and a wealth of training opportunities & wellbeing resources whenever and wherever
• Plenty of company-paid holidays to further ensure your work-life balance is maintained
• We encourage an inclusive culture, which comes to life with interchangeable public holidays, paid paternity leave of 6 weeks and our transgender policy
• Under the Hybrid Working principles, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 40%-60% in the office or at customers, suppliers or partners to connect and collaborate. For the time you work from home, we will ensure you are well equipped. When you are at the office, you can enjoy our tasty canteen with prepped food and own products
• Informal culture and being the first one trying our new products
• My Fitness Plan (reduction on your Fitness Subscription)
• Homework allowance
• Company laptop and mobile phone
• Green Mobility Policy